Watching work pile up.

Understanding the cumulative flow diagram

How to use it

  1. Click + Add to bring a card onto the board. The clock starts with the first card.
  2. Start then finish tasks. Play around with how many tasks you work on at the same time and how long each task takes.
  3. The run ends when the chart fills up. Press Stop to end it early.
  4. Once it's over, replay it with the buttons under the chart, or drag the slider, to see the board at any earlier moment.
  5. Click a card to trace its path through the chart.
  6. Press + next to the tabs to start a new run. Earlier runs stay in their own tabs.
  7. Or press Example to see a finished run from a real team's history, without playing it yourself.
  1. Open Simulation and tap + Add to bring a card onto the list. The clock starts with the first card.
  2. Start then finish tasks. Play around with how many tasks you work on at the same time and how long each task takes.
  3. The run ends when the chart fills up. Tap Stop to end it early.
  4. Once it's over, replay it with the buttons under the chart, or drag the slider, to see the list at any earlier moment.
  5. Tap a card to trace its path through the chart.
  6. Tap + next to the tabs to start a new run. Earlier runs stay in their own tabs.
  7. Or tap Example to see a finished run from a real team's history, without playing it yourself.

A cumulative flow diagram stacks every card's state into one picture. Three bands, bottom to top: Done, Doing, To Do. The height of a band at any moment is how many cards sit in that state right then.

The Doing band is the one worth watching. When it gets thicker, the team is starting more than it's finishing.