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Build a kanban board and download an Excel file with a column per stage and live counts.
A kanban board shows work as cards moving left to right through columns, from not started to finished. Its one rule is that a column can hold only so many cards at once, which forces a team to finish what is underway before starting anything new.
1 card
2 cards of 3
1 card of 2
1 card
Cards
5
Columns
4
Over the limit
0
The download is a real Excel workbook with four tabs, not a comma separated list with a spreadsheet extension. The first tab is the board itself, laid out as columns.
1. Board
One column per stage with the cards listed down each, so the file opens looking like the board you left rather than a list to reassemble in your head.
2. Cards
One row per card with its title, owner and column. This is the tab to sort, filter or paste into something else.
3. Counts
How many cards sit in each column, as COUNTIF formulas against the cards tab, next to the limit you set. An IF marks any column that has gone over.
4. Board details
The board name, the column names, how many cards it holds and which columns have limits.
Move a card on the cards tab and the counts follow, because they are formulas rather than numbers typed in once.
| Column | Formula in the file | Cards | Limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Backlog | =COUNTIF(Cards!C:C,A2) | 1 | - |
| In progress | =COUNTIF(Cards!C:C,A3) | 2 | 3 |
| Review | =COUNTIF(Cards!C:C,A4) | 1 | 2 |
| Done | =COUNTIF(Cards!C:C,A5) | 1 | - |
The counts are COUNTIF formulas against the cards tab, so moving a card in Excel updates them. The over the limit column is an IF, which is the part that makes the board tell you when a column has stopped moving.
Excel
Double click the download. If Excel shows a yellow protected view bar, click Enable Editing so the formulas calculate.
Google Sheets
Upload it to Drive and open it, or use File then Import then Upload inside an existing sheet. Formatting and formulas both carry across.
Numbers on a Mac
Open it directly. Numbers converts the workbook and keeps the totals working, though the yellow header fill may shift slightly.
Formula
Cards in a column = COUNTIF(cards, column name) | Over the limit = IF(AND(limit > 0, cards > limit), "over", "ok")COUNTIF = Counts the rows on the cards tab whose column matches this one
Limit = The most cards this column should hold at once, zero meaning no limit
IF and AND = Together they flag a column only when it has a limit and has passed it
Worked Example
A four column board with limits on the middle two
Did you know? Kanban came out of Toyota in the late 1940s, where the word meant the physical card that authorised the next batch of parts. No card, no work. The limit is not a suggestion bolted on afterwards: it is the whole mechanism, and a board without one is just a list in three piles.
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