Throughput Diagram¶
- In Lean Manufacturing, the progress of a Kanban is tracked over time using a {{Cumulative Flow Diagram}} (CFD). CFDs are superior to traditional Agile burndown/burnup charts because they make it easier to see causes of Waste, Stress and Instability.
- To represent Throughput the diagram must account for the time taken up in analysing the Features in an Epic and the Stories in a Feature, not just the delivery and integration workflow per story, and continuously represent the components of Return as well.
- If a Value Stream is trying to hit a calendar date It’s important to be able to see by simple visual inspection of diagrams when the feature point budget for a feature has been exceeded by Story Point estimates, and that consequently a release must be refactored.
Therefore,
Feature Points provide a simple basis for this kind of accounting. The cost of an Epic over the life of a release is the sum of its Feature Points. And as each Feature is delivered by just one Squad at a time, the Feature Point cost of a story is simply its Story Points divided by Squad Velocity.
A CFD that represents all these metrics is called a Throughput Diagram. The topmost “return” line can represent revenue or an Epic’s Critical Number. As with CFDs, Throughput Diagrams can be added together to represent the flows of whole Portfolios.
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