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EXIN Kanban Foundation study materials
EXIN Kanban Foundation study resources

EXIN Kanban Foundation practice questions

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Question 1Kanban

In Kanban, what does limiting work in progress (WIP) primarily aim to achieve?

  1. Expose bottlenecks and improve flow Correct answer.
  2. Eliminate the need for a definition of done
  3. Reduce the number of team members needed
  4. Guarantee that every item meets its deadline

Explanation

A WIP limit caps how many items may be in a given state at once, which forces the team to finish work before starting more. This makes overload visible as queues and bottlenecks and generally shortens lead time.

Question 2Kanban

Which statement best describes the Kanban principle of 'start with what you do now'?

  1. Replace existing roles before introducing any board
  2. Adopt a prescribed set of columns before observing work
  3. Map the current workflow as it is and evolve it incrementally Correct answer.
  4. Suspend delivery until a full process redesign is complete

Explanation

Kanban is introduced on top of the existing process rather than replacing it. The team visualizes current work, applies limits, and improves iteratively.

Question 3Kanban

A team's board shows a large 'In Progress' column and a nearly empty 'Done' column. What does this most likely indicate?

  1. Cycle time is guaranteed to fall
  2. The team is applying WIP limits correctly
  3. The definition of done is too strict
  4. Work is accumulating and flow is being impeded Correct answer.

Explanation

When items pile up in progress while few reach done, work is entering faster than it can be completed. This signals a bottleneck and typically lengthens lead time.

Question 4Kanban

What is the purpose of making policies explicit on a Kanban board?

  1. To replace the need for a definition of done
  2. To hide decision rules from stakeholders
  3. To freeze the process permanently
  4. To ensure everyone applies the same rules for moving work Correct answer.

Explanation

Explicit policies state the agreed rules, such as entry and exit criteria for each column. This reduces ambiguity and inconsistent handling of work items.

Question 5Kanban

In Kanban terminology, what does lead time measure?

  1. The time spent only in the testing column
  2. The interval between two retrospectives
  3. The time from a work item being requested to being delivered Correct answer.
  4. The number of items a team can start in a day

Explanation

Lead time is the elapsed time from when a customer request enters the system until it is delivered. It captures the whole flow, including waiting.

Question 6Kanban

What distinguishes cycle time from lead time in Kanban measurement?

  1. Cycle time starts when work actively begins, lead time starts at request Correct answer.
  2. Cycle time applies only to unplanned work
  3. Cycle time is measured in story points, lead time in days
  4. Cycle time counts only defects, lead time counts all items

Explanation

Cycle time typically begins when an item is actively pulled into work, while lead time begins at the customer request. The gap between them is queue or waiting time.

Question 7Kanban

A team's cumulative flow diagram shows the 'In Progress' band widening steadily over several weeks. What should the team investigate first?

  1. Whether daily standups should be cancelled
  2. Whether story points should be re-estimated
  3. Whether the number of columns should be reduced
  4. Whether the WIP limit is too high or missing Correct answer.

Explanation

A widening in-progress band means work is entering faster than it leaves, which points to insufficient WIP control or a downstream bottleneck. The team should review limits and constraints.

Question 8Kanban

Which practice best reflects the Kanban principle of 'manage flow' rather than managing people?

  1. Assigning blame when items exceed their estimates
  2. Measuring each person's daily output
  3. Tracking and improving how work moves through the system Correct answer.
  4. Increasing pressure on individuals to work faster

Explanation

Managing flow focuses on the movement of work through the value stream, including queues and bottlenecks. It treats the system, not individuals, as the object of improvement.

Question 9Kanban

What is the role of a service class such as 'expedite' on a Kanban board?

  1. To define a policy for handling urgent items with distinct rules Correct answer.
  2. To allow any team member to skip the definition of done
  3. To remove the need for explicit policies
  4. To permanently raise the WIP limit for all items

Explanation

A service class groups items with a shared handling policy, such as expedited work that may bypass a queue under controlled conditions. It makes prioritization rules explicit rather than ad hoc.

