Little’s Law for Professional Scrum with Kanban cover image

Little’s Law for Professional Scrum with Kanban

Understanding the mathematics of queuing theory.

Profile image of Daniel Vacanti
May 14, 2018 • 1 min read
4.53 (17)
Productivity
Kanban
WIP Limit
Queues and Batches

Summary

Managers who do not understand Little's Law often panic when they see long cycle times and perform the exact opposite intervention they should: they initiate more work. Their reasoning is that if things are taking too long, new items should be started as soon as possible in order to finish the bulk on time. But they ignore work-in-progress at their own peril, as Little's Law shows that the greater the quantity of work, the longer they take to finish on average.

Suggested Resources