Here’s a question that keeps coming over and over: What does it mean if the lines in your Cumulative Flow Diagram don’t grow in parallel and have a lot of space between them?
Today, I’d like to unpack that and show you what actionable insights you can take away from it.
Simply put, if your CFD lines aren’t growing in parallel, it indicates that your arrival rate of tasks is higher than your departure rate.
In other words, you’re starting new work faster than you’re completing it.
Understanding Arrival and Departure Rates
Agile teams use the Cumulative Flow Diagram to monitor how their arrival and departure lines move over time.
Okay, now, let’s break this down to see why this information matters and how you can use it to your advantage.
If work enters the system faster than it leaves, you are accumulating work in progress.
I want you to think of work in progress as a liability. You want less of it. Your liability becomes an asset only when your work is delivered to your customers.
Your goal should be to keep as much work in progress as your team can handle at any one time and focus on finishing work rather than starting new work.
Furthermore, your throughput rate represents your team’s capacity to deliver results. Ideally, the steeper the slope of your Done line, the higher the throughput rate, meaning your team is completing tasks quickly.
Conversely, a flatter slope indicates a lower throughput rate, meaning your team’s delivery speed slows down.
What Happens When Your WIP Increases?
When your Work in Progress increases, it indicates that the arrival rate of work is higher than the departure rate.
This expansion in WIP means there is a bottleneck in the system, and your team is struggling to deliver results. As WIP increases over time, your delivery times will also increase.
Additionally, your team may start to multitask and switch contexts to keep up with the demand, ultimately becoming less efficient.
If the work comes into your workflow faster than it leaves it, this is a clear indication that your system is unstable.
From a predictability perspective, this is disruptive, because a constant increase in your work in progress inevitably leads to a constant increase in your delivery times.
How could you be predictable in a world when your delivery times are constantly increasing? You simply can’t.
Apply This Simple Strategy to Get Back on Track
Now that you understand the impact of the gaps between your CFD lines, what can you do to get back on track?
There’s a straightforward strategy you can implement to bring those lines back into parallel.
Start by implementing a new process policy and ensure everyone agrees to follow and continuously improve it.
Here’s an example of what it might look like:
“Once a piece of work is finished, instead of immediately pulling a new item from the backlog, first review the cards on the board. Start from the rightmost column (the one before Done), then move towards the beginning of the workflow.
Look for items that are not assigned to anyone, any issues that need to be fixed (even if they are not assigned to you), anything that’s waiting for code review or feedback implementation from code review.
Only start a new item of work if there is literally nothing you can do to help the ongoing work items move forward in the process.”
A policy like this keeps the team focused on finishing outstanding work rather than starting new tasks.
As you begin using this policy, observe the outcomes:
Are your teams effectively handling each other’s tasks? Do they feel confident using this new approach to managing the work? Do they feel empowered to identify opportunities for improvement and speak up? Use this initiative to learn more about how they work together and how you can support their improvement.
If they’re still struggling to adjust or feel stuck due to obstacles beyond their control, it’s time to investigate and identify the issues:
Are team members too specialized to work on each other’s items? Are priorities unclear, or are there too many dependencies outside your control? Address these issues as you move along.
To wrap this up, if the lines in your Cumulative Flow Diagram don’t grow in parallel and have a lot of space between them, this means that your team starts more work than they finish, work in progress accumulates which eventually leads to longer delivery times.
By simply focusing on completing tasks and continuously improving your process, you can stabilize your workflow and get back on track.
Here is your action item: Gather your team, brainstorm ideas on how to fix this situation, and create your own explicit process policy. Ensure everyone agrees to follow and continuously improve this policy.
Use the Cumulative Flow Diagram to track the results of your improvement initiative and see how the lines gradually move back into parallel. See a dashboard with your data now, it’s free for 14 days →
Alright, my friend. Thanks for tuning in. I wish you a productive week ahead and I’ll see you next week, same time and place for more managerial insights. Bye for now!