Question 10Kanban

Why does Kanban recommend visualizing different types of work (for example, defects versus features) separately?

  1. To make hidden work and its impact on capacity visible Correct answer.
  2. To ensure only features are ever prioritized
  3. To prevent the team from measuring flow
  4. To increase the number of columns on the board

Explanation

Different work types consume capacity differently and often follow different policies. Making them visible helps the team see hidden demand and balance flow.

Question 11Kanban

A team using Kanban holds regular reviews of its metrics and policies. Which Kanban practice does this represent?

  1. Limiting work in progress
  2. Starting with what you do now
  3. Visualizing the workflow
  4. Implementing feedback loops Correct answer.

Explanation

Feedback loops are cadences such as reviews and retrospectives that let the team inspect flow data and adjust policies. They close the loop between measurement and improvement.

Question 12Kanban

What does throughput measure in a Kanban system?

  1. The number of items completed per unit of time Correct answer.
  2. The number of people assigned to a task
  3. The average age of items in the backlog
  4. The percentage of items rejected at review

Explanation

Throughput counts how many work items are finished in a given period. Combined with WIP, it relates to Little's Law and helps predict delivery.

Question 13Kanban

According to Little's Law, if average WIP is 12 items and average throughput is 3 items per day, what is the approximate average lead time?

  1. 15 days
  2. 9 days
  3. 4 days Correct answer.
  4. 36 days

Explanation

Little's Law states that average lead time equals average WIP divided by average throughput. Here 12 divided by 3 gives about 4 days.

Question 14Kanban

What is the main purpose of a Kanban board's 'Ready' or 'Selected' column?

  1. To buffer items that are prepared and eligible to be pulled next Correct answer.
  2. To record items that failed quality checks
  3. To store items that are permanently deprioritized
  4. To track time spent in meetings

Explanation

A ready column holds items that meet entry criteria and can be pulled when capacity allows. It separates preparation from active work and supports pull-based flow.

Question 15Kanban

Which behavior is most consistent with a pull-based Kanban system?

  1. Items are started as soon as they are requested
  2. Each person works on as many items as possible
  3. Team members pull the next item only when capacity frees up Correct answer.
  4. Managers push new items into progress whenever a person is idle

Explanation

In a pull system, downstream capacity signals when new work may start, preventing overload. Work is pulled into a stage rather than pushed by schedule or request.

Question 16Kanban

A team's Kanban board has a column with a WIP limit of 3, yet 5 items are present. What is the most appropriate Kanban response?

  1. Remove the limit to avoid conflict
  2. Ignore the breach because limits are advisory
  3. Raise the limit to 5 to match reality
  4. Stop starting new work and resolve the excess before pulling more Correct answer.

Explanation

A WIP limit breach is a signal to swarm on finishing or resolving existing items before starting new ones. The limit is a policy, not a suggestion.

Question 17Kanban

What does the Kanban 'definition of workflow' refer to?

  1. Documenting individual job descriptions
  2. Writing a fixed schedule for every future release
  3. Selecting which estimation technique to use
  4. Agreeing which states work passes through and the rules for each Correct answer.

Explanation

Defining the workflow means agreeing on the states work moves through and the policies governing transitions. It makes the process explicit and shared.

Question 18Kanban

Which situation best illustrates a bottleneck on a Kanban board?

  1. A team with a clear definition of done
  2. A backlog with many unrefined ideas
  3. A column with a small WIP limit and steady flow
  4. A downstream column where items queue while upstream waits Correct answer.

Explanation

A bottleneck is a stage with less capacity than the work arriving at it, so items accumulate in front of it and upstream stages are starved. The queue reveals the constraint.

Question 19Kanban

A team wants to reduce variability in its delivery dates. Which Kanban action is most directly supportive?

  1. Estimating every item in hours
  2. Removing all classes of service
  3. Allowing unlimited WIP so items can start early
  4. Stabilizing the workflow and enforcing explicit policies Correct answer.

Explanation

Predictability improves when the process is stable and policies are consistently applied. Reducing variability in inputs and flow makes lead times more consistent.

