In Lean systems, an important metric is how many work items are in an unfinished state. In Lean Manufacturing, it is particularly common to see Work In Progress (WIP) in use, where work items pass through what is often a complex series of steps on their way to completion. In knowledge work such as software development, teams often use Kanban boards to visualize where each work item is in the team’s workflow, and they set a WIP Limit on how many work items can be in a particular workflow state at the same time.<\/p>\n