Flow Manager
Flow Manager
The brand-new Flow Manager course is ideal for agile professionals, team leads, and managers who want to go beyond the team level and improve end-to-end flow and organizational performance as a whole. There are no formal prerequisites, but ideally participants have a basic level of Kanban Practitioner knowledge and/or experience with Kanban at the team level.
After completing the course, you will receive the official Flow Manager credential from Kanban University.
Introduction to the Flow Manager Course
Flow Manager is a brand-new two-day training course launched in April 2025. The course addresses the common problem that agile initiatives often remain limited to the team level. The Flow Manager role helps improve the flow of work and organizational performance by focusing on end-to-end flow and customer value creation.
This training helps organizations evolve from Maturity Level 1 to Level 2 within the Kanban Maturity Model (KMM). The Flow Manager plays a crucial role in delivering products and services faster and more reliably, creating a major impact on organizational performance.
The course builds upon concepts from the groundbreaking book Agile Management (David J. Anderson, 2003), which introduced principles such as tracking flow in knowledge work, operations reviews, and agile product management.
Who is the Flow Manager Course For?
- Organizations that want to scale beyond the team level
- Agile professionals, team leads, and managers who want to optimize end-to-end flow
- Anyone responsible for faster and more reliable delivery or looking to create greater impact at scale
What Will You Learn in the Flow Manager Course?
- Managing and improving the flow of customer value
- Practical skills such as tracking work in progress, measuring flow efficiency, and detecting bottlenecks
- Prioritizing finishing over starting
- Understanding flow metrics such as lead time and time-to-delivery
By developing these skills, you will gain control over end-to-end delivery and help the organization perform more predictably.
What Challenge Does the Flow Manager Address?
- Transforming organizations from Maturity Level 1 to Level 2
- Achieving faster and more reliable delivery without compromising quality
Course Objectives
- Equip managers with the right skills to support flow
- Help organizations scale beyond ML1
- Map end-to-end workflows (sometimes at enterprise level)
- Facilitate and manage flow beyond the team level
- Encourage service-oriented thinking across the organization
Core Topics
- Flow Management principles
- Improving service delivery
- Promoting collaboration between teams
- Analyzing workflow effectiveness
- Increasing reliability and scalability
- Working toward Flow Manager responsibilities
What Will You Take Away Immediately After the Training?
- Insight into and reporting on customer value and flow efficiency
- Methods to encourage finishing work before starting new work
- Using flow metrics to reduce bottlenecks and shorten lead times
- Skills to coach and manage end-to-end flow for faster and more predictable delivery
Why This Course Now?
Kanban University has embraced flow since 2011 and has emphasized the role of flow in knowledge work, originally introduced by David J. Anderson in 2003. This new course formalizes that focus.
What Is the Difference Between Flow Manager, Demand Manager, Delivery Manager, and KMP?
- Flow Manager focuses on the transition from ML1 to ML2.
- KMP is aimed at ML3 and therefore typically requires Flow Manager training first.
- Flow Manager therefore comes before KMP in the learning journey.
Kanban University will continue to offer the KMP training unchanged, but we believe the Flow Manager, Delivery Manager, and Demand Manager courses align strongly with the current needs of the market.
How Does It Relate to TKP?
- TKP (Team Kanban Practitioner) focuses on ML0–1.
- Flow Manager builds upon that foundation for ML1–2.
TKP is optional before attending the Flow Manager course.
