Work in progress (WIP) limits set the maximum amount of work that can exist in each status of a workflow. Limiting the amount of work in progress makes it easier to identify inefficiency in a team's workflow. Bottlenecks in a team's delivery pipeline are clearly visible before a situation becomes dire.

WIP limits improve throughput and reduce the amount of work "nearly done", by forcing the team to focus on a smaller set of tasks. At a fundamental level, WIP limits encourage a culture of "done." More important, WIP limits make blockers and bottlenecks visible. Teams can swarm around blocking issues to get them understood, implemented, and resolved when there is a clear indicator of what existing work is causing a bottleneck. Once blockages are removed, work across the team begins to flow again. These benefits guarantee that increments of value are delivered to customers sooner, making WIP limits a valuable tool in agile development.  

Four goals of implementing WIP limits:

1. Size individual task constantly

2. Map WIP limits to team's skills

3. Reduce idleness

4. Protect sustainable team culture

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