Question 20Kanban

A team notices that expedited items frequently bypass the normal queue. What risk should they manage?

  1. The backlog will automatically shrink
  2. The team will have too few items to work on
  3. Expediting can starve normal work and erode flow discipline Correct answer.
  4. The definition of done will become too detailed

Explanation

Frequent expediting consumes capacity and can delay regular items, undermining predictability. Teams should cap or govern expedited work through explicit policy.

Question 21Kanban

Which combination best reflects the relationship between WIP, throughput, and lead time?

  1. Reducing WIP can shorten lead time when throughput is stable Correct answer.
  2. Lead time is independent of WIP
  3. Throughput always falls when WIP falls
  4. Raising WIP indefinitely raises throughput proportionally

Explanation

With Little's Law, if throughput stays roughly constant, lowering WIP lowers average lead time. Beyond a point, extra WIP adds delay rather than output.

Question 22Kanban

Which statement correctly describes the Kanban principle 'evolve experimentally'?

  1. Make small, measured changes and use data to evaluate them Correct answer.
  2. Change policies randomly to increase variety
  3. Avoid measuring the effect of changes
  4. Adopt large process changes only after full approval

Explanation

Kanban favors incremental, evidence-based change using models and metrics. Small experiments let the team learn which adjustments actually improve flow.

Question 23Kanban

What is the primary benefit of tracking work item age on a Kanban board?

  1. It replaces the need for WIP limits
  2. It measures how many items were completed
  3. It shows which items have waited longest and may be at risk Correct answer.
  4. It records the number of people on each task

Explanation

Work item age highlights items that have been in the system or a state for a long time, prompting action before they breach service expectations. It complements flow metrics.

Question 24Kanban

How does Kanban typically treat unplanned work such as urgent production defects?

  1. Exclude it from the board to keep metrics clean
  2. Assign it to a separate team only
  3. Make it visible and account for it in capacity Correct answer.
  4. Add it to the backlog and ignore it until next quarter

Explanation

Unplanned work consumes real capacity, so hiding it distorts flow metrics and planning. Visualizing it lets the team balance planned and unplanned demand.

Question 25Kanban

Which metric pair is most useful for assessing whether a Kanban system is improving?

  1. Lead time and throughput over time Correct answer.
  2. Number of meetings and number of columns
  3. Story points and velocity
  4. Individual utilization and overtime hours

Explanation

Tracking lead time and throughput together shows whether flow is getting faster and more productive. These are core flow metrics in Kanban.

Question 26Kanban

In Kanban, what does the term 'kanban' itself most precisely refer to?

  1. A visual signal that authorizes the movement or production of work Correct answer.
  2. A meeting held at the start of each iteration to plan commitments
  3. A document that freezes the scope of work for a release
  4. A chart that records the historical velocity of a delivery team

Explanation

The word kanban denotes a signal card or token that conveys permission to pull work or replenish material. Its essential function is authorization of flow, not planning, measurement, or scope control.

Question 27Kanban

Which statement best captures the Kanban practice of 'visualize the workflow'?

  1. Publish the team's individual performance rankings on a shared dashboard
  2. Display each work item's path through defined stages so the flow can be seen and discussed Correct answer.
  3. Show only the work that has been completed during the current period
  4. Record every conversation held by the team in a searchable log

Explanation

Visualizing the workflow means making the actual steps, queues, and item positions visible so the team shares one picture of how work moves. It concerns the process and its items, not individual evaluation or completed-only reporting.

Question 28Kanban

What is the principal reason Kanban limits work in progress?

  1. To guarantee that no item is ever delayed beyond its due date
  2. To remove the need for any policies governing the workflow
  3. To expose bottlenecks and shorten the time items spend in the system Correct answer.
  4. To ensure every team member is assigned an equal number of tasks

Explanation

WIP limits constrain how much work may be in a stage at once, which surfaces bottlenecks and reduces the queueing delay that inflates lead time. They are a flow-control mechanism, not a fairness device or a scheduling guarantee.

