WIP
Work in Progress
Work that has started but has not yet reached its agreed completion state.
Plain English
Something the team is actively working on but has not finished.
In context
Tracking WIP exposes active load and bottlenecks while WIP limits help teams finish work before starting more.
Example
“The review column has reached its WIP limit.”
When you'll hear this
- kanban
- stand-up
- capacity planning
Common misunderstanding
WIP is not a synonym for every backlog item because queued work has not started.
Also known as
work in progressin progress
Commonly used by
Related terms
Updated: 2026-08-27
