WIP limit
A cap on the number of work items allowed in a given stage of a workflow at one time, used to expose bottlenecks and encourage finishing over starting.
What it means
Work-in-progress (WIP) limits come from Kanban and lean thinking, not from the Scrum Guide. Limiting WIP forces a team to finish existing work before pulling new items, which shortens cycle time and reduces context switching.
When a column hits its WIP limit, the team must resolve the bottleneck, such as by swarming on a blocked item, rather than starting something new. This makes problems visible immediately instead of letting work quietly pile up.
Common mistakes
Setting an effective WIP limit usually starts a bit lower than feels comfortable; teams adjust it over time based on observed flow.
Example
With a WIP limit of three in 'In Review,' a fourth completed item cannot move forward until the team clears the review queue.