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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.
Terms beginning with C
24 termsCapacity 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 planning