Kanban Cadences: Standups, Replenishment and Reviews

Run kanban cadences, from the daily kanban standup to replenishment and the service delivery review, so feedback loops turn board data into decisions.

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At a Glance

Overview

Kanban cadences are the regular meetings and reviews that give a kanban system its feedback loops. "Implement feedback loops" is one of the six general practices of the Kanban Method, and Kanban University's guide names the board, the metrics and "a set of regular meetings and reviews which are referred to as cadences" as the common means (Official Guide to The Kanban Method). Without them, the board is updated but not acted on. The Kanban method page covers where cadences fit in the method as a whole.

David J. Anderson describes seven Kanban cadences (Anderson, Kanban Cadences): the Kanban meeting, replenishment, delivery planning, the service delivery review, the operations review, the risk review and the strategy review. He is explicit that this does not mean adding seven meetings. He expects existing meetings to be adapted and tuned, and at small scale, combined. One client he mentions merged its service delivery review with replenishment because the audience was the same.

It helps to think of the cadences in two groups. The first coordinates delivery: the daily Kanban meeting keeps work flowing, replenishment decides what enters the system, and delivery planning decides what ships. The second improves the system: the service delivery review checks whether a service meets customer expectations, while the operations, risk and strategy reviews look across services and at the business. A single team usually needs the first group plus a service delivery review or retrospective.

This skill is about starting small and growing the set. Kanban University encourages building up cadences gradually and choosing frequency and duration from context, and it notes that "It is the purpose that matters," not the meeting's name. The steps below cover auditing what you already have, adding the core kanban meetings, and connecting them so information flows between them.

How It Works

Each cadence has a purpose, a frequency, an audience and an output. The table lists the seven as summarized by Gerard Chiva of Aktia Solutions, whose suggested frequencies are examples to adapt (Chiva, Kanban Cadences).

The daily Kanban meeting, often called the kanban standup, tracks the status and flow of the work itself. Kanban University describes the common approach of walking the board from right to left and asking of each item "what is keeping this item from flowing?" and "who can help?" Starting on the right means the team talks first about items closest to delivery, which reinforces finishing over starting. People who have nothing blocking them do not need to report.

The kanban replenishment meeting decides what the team commits to next. It looks at the options on the left of the board, the available capacity shown by the WIP limits, and the priorities of the people requesting work. Anderson stresses that committing to start work is separate from committing to a delivery date, which is why delivery planning is its own cadence (Anderson, Kanban Cadences).

The service delivery review in kanban looks at the service from the customer's side. The team reviews flow metrics, such as cycle time against its service level expectation, blockers and failure demand, and decides on improvements. Anderson lists the stand-up meeting, service delivery review, operations review and risk review as the feedback practices used at service delivery level (Anderson, Principles and General Practices).

Cadences feed each other. Replenishment decisions show up at the next daily meeting. Patterns seen daily become topics for the service delivery review. Service-level findings go up to the operations and strategy reviews. The Kanban Guide adds that teams need not wait for a formal meeting to change their workflow when the context calls for it (The Kanban Guide).

Step-by-Step Guide

Step 1: Audit the meetings you already hold

List every recurring meeting the team attends, its purpose, attendees and what it produces. Mark which ones already serve a cadence's purpose, such as a weekly planning meeting that could become replenishment. Note meetings that produce no decisions. Anderson's advice is to adapt existing meetings before adding new ones.

Step 2: Choose the starting set

Start with the daily Kanban meeting and replenishment, since they keep work flowing and control intake. Add a service delivery review or retrospective once you have a few weeks of flow data. Leave operations, risk and strategy reviews until several teams or services need coordinating.

Step 3: Define each cadence

For each chosen cadence, write its purpose, frequency, length, attendees, inputs and outputs on one card. Pick frequency and duration from your context, as Kanban University advises. Post the cadence calendar with the board policies.

Step 4: Prepare the inputs

Make sure the board is current before the daily meeting. For replenishment, keep the options list ordered and show available capacity. For the service delivery review, prepare a cycle time chart, work item age and any blocked items since the last review.

Step 5: Run the daily Kanban meeting

Stand at the board, or share it on screen, and walk from right to left. For each item, ask what is keeping it from flowing and who can help. Discuss the oldest items and anything blocked first. End when every column has been covered and move detailed problem-solving to smaller follow-ups.

Step 6: Run replenishment

Review how many slots the WIP limits allow, then choose from the options in priority order with the requesters present or represented. Confirm each selected item meets the entry criteria. Record what was committed and anything deliberately deferred.

Step 7: Run the service delivery review

Compare delivery against the SLE and against what customers expect. Look at items that missed the SLE and ask why. Leave with one or two experiments, each with an owner and a date to check the result.

Step 8: Track actions and evolve the calendar

Keep one list of improvement actions across all cadences and review it at the start of each service delivery review. Every few months, ask whether each cadence still serves its purpose. Merge, change the frequency or drop cadences that do not.

Best Practices

• Start with purpose. Kanban University says the purpose matters more than the name, so reuse existing meetings where they fit.
• Walk the board right to left. Talking first about the items nearest delivery keeps attention on finishing.
• Keep replenishment separate from delivery commitments. Anderson distinguishes committing to start work from committing to a date.
• Bring data to reviews. A cycle time chart and the list of aging items keep the service delivery review focused on how the system behaves.
• Add cadences as the system grows. A single team rarely needs all seven; add coordination reviews when several services depend on each other.
• Close the loop. Every review should end with an action, and the next review should check what happened.

Common Mistakes

• Turning the daily meeting into status reports: Going person by person hides blocked items and bores everyone. Walk the board and talk about the work.
• Adding seven new meetings: This creates overhead and resistance. Map cadences onto existing meetings and combine them at small scale.
• Replenishing without looking at capacity: Selecting work while columns are full breaks the WIP limits. Start replenishment by counting open slots.
• Reviews without follow-through: Improvement ideas that are never tracked are soon forgotten. Keep one action list and check it at each review.
• Keeping cadences that no longer help: Meetings outlive their purpose. Review the cadence calendar regularly and cut what does not produce decisions.

References

• Examples: Worked examples and scenarios
• FAQ: Frequently asked questions
• Parent Method: Kanban

Related Skills

• Measuring Kanban Flow Metrics
• Setting WIP Limits
• Creating Kanban Pull Policies
• Managing Projects with Kanban
• Designing Kanban Boards
• Comparing Kanban and Scrum
• Choosing Kanban Software

Sources

• David J. Anderson: Kanban Cadences
• David J. Anderson: Revisiting the Principles and General Practices of the Kanban Method
• Gerard Chiva: Kanban Cadences, Kanban Feedback Loops
• The Official Guide to The Kanban Method (PDF)
• The Kanban Guide

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