Agile & Delivery playbook/Module 3 · Kanban & flow

Day 26 / 100 · Kanban & flow · Classes of service

Not all work is equally urgent.

Classes of service set explicit policies for different kinds of urgency, so the team doesn't re-argue priority on every card.

Expedite

Drop Everything

Real emergencies, like a live outage. Limit: one at a time.

Fixed date

Hard Deadline

Costly if late: a regulatory change, a porting cut-over date.

Standard

Most Work

Taken roughly in order, within normal flow.

Intangible

Matters Later

No deadline yet, but ignore it and it bites: upgrades, tech debt.

If everything's urgent, nothing is.