Kanban Board Documentation Template

Back to Markdown Style Guide — Read the style guide first for formatting, citation, and emoji rules.

Use this template for: Tracking work items, sprint boards, project task management, release planning, or any scenario where you need a persistent, markdown-based view of work status. This board IS the tracking system — a file in your repo that evolves with your codebase.

Key features: Visual Mermaid kanban diagram, work item tables with status tracking, WIP limits, blocked items, explicit Won't Do decisions, aging indicators, flow efficiency metrics, and historical throughput.

Philosophy: This board is a file. Modify it in your branch, merge it with your PR. The board evolves WITH the codebase — no external board tool required. Anyone with repo access sees the board, AI agents included.

A kanban board's job is to make work visible. This template serves two purposes: (1) a living board that gets updated as work progresses, and (2) a historical snapshot when archived. The Mermaid diagram gives the instant visual overview; the tables give the detail. Together they answer: What's being worked on? What's blocked? What's done? What's next?

When archived, the board becomes the historical record of what was worked on, what was blocked, and what was completed — all in git history, with full attribution and timestamps. This is the Everything is Code philosophy: project management data lives in the repo, versioned and portable.

File Convention

docs/project/kanban/sprint-2026-w07-agentic-template-modernization.md
docs/project/kanban/release-v2.3.0-launch-readiness.md
docs/project/kanban/project-auth-migration-phase-1.md

Directory: docs/project/kanban/
Naming: Prefix with board scope (sprint-, release-, project-) + identifier + short lowercase hyphenated description
Archiving: When a board is complete, keep it in place — it becomes the historical record

The Template

Everything below the line is the template. Copy from here:

[Board Name] — Kanban Board

[Scope: Sprint W07 2026 / Release v2.3.0 / Project: Auth Migration] [Team/Owner] · Last updated: [YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM]

📋 Board Overview

Period: [Start date] → [End date] Goal: [One sentence — what does "done" look like for this board?] WIP Limit: [Max items in "In Progress" — e.g., 3 per person, 6 total]

Visual board

Kanban board showing current work distribution across backlog, in-progress, review, done, blocked, and Won't Do columns:

mermaid

kanban
    Backlog
        task1[🔧 Deploy monitoring]
        task2[📝 Write API docs]
    In Progress
        task3[⚙️ Build user dashboard]
        task4[🐛 Fix payment timeout]
    In Review
        task5[👀 Add export feature]
    Done
        task6[🚀 Set up CI pipeline]
        task7[📊 Database migration]
    Blocked
        task8[⛔ Waiting for security approval]
    Won't Do
        task9[❌ Drop mobile support in this sprint]

⚠️ Always show all 6 columns — Even if a column has no items, include it with a placeholder. This makes the board structure explicit and ensures categories are never forgotten. Use a placeholder like [No items yet] when a column is empty.

🚦 Board Status

Column	Count	WIP Limit	Status
📋 Backlog	[N]	—	[Notes]
🔄 In Progress	[N]	[Limit]	[🟢 Under limit / 🟡 At limit / 🔴 Over limit]
🔍 In Review	[N]	[Limit]	[Status]
✅ Done	[N]	—	[This period]
🚫 Blocked	[N]	—	[See blocked section below]
🚫 Won't Do	[N]	—	[Explicitly declined with rationale]

⚠️ Always include all 6 columns — Each column represents a workflow state. Even if count is 0, keep the row visible. This prevents categories from being overlooked.

📋 Backlog

Prioritized top-to-bottom. Top items are next to be pulled. Include at least one placeholder item if empty.

#	Item	Priority	Estimate	Assignee	Notes
1	[Work item title]	🔴 High	[S/M/L]	[Person]	[Context or dependency]
2	[Work item title]	🟡 Medium	[Size]	[Person]	[Notes]
	[No items yet]

🔄 In Progress

Items currently being worked on. Include at least one placeholder item if empty.

Item	Assignee	Started	Expected	Days in column	Aging	Status
[Work item]	[Person]	[Date]	[Date]	[N]	🟢	🟢 On track
						[No items yet]

💡 Aging indicator: 🟢 Under expected time · 🟡 At expected time · 🔴 Over expected time — items aging red need attention or re-scoping.

⚠️ WIP limit: [N] / [Limit]. [Under limit / At limit — pull more work / Over limit — finish something before starting new work]

🔍 In Review

Items awaiting or in code review. Include at least one placeholder item if empty.

Item	Author	Reviewer	PR	Days in review	Aging	Status
[Work item]	[Person]	[Person]	#NNN	[N]	🟢	[Awaiting review / Changes requested / Approved]
						[No items yet]

✅ Done

Completed this period. Include at least one placeholder item if empty.

Item	Assignee	Completed	Cycle time	PR
[Work item]	[Person]	[Date]	[N days]	#NNN
				[No items completed this period]

🚫 Blocked

Items that cannot proceed. Always include at least the placeholder — blocked items are high-signal and should never be hidden.

Item	Assignee	Blocked since	Blocked by	Escalated to	Unblock action
[Work item]	[Person]	[Date]	[What's blocking — dependency, decision, external team]	[Person/team]	[What needs to happen]
					[No blocked items]

🔴 [N] items blocked. [Summary of what's needed to unblock them.]

🚫 Won't Do

Explicitly out of scope for this board period. Capture rationale so these decisions are transparent and auditable. Include placeholder if empty.

Item	Date decided	Decision owner	Rationale	Revisit trigger
[Work item]	[Date]	[Person/team]	[Why this is intentionally excluded right now]	[What change would reopen this item]
			[No items explicitly declined]

📊 Metrics

This period

Metric	Value	Target	Trend
Throughput (items completed)	[N]	[Target]	[↑/→/↓]
Avg cycle time (start → done)	[N days]	[Target]	[↑/→/↓]
Avg lead time (created → done)	[N days]	[Target]	[↑/→/↓]
Avg review time	[N days]	[Target]	[↑/→/↓]
Flow efficiency	[N%]	[Target]	[↑/→/↓]
Blocked items	[N]	0	[↑/→/↓]
WIP limit breaches	[N]	0	[↑/→/↓]
Items aging red	[N]	0	[↑/→/↓]

💡 Flow efficiency = active work time ÷ total cycle time × 100. A healthy team targets 40%+. Below 15% means items spend most of their time waiting, not being worked on.

<details> <summary><strong>📊 Historical Throughput</strong></summary>

Period	Items completed	Avg cycle time	Blocked days
[Previous period 3]	[N]	[N days]	[N]
[Previous period 2]	[N]	[N days]	[N]
[Previous period 1]	[N]	[N days]	[N]
Current	[N]	[N days]	[N]

</details>

📝 Board Notes

Decisions made this period

[Date]: [Decision and context — e.g., "Deprioritized auth refactor to focus on payment bug"]
[Date]: [Added/updated Won't Do decision with explicit rationale and revisit trigger]

Carryover from last period

[Item carried over] — [Why it wasn't completed and current status]

Upcoming dependencies

[Date]: [External dependency, release, or event that affects this board]

🔗 References

Live project board — Real-time tracking
Previous board — Last period's snapshot
Status report — Executive summary of this period

Next update: [Date] · Board owner: [Person/Team]