Flow load
Also known as Delivery flow load, Workflow load
Definition
Flow load is the volume of work placed on a workflow, including active and waiting items when the boundary is stated. It describes pressure on the system rather than effort or business value.
Pressure has a volume
Flow load can refer to current WIP, incoming demand, or the combined work a system must handle. Those meanings are related but not interchangeable. State whether the measurement includes queued, active, blocked, or completed items and which time interval applies.
A concrete example
An illustrative team has five changes in implementation, seven in review, and four waiting for deployment. Its current flow load is 16 items if all three states are included. If the team reports only five active changes, it hides the downstream work competing for capacity.
Find where load accumulates
Break the load down by workflow state, age, class, and owner. A high total with short age may be a temporary batch. A smaller total with very old review items may reveal a more serious constraint. Pair volume with throughput and cycle time.
Limitations
Counting items assumes comparable units. One migration can carry more risk than several small fixes. Flow load is a system signal, not a productivity score for a person.
How this relates to Weave
Weave can help teams inspect change activity and delivery signals that contribute to a flow-load discussion. Its repository view will not include every request or operational task, so teams should reconcile it with the full workflow before making a capacity decision.
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