AvailAgility » BBC http://availagility.co.uk Karl Scotland - Using Agile to Deliver Value Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:58:09 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Traffic Jams http://availagility.co.uk/2008/08/11/traffic-jams/ http://availagility.co.uk/2008/08/11/traffic-jams/#comments Mon, 11 Aug 2008 14:35:19 +0000 Karl http://availagility.wordpress.com/?p=77 One of the metaphors I use when I talk why a kanban system has work-in-progress (WIP) limits, is traffic jams. The greater the WIP, the lower the throughput, and this effect can be seen when too many cars clog up a motorway. Watching the BBC’s “Britain from Above” last night, they had an interesting section on this subject, including a nice simulation on how a bottleneck ripples back as it frees up, explaining how traffic jams can seem to appear and disappear for now apparent reason.

You can seen the clip here – the simulation is about 3 minutes in.

I expect you get the same effect in software development value streams, although I would also expect that software development value streams are short enough for the effect to be unnoticeable.

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