A reference from Weave

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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 Q

5 terms

  • Queue age

    Queue age measures how long an item has waited for the next processing opportunity. It is distinct from queue depth, which counts how many items are waiting at a snapshot.

    Flow and capacity planning

  • Queue capacity

    Queue capacity is the allowed or practical amount of waiting work for a defined stage. It may be expressed as a WIP limit, a service slot, or an operating range.

    Flow and capacity planning

  • Queue depth

    Queue depth is the count of items waiting for the same processing step, capacity slot, approval, or dependency at a particular time. It is a snapshot of accumulation, not a measure of how long items have waited.

    Flow and capacity planning

  • Queue stability

    Queue stability describes the pattern of queue depth and age over time. A stable queue may still be undesirable if it is permanently large, while an unstable queue signals changing arrival, service capacity, batching, or policy.

    Flow and capacity planning

  • Queue time

    Queue time is the elapsed period when work is ready to move but is waiting for a person, system, approval, capacity slot, or dependency. It is a component of total cycle time and often reveals hidden delivery constraints.

    Flow and capacity planning