Cumulative Flow Diagram

Paulo Caroli

30 Jun 2015 | Kanban

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* Download the sample CFD excel here: sample-cfd.

Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFD) is a valuable management tool for (1) tracking and forecasting the completion of work items, and (2) indicating the need to act upon flow and process improvement.

The CFD provides a graphical representation of how the work is moving through the system, helping stabilize the system, act upon bottlenecks and control the scope of work. It is a simple, yet very informative tool that depicts the work in progress (WIP), entry rate, exit rate, lead time, throughput, elapsed time, completed, remaining, and total scope of work.

Below is a CFD with many of its parameters. Each of these will be explained in detail on this article.

CFD and flow parameters

[content_block id=10773 slug=cfd-en]

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Paulo Caroli

Paulo Caroli is an author, speaker, and consultant specializing in agile transformations, Lean Inception, and OKRs. With over 30 years of experience—including nearly a decade in Silicon Valley and 18 years at ThoughtWorks—he has helped organizations transition from project to product and from strategy to execution. Creator of the Lean Inception methodology and author of bestselling books like Lean Inception and Team OKR, Paulo is dedicated to empowering teams to align, validate, and deliver real business value.

What is Kanban?

Kanban

Kanban is a method formulated by David J. Anderson for managing the workflow of an incremental and evolutionary process. Influenced by the Toyota Just-In-Iime model, the method is based on visualizing the workflow and, from there, acting on the process so as not to...