Flow Load – Is Demand Outweighing Capacity?

Dominica DeGrandis, Principal Flow Advisor at Tasktop and author of Making Work Visible, emphasizes that too much WIP can harm productivity in software development. Flow Load is a key measure that can help teams optimize their workload, by monitoring the number of items actively being worked on in a value stream. When the total number of items being worked on is too high, it negatively affects a team's output. By tracking Flow Load, business leaders can identify changes in Flow Velocity and Flow Time, showing when taking on too many flow items reduces output. One example of this in action is when a software company identified a high defect load across a three week period. The organization examined the underlying factors and found the longest wait state was in code review, and initiated a trial of releasing low risk defects without a code review. This resulted in increased Flow Velocity, decreased Flow Load, and reduced Flow Time. Flow Metrics, from the Flow Framework® by Dr. Mik Kersten, provide a common language between business and IT, enabling them to make collaborative decisions around software delivery.