What is the Commitment Point?

A commitment point in Kanban is the stage in the workflow where a work item is ready to be incorporated into the system and flow through it, representing a commitment to work on and deliver the item.

It is a key concept for managing work in progress and ensuring that teams can release their committed work with greater predictability.

Commitment points are typically visualized as the dividing line between two columns on a Kanban board to provide clarity on the status of work items and help manage the workflow.

By defining commitment points, teams can avoid overloading with too many items and maintain a balance between demand and capacity.

Commitment points require explicit confirmation by the team that a work item is ready to be started and delivered.

In Scrum, the equivalent of a Kanban commitment point is the creation of the Sprint Backlog.