Flow vs Utilization
The agile concept that says keeping everyone busy does not equal better delivery.
What is flow over utilization?
These support decisions but should never replace stakeholder input.
What are metrics?
The quality mindset that says testing is not a final phase.
What is built-in quality?
Deferred work that makes future changes slower or more expensive.
What is technical debt?
Time from work start until work completion.
What is cycle time?
The practice of restricting active work to improve movement through the system.
What is limiting WIP?
Stakeholders dislike the increment, but velocity improved.
What is feedback outweighing metrics?
Writing tests before writing code.
What is test-driven development (TDD)?
The practice used to continuously reduce technical debt.
What is refactoring?
Time from request until delivery.
What is lead time?
A manager insists nobody should ever be idle.
What is a PMI delivery anti-pattern / maximizing utilization?
This delivery metric measures completed items per time period.
What is throughput?
Frequently integrating code changes to detect defects early.
What is continuous integration?
A team postpones cleanup work to “protect speed.”
What is creating technical debt?
“Built correctly.”
What is verification?
The visualization used to spot queues, bottlenecks, and flow problems.
What is a cumulative flow diagram?
This forecasting metric should generally be used only for the same team.
What is velocity?
Improving internal code structure without changing behavior.
What is refactoring?
This delivery concept explains why delayed cleanup eventually slows delivery.
What is change becomes more expensive over time?
“Built the right thing.”
What is validation?
Improving this matters more than maximizing productivity of individual people.
What is end-to-end work flow?
PMI’s preferred way to evaluate customer satisfaction.
What is feedback on delivered increments?
Testing delayed until the end of development violates this PMI delivery principle.
What is continuous quality / built-in quality?
Technical debt primarily threatens this delivery outcome.
What is sustainable delivery / long-term quality?
Meeting customer expectations for a specific feature.
What are acceptance criteria?