Question 29Kanban

A service desk uses a Kanban board with columns Requested, Triage, In Progress, and Done. Where should a newly reported incident first appear?

  1. In the In Progress column
  2. In the Done column
  3. In the Requested column Correct answer.
  4. In the Triage column

Explanation

A new item enters the workflow at its first defined stage, which here is Requested, before any triage or active work occurs. Placing it later would misrepresent the item's actual position and distort flow metrics.

Question 30Kanban

Which element is a defining feature of a pull system as practiced in Kanban?

  1. Downstream stages signal their capacity and upstream stages respond to that signal Correct answer.
  2. Work is released only at fixed calendar intervals regardless of capacity
  3. A central planner assigns start dates to every item in advance
  4. Upstream stages push work forward as soon as it is finished

Explanation

In a pull system the downstream consumer signals readiness, and work is drawn forward only when capacity exists. Push systems instead advance work on completion or schedule without regard to downstream capacity.

Question 31Kanban

In Kanban, what is an explicit policy?

  1. A confidential contract between the team and an external supplier
  2. A fixed budget allocated to each work item
  3. A mandatory certification required before using a Kanban board
  4. A written agreement about how work is selected, moved, and completed in the workflow Correct answer.

Explanation

Explicit policies make the rules of the workflow visible and shared, covering matters such as entry criteria, WIP limits, and definitions of done. They are internal operating agreements rather than commercial or certification artifacts.

Question 32Kanban

A board column is labeled 'In Progress' with a WIP limit of 4. Which situation shows the limit being respected?

  1. Five items are in the column while two are marked as urgent
  2. Six items are in the column because several arrived at once
  3. Three items are in the column and a fourth is pulled in when a worker becomes free Correct answer.
  4. Four items are in the column and a fifth is added to keep everyone busy

Explanation

A WIP limit of 4 permits up to four items, and pulling a fourth when capacity exists stays within the limit. Exceeding the stated number in any circumstance violates the policy.

Question 33Kanban

Which statement describes the Kanban value of transparency?

  1. Work items are kept private until they are complete
  2. Metrics are shared after the project has been closed
  3. Only managers may view the board to prevent confusion
  4. Decisions are based on information about the workflow that is visible to everyone involved Correct answer.

Explanation

Transparency in Kanban means the state of the workflow and the reasoning behind decisions are open to all participants so that informed choices can be made. Restricting visibility or delaying disclosure works against this value.

Question 34Kanban

A team's board shows a large queue of items waiting before a testing stage while testers are fully occupied. Which interpretation is most consistent with Kanban analysis?

  1. The board should hide the queue so that stakeholders see only active work
  2. The testing WIP limit should be removed to let the queue drain faster
  3. The testing stage is a constraint, and the queue indicates upstream demand exceeds its capacity Correct answer.
  4. The queue proves that upstream workers are underperforming and should be replaced

Explanation

A growing queue in front of a fully occupied stage is the classic signature of a constraint whose capacity is below upstream demand. Kanban analysis points to managing the constraint and the inflow rather than blaming individuals or hiding evidence.

Question 35Kanban

How does Kanban typically relate to existing roles and job titles when adopted by a team?

  1. It overlays the current process without prescribing new roles or reorganizing the team Correct answer.
  2. It requires the immediate replacement of all existing roles with a standard Kanban role set
  3. It mandates a dedicated flow manager and eliminates specialist positions
  4. It requires that every team member hold an identical job title

Explanation

Kanban is introduced on top of the existing workflow and respects current roles, accountabilities, and responsibilities. It does not dictate a prescribed organizational structure or role taxonomy.

Question 36Kanban

A team wants to make its definition of 'done' for a work item unambiguous at each stage. Which Kanban element addresses this need most directly?

  1. A larger board with more decorative colors
  2. An increase in the number of items allowed in progress
  3. A weekly status email sent to senior management
  4. Entry and exit criteria recorded as explicit policies for each stage Correct answer.

Explanation

Explicit policies can state the conditions an item must satisfy to enter or leave a stage, which makes completion criteria unambiguous. Board decoration, reporting, and higher WIP do not clarify when work is genuinely done.

