Hook
Starting more feels like progress. Finishing is progress.
Problem
When too much work is in flight, attention fractures and lead time grows. Items wait in queues, handoffs multiply, and important work finishes later than it should.
Why it matters
WIP is inventory. Inventory creates waiting time, which stretches lead time and hides true bottlenecks. Limiting WIP forces focus and reveals where flow is actually constrained.
Signals you are here
- Dozens of items are open but few are completed
- People are context switching across many tasks
- Reviews and QA queues keep growing
- Lead time increases even as utilization is high
Anti-patterns
- Keeping everyone busy instead of finishing work
- Starting new work before finishing current work
- No visible WIP limits on the board
- Measuring progress by items started
Try this
- Set explicit WIP limits per workflow stage
- Swarm to finish blocked work before starting new items
- Use pull-based intake with clear queues
- Make blocked reasons visible and track time-in-state
- Define done with shared acceptance criteria
Example
A team caps active PRs at two per developer. Reviews get faster, context switching drops, and throughput increases because items actually finish.
Reflection prompt
Count how many items are in progress right now. What would you stop to finish the most valuable ones first?
More like this
Heuristic
Optimize for Flow, Not Silos
If downstream is blocked, upstream speed is just inventory.
Heuristic
Avoid Local Optimization
Optimize the system, not the silo.
Heuristic
Empower Autonomous Teams
Autonomy with guardrails.
Heuristic
Every Output Is Someone Else's Input
Handoff quality sets the pace of flow.
Heuristic
Short Feedback Loops
Fast feedback beats perfect plans.
Heuristic
Work in Small Batches
Small batches make failure cheap and learning fast.
