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Make sense of queues, work in progress, forecasting, and team capacity. These concepts explain why a busy team can still struggle to finish work.
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158 termsAging WIP
Aging WIP shows the elapsed time since selected work entered progress and remains unfinished. It helps teams see risk in current work before a slow item becomes a completed-item statistic.
Flow and capacity planningArrival rate
Arrival rate is the number of work items entering a defined workflow during a stated interval. It describes incoming demand, not the amount of work a team finishes.
Flow and capacity planningAvailable capacity
Available capacity is a concept used in software delivery planning to describe a condition, relationship, estimate, or decision about engineering work.
Flow and capacity planningAverage queue time
Average queue time is the arithmetic mean of time spent waiting at a selected stage. It can summarize a queue, but a few old items may make the mean unlike the experience of most work.
Flow and capacity planningBacklog aging
Backlog aging is the elapsed time since a work item entered a backlog or became ready for consideration. It shows how long demand has waited before entering active delivery.
Flow and capacity planningBacklog health
Backlog health is an assessment of whether queued work has enough clarity, relevance, and prioritization to support reliable replenishment. It is a judgment supported by measures rather than a single universal score.
Flow and capacity planningBacklog refinement
Backlog refinement is a concept used in software delivery planning to describe a condition, relationship, estimate, or decision about engineering work.
Flow and capacity planningBatch size
Batch size is the amount of work grouped into one processing, review, release, or handoff unit. The unit may be a change, pull request, story, deployment, or set of requests.
Flow and capacity planningBatch wait
Batch wait is the elapsed delay caused by holding work until a batch threshold, calendar window, or group of related items is ready. It is a queue effect created by batching policy.
Flow and capacity planningBlocked time
Blocked time is the elapsed duration during which a work item is unable to make its next meaningful transition because an explicit obstacle prevents progress. It is a part of waiting time, not active implementation time.
Flow and capacity planningBlocked work
Blocked work is a concept used in software delivery planning to describe a condition, relationship, estimate, or decision about engineering work.
Flow and capacity planningBlocker
Blocker is a concept used in software delivery planning to describe a condition, relationship, estimate, or decision about engineering work.
Flow and capacity planningBlocker aging
Blocker aging is a concept used in software delivery planning to describe a condition, relationship, estimate, or decision about engineering work.
Flow and capacity planningBlocking reason
A blocking reason is the classified cause attached to work that cannot proceed. Common classes include dependency, decision, environment, capacity, defect, and approval, but the useful taxonomy depends on the workflow.
Flow and capacity planningBottleneck
A bottleneck is a workflow stage or capability whose effective capacity limits the rate at which the whole system can complete work. It is identified through sustained evidence of constrained flow, not simply because a stage feels busy.
Flow and capacity planningCapacity allocation
Capacity allocation is a concept used in software delivery planning to describe a condition, relationship, estimate, or decision about engineering work.
Flow and capacity planningCapacity buffer
A capacity buffer is intentionally uncommitted capacity held available for variation or work that cannot be forecast precisely. It is a planning policy, not evidence that people should remain idle.
Flow and capacity planningCapacity constraint
Capacity constraint is a concept used in software delivery planning to describe a condition, relationship, estimate, or decision about engineering work.
Flow and capacity planningCapacity forecast
Capacity forecast is a concept used in software delivery planning to describe a condition, relationship, estimate, or decision about engineering work.
Flow and capacity planningCapacity planning
Capacity planning is the practice of estimating the work a delivery system can complete and comparing it with expected demand, constraints, and service commitments. It supports tradeoffs rather than promising exact output.
Flow and capacity planningCapacity reserve
Capacity reserve is a concept used in software delivery planning to describe a condition, relationship, estimate, or decision about engineering work.
Flow and capacity planningCapacity scenario
Capacity scenario is a concept used in software delivery planning to describe a condition, relationship, estimate, or decision about engineering work.
Flow and capacity planningCapacity utilization
Capacity utilization is the ratio of capacity used for a defined class of work to the capacity available for that class during the same interval. It is meaningful only when both numerator and denominator are defined consistently.
Flow and capacity planningCapacity variance
Capacity variance is a concept used in software delivery planning to describe a condition, relationship, estimate, or decision about engineering work.
Flow and capacity planningCapacity-constrained flow
Capacity-constrained flow occurs when a stage, skill, environment, or policy has less effective capacity than the demand arriving at it. The result is usually a growing queue, longer waiting, or reduced throughput.
