Lean Panel Analysis: Throughput

Based on traditional project management such as PMBOK, Prince2, and cmmeThroughput (throughput)You do not know much about it. However, I am confident that as the concept of lean continues to expand, the throughput will be more concerned.

ThroughputThe number of work items that have been delivered within a specified period of time (such as weeks, months, and quarters.

What we are talking about is actually completed and may have been delivered to the customer. That is, the money is received after this process.

To understand the concept of throughput, we assume that in the past five weeks, a team has delivered 4, 6, 4, 2, and 3 stories each week. Stories that have already started but have not ended are not included.

The average throughput for these five weeks is about (4 + 6 + 4 + 2 + 3)/5 = 4 stories/week. The standard deviation is about 1 story/week.

The throughput is based on the real data of the team's delivery capability. Throughput changes (Throughput variability)It reflects the influence of factors such as story size, complexity, urgency, and personnel skills.

Throughput can be used for planning.In the above example, the team can estimate their throughput (delivery rate, delivery rate) to 4 ± 1 story/week without making any detailed estimates for a single story.

However, in the panel method, the throughputIt is mainly used to record the performance of the team ).Logically, the goal is to continuously improve the throughput.

The throughput is the ability of the team to deliver the number of work items within a specified period of time (such as weeks and months), so as to keep the team working under the load.

Throughput is not a rate)

Throughput is similar to the speed in agility (Velocity), But they are not the same.
The rate measured in extreme programming and scrum shows how much the team can do in each iteration or sprint, usually based on a story point.

Return to the team in the preceding example. Assume that five user stories are delivered in the last two weeks. The number of stories is 3, 4, 1, 5, and 3, respectively.

The total number of story points that can be completed in a two-week sprint is 3 + 4 + 1 + 5 + 3 = 16. That is to say, the speed of each sprint of the team is 16 stories.

Factors such as story complexity, story size, change, and team skill level will also change the speed.

The agile team uses the average rate to estimate how many features can be delivered in the future sprint. However, they still have to estimate each individual user story to determine the sprint backlog range ).

Therefore, although the rate is related to the speed, it is essentially the load that a team can bear within a fixed period of time (iteration or sprint), usually measured by the number of story points.

Throughput and resource estimation

Throughput can be used to estimate resources.
According to Litt's Law)
If a team maintains a stable pace of work, the average delivery time (delivery time, that is, the lead time and lead time) of a specific job type or service classification can be considered as a constant.

Delivery rate (throughput) is the target rate to meet the customer's acceptable delivery deadline.

Based on this, we calculate the number of work items to be processed during the period.
For example, if the prefix time of a story is 0.25 weeks and the target delivery rate is 20 stories/week. Then,
WIP = 20*0.25 = 5 stories.

If each person can only process a single story, we need at least five people to complete the task on time. For security considerations (there is no precise formula here), we 'd better build a six-person team to do our work. :-)

Litt's law and throughput allow us to estimate the resources required for a job.

In short,Easy collection of Throughput. Because the throughput can keep youFocus on the performance of the team)Therefore, it is a valuable measurement. In addition, understanding the team's throughput can reduce the workload required to estimate stories or requirements when stories or requirements are split into smaller sizes. Furthermore, according to Litt's law, throughput allows usEstimate the resources required to complete a specified task within the customer's expected time.

Lean Panel Analysis: Throughput