How do we interpret a Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFD) to identify process bottlenecks?

All answers to this question.

Think of the CFD as a river. The width of a color band represents the amount of Work in Progress in that specific stage. If a band is widening, it means work is entering that stage faster than it is leaving—you’ve found a bottleneck. If the "Testing" band is getting thicker, your testers are overwhelmed. The horizontal distance between the top line (Entered) and bottom line (Done) represents your Lead Time. A healthy CFD should have relatively stable, parallel bands. If the "Done" line is flat, your flow has completely stopped, and you need to investigate blockers immediately.

   Answered 2024-11-07 by Jennifer Adams

What does it mean if the bands are narrowing? I see this occasionally in our reports and I'm not sure if that is a good sign of efficiency or a bad sign of under-utilization.

   Answered 2024-11-10 by Daniel Harris

• Daniel, narrowing bands usually mean your capacity is higher than the demand. While it sounds efficient, it might mean your team is about to run out of work, or you have a "starvation" issue further up the stream (like the Product Owners not refining enough stories). It's a signal to look at your upstream process to ensure the "pipe" stays full enough to keep the team productive.

     Commented 2024-11-13 by David Martinez

The slope of the "Done" line is your throughput. A steeper slope means you are delivering more items over time. Watch that line carefully during your monthly reviews.

   Answered 2024-11-16 by Elizabeth Young

• Great point, Elizabeth. We use the CFD slope to forecast our release dates. It's much more accurate than using gut feelings or individual developer estimates.

     Commented 2024-11-18 by Christopher Evans