When it comes to running an Agile portfolio, a lot of emphasis is placed on the work itself—delivering value, managing priorities, and making sure your team is always moving forward. But one thing that often gets overlooked is the system we use to manage the work. The Portfolio Kanban system can easily fall into a “set it and forget it” trap, where teams create a basic board, configure WIP (Work-In-Progress) limits, and then assume the system is good to go. In reality, just like everything in Agile, the Kanban board itself needs to evolve.

Imagine your Portfolio Kanban as a living system, not a static process. It has to adapt as your team’s workload shifts, as the portfolio grows, and as your organization matures in its Agile practices. If you’re not constantly looking for ways to refine and optimize how work flows through your system, then the Kanban board eventually stops doing its job. You may still be working, sure, but it’s like trying to navigate with an outdated map.

Let’s talk about WIP limits for a minute. Setting them isn’t a one-time deal, but I’ve seen plenty of teams treat it that way. Too often they slap a limit on, say, the “In Progress” column and call it good—without checking if that number is bottlenecking delivery or leaving capacity unused. The truth is, WIP limits should be revisited regularly, either as part of your retrospectives or when you notice your flow slowing down. And don’t be afraid to experiment with adjusting those numbers up or down. It’s all about finding that sweet spot where you’re encouraging flow without overwhelming anyone. But remember, whatever adjustment you make, reflect on it afterward—did increasing the limit relieve a clog, or did it just introduce chaos? It’s fine to tweak and try again.

Then, there’s the question of splitting or merging columns and states. This happens all the time, even in smaller organizations. As teams evolve and their work patterns change, certain stages in the workflow become too clunky or unclear. Maybe your “Ready” column keeps getting jammed up because different types of work need different prep stages. By splitting those into subcategories, you can bring more clarity and prevent the team from feeling stuck. On the other hand, I’ve seen boards that get overly complicated because new states were added without purpose, leading to extra overhead for no real gain. Simplifying those back into a single state can reduce noise and help everyone stay focused.

Another area worth considering is classes of service. These are a fantastic way to improve how you prioritize within your Kanban system. But here’s the thing—your initial classes (like “Expedite” or “Standard”) might not be the right fit forever. Maybe your portfolio has shifted to focus more on strategic initiatives, and the original classes of service don’t reflect that change. When you notice recurring patterns like urgent stakeholder requests that don’t fall into any category you defined, it may be time to reclassify your work items or introduce a new class that better reflects the current portfolio’s needs.

Adapting the Portfolio Kanban system to suit these new dynamics is key to keeping your flow optimized. I often tell teams, “Don’t be afraid to break the board!” If you’re looking at a system that worked well six months ago but is no longer facilitating smooth delivery, then it’s okay to shake things up. In many cases, old practices can develop into roadblocks rather than guardrails. Your board should organically support movement, not stifle it.

Now, while all these adjustments sound good in theory, one challenge I’ve seen teams face is knowing when and how to make these changes. You can’t just tweak things based on gut feelings, hoping for the best. This is where data comes in—things like cumulative flow diagrams or cycle time metrics. Using data to inform your decisions ensures the changes you’re making are driven by actual bottlenecks and not just a hunch.
Once you’ve started gathering data—from cycle time, cumulative flow diagrams, or even just regular team feedback—you’ve got a solid foundation to guide your Portfolio Kanban improvements. The key here is to use that information to inform decisions, not just validate what you’re already doing. If the data is pointing to bottlenecks or inefficiencies, that’s your cue to examine your system for constraints. Are your WIP limits too restrictive? Maybe multiple work items are piling up at a particular stage. Or conversely, are no items lingering in a state too long, indicating that your limits could be relaxed?

One thing to keep in mind is that adjusting too many variables at once can make it difficult to pinpoint what’s actually improving or worsening your flow. I’ve worked with teams that tried to overhaul their entire board in one go—streamlining states, changing WIP limits, adding swimlanes—all at the same time. And what happens? It becomes nearly impossible to track the impact of each change. My advice? Tackle one area at a time. If you’re tweaking WIP limits, leave the columns alone for a few sprints. If it’s time to split a state into finer stages, hold off on adding new classifications until you see how that change plays out.

Let’s talk about swimlanes for a second. These can be incredibly helpful for visualizing different types of work, especially in large portfolios where you’ve got multiple teams and projects running in parallel. But what I often see is teams adding swimlanes too early, making their Portfolio Kanban unnecessarily complex before they’ve hit real pain points. Swimlanes shine when you need clarity on priorities across different strategic efforts—things like critical customer issues versus internal improvement work—but they shouldn’t clutter your board. If everyone’s drowning in swimlanes, you’re just trading one type of confusion for another.

I think it’s important to acknowledge one of the biggest challenges in this whole process: balancing standardization with flexibility. On one hand, having consistent WIP limits and standardized states across a large portfolio helps with transparency and reporting. However, you’ve got to leave room for variation—especially as Agile teams mature and develop their own best practices. Sometimes, a one-size-fits-all Kanban setup can become a straightjacket for teams that are experimenting and improving their own flow. Give your teams the freedom to modify parts of the Portfolio Kanban that make sense for them, while still maintaining enough structure for the overall portfolio to stay aligned.

This continuous improvement cycle isn’t just about responding to problems as they occur. It’s about anticipating future needs. As your organization matures or scales, what worked for today’s volume of work might crumble when more work starts flowing in. If your teams are regularly hitting WIP limits, that could mean they need more resources—or maybe they’re being stretched across too many projects. By refining your Portfolio Kanban as your capacity grows or shifts, you’re not just reacting, you’re planning ahead.

It’s also worth mentioning that a healthy Kanban system encourages conversations. Too often, Kanban is seen as just a visual tool—columns and cards on a board. But every change or observation should spark discussions. Why do we keep hitting this bottleneck every sprint? Should we rethink our policies about urgent requests? Kanban isn’t only about flow; it’s also about improving decision-making, and conversations are where that happens.

At the end of the day, continuously fine-tuning your Portfolio Kanban isn’t just maintenance work—it’s a reflection of the Agile mindset in action. You’re experimenting with small adjustments, gathering feedback, and then iterating. And remember, your Portfolio Kanban isn’t there for the sake of having a nice, orderly board. It’s there to serve the teams and the portfolio, to facilitate delivery, and to keep everyone aligned on what matters most: delivering value.

So, keep evolving. Try those tweaks. Make your board work for you, not against you. A Portfolio Kanban system that adapts with your team—or even a bit ahead of them—is one of your strongest assets in making sure you’re delivering the right things, to the right people, at the right time.