Flow and capacity planningChange failure queue
A change failure queue is the set of failed or suspect changes that still require operational follow-up. It describes unfinished recovery work, not merely the count of failed deployments.
Flow and capacity planningChange-ready queue
A change-ready queue contains items that are sufficiently clarified, prioritized, and prepared to begin the next delivery step. It is distinct from a broad idea backlog and from active work in progress.
Flow and capacity planningCommitment point
A commitment point is the explicit boundary at which a work item enters a delivery promise or forecast population. It should be observable and defined separately from earlier ideas or requests.
Flow and capacity planningContingency plan
Contingency plan is a concept used in software delivery planning to describe a condition, relationship, estimate, or decision about engineering work.
Flow and capacity planningContinuous flow
Continuous flow is a way of managing work in which items are pulled and completed individually or in small increments, with attention to queues and capacity rather than a fixed iteration boundary.
Flow and capacity planningCost of delay
Cost of delay is a concept used in software delivery planning to describe a condition, relationship, estimate, or decision about engineering work.
Flow and capacity planningCritical chain
Critical chain is a concept used in software delivery planning to describe a condition, relationship, estimate, or decision about engineering work.
Flow and capacity planningCritical path
Critical path is a concept used in software delivery planning to describe a condition, relationship, estimate, or decision about engineering work.
Flow and capacity planningCritical path method
Critical path method is a concept used in software delivery planning to describe a condition, relationship, estimate, or decision about engineering work.
Flow and capacity planningCross-team dependency
Cross-team dependency is a concept used in software delivery planning to describe a condition, relationship, estimate, or decision about engineering work.
Flow and capacity planningCumulative flow diagram
A cumulative flow diagram shows how many work items occupy each workflow state over time. The thickness of a band represents the amount of work in that state, while the spacing between boundaries helps reveal movement and waiting.
Flow and capacity planningCycle time
Cycle time is the elapsed time between a work item's defined start and finish. In software delivery, its meaning depends on the workflow boundaries, such as development started to deployed, or pull request opened to merged.
Flow and capacity planningCycle time forecast
Cycle time forecast is a concept used in software delivery planning to describe a condition, relationship, estimate, or decision about engineering work.
Flow and capacity planningCycle time percentile
A cycle time percentile is a value below which a chosen percentage of completed work falls. For example, a 90th percentile cycle time of five days means 90 percent of the measured items completed in five days or less.
Flow and capacity planningDefinition of done
A definition of done is an explicit policy for the conditions a work item must satisfy before it is considered complete. It can include implementation, review, testing, documentation, security, and release requirements.
Flow and capacity planningDelivery age
Delivery age is the time since a work item crossed a stated delivery start boundary while remaining unfinished. It is an active-work signal for intervention and forecasting.
Flow and capacity planningDelivery forecast
Delivery forecast is a concept used in software delivery planning to describe a condition, relationship, estimate, or decision about engineering work.
Flow and capacity planningDelivery queue
A delivery queue is unfinished work that has reached a downstream delivery boundary but is waiting for capacity, approval, environment, or a release decision. It makes post-implementation accumulation visible.
Flow and capacity planningDemand shaping
Demand shaping is a concept used in software delivery planning to describe a condition, relationship, estimate, or decision about engineering work.
Flow and capacity planningDemand-capacity ratio
A demand-capacity ratio compares a defined arrival rate or committed workload with the corresponding capacity or throughput of a delivery system. A ratio above one signals pressure under the stated assumptions, not a diagnosis by itself.
Flow and capacity planningDependency constraint
Dependency constraint is a concept used in software delivery planning to describe a condition, relationship, estimate, or decision about engineering work.
Flow and capacity planningDependency lead time
Dependency lead time is a concept used in software delivery planning to describe a condition, relationship, estimate, or decision about engineering work.
Flow and capacity planningDependency mapping
Dependency mapping is a concept used in software delivery planning to describe a condition, relationship, estimate, or decision about engineering work.
Flow and capacity planningDependency resolution time
Dependency resolution time is a concept used in software delivery planning to describe a condition, relationship, estimate, or decision about engineering work.
Flow and capacity planningDependency risk
Dependency risk is a concept used in software delivery planning to describe a condition, relationship, estimate, or decision about engineering work.
Flow and capacity planning