Flow metrics for service teams

Flow metrics for service teams describe how work moves, not how busy people are. Four of them do most of the work: throughput, cycle time, work in progress (WIP), and the age of items still in progress.

• Cycle time is the elapsed time from starting an item to finishing it. Track its distribution rather than its average, and quote a percentile instead: a statement such as 'eighty-five per cent of requests complete within five days' is a promise a team can keep.
• Work in progress is described as the quiet killer. The more items a team has open at once, the longer each one takes to finish.
• Limiting WIP is the single most reliable way to reduce cycle time without adding people, so it is a lever that needs no extra headcount.
• Ageing work in progress is the leading indicator among the four. A daily glance at the oldest open items surfaces trouble before it becomes a breached service level.
• Throughput completes the set. Used together, these four measures focus attention on how work flows through the team rather than on activity levels or how busy individuals appear.