Question 37Kanban

Which practice best supports the Kanban principle of 'implement feedback loops'?

  1. Waiting for a defect to recur three times before discussing it
  2. Holding regular reviews of flow, policies, and risks at a cadence suited to the work Correct answer.
  3. Removing all recurring meetings to maximize productive time
  4. Collecting feedback only once at the end of the year

Explanation

Feedback loops are deliberate, recurring opportunities to inspect the workflow, its policies, and its risks so adjustments can be made early. Loops should be frequent enough to inform decisions while work is still in flight.

Question 38Kanban

A team discovers that items frequently wait in a queue because they lack required approvals. Which Kanban response fits the principle of managing flow?

  1. Remove the approval step from the board so the queue disappears
  2. Instruct team members to work faster so the queue clears
  3. Make the approval step and its waiting time visible, then adjust the policy or capacity causing the delay Correct answer.
  4. Add more items to the queue so that approvers have a larger batch

Explanation

Managing flow means identifying where delay arises in the process and changing the system, such as the policy or capacity around approvals. Pressuring people, batching more work, or concealing the step does not address the cause of the wait.

Question 39Kanban

What does the Kanban practice of 'limit work in progress' primarily aim to balance?

  1. Demand for work against the capacity of the system to deliver it Correct answer.
  2. The count of completed items against the count of cancelled items
  3. The budget of a project against its documented scope
  4. The number of team members against the number of managers

Explanation

WIP limits align the amount of work admitted into the system with the capacity available to process it, which keeps flow smooth. They are not tools for balancing headcount, budgets, or completion ratios.

Question 40Kanban

A Kanban team holds a cadence-based review of its policies and decides to change the WIP limit on one column. Which principle does this action most directly exemplify?

  1. Prioritize work by service class
  2. Limit work in progress by lowering every limit
  3. Visualize the workflow by adding new columns
  4. Evolve policies experimentally using evidence and small deliberate changes Correct answer.

Explanation

Changing a policy deliberately, based on observation, and then evaluating the effect is the essence of evolving experimentally. The other principles describe visualization, prioritization, and constraint, not hypothesis-driven policy change.

Question 41Kanban

Which statement correctly describes how Kanban treats the design of a workflow?

  1. The workflow must be replaced with a predefined industry-standard model before starting
  2. The workflow is left undefined so that each person may choose their own process
  3. The workflow is fixed at kickoff and may never be revised
  4. The workflow is defined as it currently exists and then improved through deliberate change Correct answer.

Explanation

Kanban starts from the workflow as it actually operates, makes it explicit, and then improves it incrementally. It neither imposes a mandatory model nor permits an undefined free-for-all, and it expects the workflow to change over time.

Question 42Kanban

A team's board shows many items in progress but few completions, and lead time is rising. Which Kanban action is most appropriate first?

  1. Add a new downstream stage to hold the unfinished work
  2. Reclassify the unfinished items as expedited so they move faster
  3. Stop starting new work and focus on finishing items already in progress Correct answer.
  4. Increase the number of items allowed in progress to absorb the load

Explanation

When work in progress grows while completions lag, the system is overloaded, and the immediate lever is to finish existing items rather than admit more. This reduces WIP, shortens queues, and restores flow.

Question 43Kanban

Which statement best explains why Kanban emphasizes making policies explicit rather than leaving them tacit?

  1. Shared written policies reduce ambiguity and let the team examine and improve its rules deliberately Correct answer.
  2. Tacit policies are always more accurate than written ones
  3. Written policies guarantee that no work item will be delayed
  4. Explicit policies eliminate the need to measure the workflow

Explanation

Explicit policies convert unwritten habits into shared, inspectable rules that everyone can follow and revise on purpose. They support improvement and consistency but do not replace measurement or guarantee outcomes.

Question 44Kanban

A team uses a board with separate swimlanes for standard and expedited work. What is the main purpose of this arrangement?

