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Kanban and flow interview questions

Interview questions on kanban and flow: short warm-ups, then what each harder question tests, the first step of a good answer and its follow-ups.

8 questions: 3 warm-ups and 5 with model answers · Levels: Fresher to staff

Warm-up questions

Short questions with short answers, each answered in full.

Fresher to mid

How does the Kanban Guide define Kanban?

Answered in the lesson Kanban: workflow, WIP and the three practices
Fresher to mid

What turns a board into a pull system?

Answered in the lesson Kanban: workflow, WIP and the three practices
Fresher to mid

How do work item age and cycle time differ, and what is each one for?

Answered in the lesson Flow metrics: WIP, throughput, age, cycle time

Questions with model answers

What each question tests, the first step of a good answer and the follow-ups to expect.

Fresher to senior

A product team's board holds production bugs, which usually take one or two days, and new features, which take two to six weeks. Its single SLE says 85 % of items finish in 18 days or less, and people on both sides call it useless. What do you change in the Definition of Workflow?
What it tests

Seeing that one SLE over very different kinds of work forecasts neither, giving each work item type its own SLE from its own history, and controlling WIP when the types share people.

First step

Split the last quarter's finished items by type and read each type's cycle times on its own: the share of bugs and of features that met 18 days, and each type's own 85th percentile. The gap between those numbers is the case for changing the definition.
Follow-ups
- Only six features finished last quarter. How do you set their SLE?
- One Definition of Workflow for both types, or two?
- Bugs and features share the same four developers. How do you control WIP?
From the lesson Kanban: workflow, WIP and the three practices
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In the answer:
- Model answer
- Follow-up answers
- Common mistakes
- Rubric
- Variants
- about 4 minutes
Mid to staff

A director wants all eight teams of a department to move to Kanban next month, with one Definition of Workflow that the programme office drafts and a WIP limit of 5 for every team from day one. What do you advise instead, and why?
What it tests

Knowing that a Definition of Workflow is its members' own shared understanding, that the Kanban Guide allows several, and that the Kanban Method brings change in from what teams do now rather than by decree.

First step

Ask what the director needs one definition for: comparable reports, or the same way of working. Then propose that each team writes its own Definition of Workflow with all six elements, starting from how it works today, and that the department agrees only the shared minimum: the six elements and the four flow metrics.
Follow-ups
- The director says one definition makes reporting easier. What do you answer?
- What would the first two weeks look like?
- When is one shared Definition of Workflow the right choice?
From the lesson Kanban: workflow, WIP and the three practices
Model answer, Pro.
In the answer:
- Model answer
- Follow-up answers
- Common mistakes
- Rubric
- Variants
- about 4 minutes
Mid to senior

Your support team is asked to publish a delivery promise. The board holds twelve weeks of history: the first five were quiet, the last seven ran through a migration with twice as much work open. What do you publish, and how do you work it out?
What it tests

Taking a promise from a percentile of a window the team can defend, publishing the window with it, and refusing to average two different systems into one number.

First step

Split the history at the week the system changed, then compute the median and the 85th percentile of the cycle times of each stretch on its own and compare them before promising anything.
Follow-ups
- Why a percentile rather than the average cycle time?
- What do you say to a stakeholder who wants one number for the whole year?
- The migration ends. When do you recalculate, and what do you watch meanwhile?
From the lesson Flow metrics: WIP, throughput, age, cycle time
Model answer, Pro.
In the answer:
- Model answer
- Follow-up answers
- Common mistakes
- Rubric
- Variants
- about 4 minutes
Mid to staff

A colleague sends you the cumulative flow diagram of their quarter. The finished band climbs at a steady slope, the band above it widens from 4 items to 26 over six weeks, and the team insists throughput has not changed. What is happening, and what do you ask them for?
What it tests

Reading slopes and band thickness, telling more starts apart from slower finishing, and naming the counts that settle the question.

First step

Read the two edges separately: the lower edge's slope is throughput and the upper edge's is the rate of starting, so a widening band with an unchanged lower slope means work is being started faster than it is finished.
Follow-ups
- What does the horizontal distance between the two edges tell you?
- Which two counts would you ask for to confirm the diagnosis?
- What would the same chart look like if throughput had dropped instead?
From the lesson Flow metrics: WIP, throughput, age, cycle time
Model answer, Pro.
In the answer:
- Model answer
- Follow-up answers
- Common mistakes
- Rubric
- Variants
- about 4 minutes
Senior to staff

A delivery lead carries 48 items in progress, finishes 6 a week, and tells a customer their new request will take eight weeks because 48 divided by 6 is 8. The queue has grown every week for two months. What is wrong with the forecast, and what would you say instead?
What it tests

Knowing the stationarity condition behind Little's law, spotting a queue that is still growing, and offering a forecast the data can support.

First step

Test stability before quoting any average: compare items started with items finished week by week and the WIP at both ends of the window. A queue that has grown for two months fails that test, so no average over it holds.
Follow-ups
- 48 divided by 6 is 8 weeks. Why is that arithmetic not a promise?
- What would you measure for the next two weeks to get a defensible answer?
- Where is Little's law still useful to this lead?
From the lesson Flow metrics: WIP, throughput, age, cycle time
Model answer, Pro.
In the answer:
- Model answer
- Follow-up answers
- Common mistakes
- Rubric
- Variants
- about 4 minutes

All Project Management & Agile interview questions · The Project Management & Agile track

Warm-up questions

How does the Kanban Guide define Kanban?

What turns a board into a pull system?

How do work item age and cycle time differ, and what is each one for?

Questions with model answers

A product team's board holds production bugs, which usually take one or two days, and new features, which take two to six weeks. Its single SLE says 85 % of items finish in 18 days or less, and people on both sides call it useless. What do you change in the Definition of Workflow?

A director wants all eight teams of a department to move to Kanban next month, with one Definition of Workflow that the programme office drafts and a WIP limit of 5 for every team from day one. What do you advise instead, and why?

Your support team is asked to publish a delivery promise. The board holds twelve weeks of history: the first five were quiet, the last seven ran through a migration with twice as much work open. What do you publish, and how do you work it out?

A colleague sends you the cumulative flow diagram of their quarter. The finished band climbs at a steady slope, the band above it widens from 4 items to 26 over six weeks, and the team insists throughput has not changed. What is happening, and what do you ask them for?

A delivery lead carries 48 items in progress, finishes 6 a week, and tells a customer their new request will take eight weeks because 48 divided by 6 is 8. The queue has grown every week for two months. What is wrong with the forecast, and what would you say instead?