Find a sensible starting WIP limit.

WIP limits should expose bottlenecks without starving the team. This calculator gives you a starting hypothesis—not a sacred number.

People actively pulling work

How often work is paired/shared

Unplanned/support load

Active workflow stages

How the estimate works

We start near 1.5 active items per person, reduce the limit when work is commonly paired, and reserve capacity when interrupt load is high. We also show a suggested per-stage ceiling. This is a practical heuristic, not an official Kanban standard.

If work piles up before review/test, lower the upstream WIP limit
If people are idle because everything is blocked, fix blockers before simply raising the limit
Track cycle time before and after changes
Review the number after a few weeks of real flow data

Put the limit on a real board.

Use Strikd to make active work visible, then adjust from what actually gets stuck.

Try Strikd