  1. To prevent standard work from being measured
  2. To make the different handling policies and priorities of each work type visible on one board Correct answer.
  3. To ensure expedited items never affect the flow of standard items
  4. To double the WIP limit for all work types automatically

Explanation

Swimlanes separate work types so that their distinct policies, priorities, and flow can be seen and managed together. They do not automatically change limits and cannot prevent expedited work from consuming shared capacity.

Question 45Kanban

According to Kanban guidance, what distinguishes a cadence from a meeting in the operation of feedback loops?

  1. A cadence is a mandatory daily standup, while a meeting is optional
  2. A cadence is a regular rhythm for review, while a specific meeting is one way that rhythm may be enacted Correct answer.
  3. A cadence is a one-time event, while a meeting recurs indefinitely
  4. A cadence applies only to financial reporting, while meetings apply to delivery

Explanation

Cadence refers to the regular rhythm at which the team inspects and adapts, and meetings are concrete events that may express that rhythm. Cadence is not tied to a single mandatory meeting type or to a particular business function.

Question 46Kanban

A team has an explicit policy that an item may enter 'Ready' only when its acceptance criteria are documented. An item without documented criteria sits in 'Ready'. What does this situation indicate?

  1. A policy violation that should be surfaced and resolved, for example by returning the item or completing its criteria Correct answer.
  2. Evidence that the workflow should be redefined to remove 'Ready'
  3. A normal state, because acceptance criteria are optional in Kanban
  4. Proof that the WIP limit for 'Ready' is too high

Explanation

When an explicit policy governs entry to a stage, an item that does not satisfy it reveals a mismatch between policy and practice. The team should surface the deviation and act, either by restoring compliance or by deliberately revising the policy.

Question 47Kanban

A manager proposes measuring team performance by counting how many items each individual completes. How does this conflict with Kanban principles?

  1. It optimizes individual output rather than the flow of work through the system as a whole Correct answer.
  2. It requires that service classes be abolished
  3. It prevents the team from using a board to visualize work
  4. It violates the rule that WIP limits must be set by managers

Explanation

Kanban focuses on improving the flow of work through the system, so individual output counts can encourage local optimization that harms overall flow. Boards, WIP limits, and service classes remain usable regardless of such a metric.

Question 48Kanban

A team introduces a new WIP limit and observes that lead time initially worsens before improving. Which interpretation aligns with the principle of evolving experimentally?

  1. Abandon the limit immediately, since any short-term worsening disproves the change
  2. Keep the limit forever regardless of the data, because policies must not change
  3. Treat the change as a hypothesis, gather data over a defined period, and adjust or revert based on evidence Correct answer.
  4. Remove all other policies so that only the new limit remains

Explanation

Experimental evolution means framing a change as a hypothesis, observing its effects with data, and deciding deliberately whether to keep, adjust, or reverse it. A single early fluctuation is not conclusive evidence either way.

Question 49Kanban

A board shows a column whose upstream stage has a WIP limit of 2 and whose downstream stage has a WIP limit of 6. Items accumulate between them. Which analysis is most defensible?

  1. The upstream limit must be raised to match the downstream limit in all cases
  2. The mismatch in limits can create a queue, so the limits should be reviewed together as a system Correct answer.
  3. The queue proves the upstream workers are the constraint
  4. The downstream limit should be removed so that the queue can drain

Explanation

WIP limits interact across stages, and a large mismatch can cause items to pile up at the boundary. The sensible response is to examine the limits together as a system and adjust based on observed flow rather than applying a fixed rule.

Question 50Kanban

A team claims to practice Kanban but has no explicit policies, no WIP limits, and reviews its work only when a crisis occurs. Which assessment is most accurate?

  1. It has implemented Kanban but should remove the board to simplify
  2. It has fully implemented Kanban because crises provide sufficient feedback
  3. It is practicing Kanban correctly because a board is the only required element
  4. It has adopted a visual board but has not yet implemented core Kanban practices such as explicit policies and feedback loops Correct answer.

Explanation

A board alone does not constitute Kanban; the method also depends on explicit policies, WIP limits, active management of flow, and regular feedback loops. Crisis-driven review is not a substitute for a deliberate cadence of inspection.