Cycle Time Archives - Igor Lakic

Scrabble board with tiles—rack reads “DEBTS” and loose tiles spell “HELP ME.”

Flow Debt: The Hidden Cost of Blocked Work

Track blocked time %, aging WIP, and handoff counts; add blocker clustering and a weekly impediment burn-down If your delivery feels slower than it should be—even with “full” utilization—you’re likely paying flow debt: the silent tax created when work sits blocked, ages in progress, or pinballs across handoffs. You don’t need a giant transformation to…

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Forecasting Without Story Points: A Monte Carlo Playbook

BlogSeptember 11, 2025327Views 0Likes 0Comments

Build probabilistic delivery forecasts from historical throughput—plus caveats, confidence intervals, and an executive-ready chart. Most teams still try to “estimate” delivery with story points. You don’t need them. If you have a list of items finished per day/week (throughput), you can simulate thousands of futures in seconds and answer the only questions that matter: “When…

Team of five reviewing a glass board covered with colorful sticky notes, discussing WIP limits and next steps.

From Busy to Predictable: Little’s Law in Scrum Teams

BlogAugust 29, 2025494Views 0Likes 0Comments

Introduction If your team is always busy but cycle times bounce all over the place, you don’t have a motivation problem—you have a flow problem. Little’s Law in Scrum turns that chaos into math you can manage: average WIP × average time in system are tightly linked to throughput. Use that relationship to set smarter…

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5 Signals Your Product Backlog Is Failing (and How to Fix It)

BlogAugust 27, 2025319Views 0Likes 0Comments

Introduction If you’re honest, does your backlog health inspire confidence—or dread? Many teams plan with good intentions but get blindsided by stale items, half-ready stories, and a growing queue that never seems to shrink. In this guide, we’ll make backlog health concrete using four measurable signals—item age, readiness ratio, arrival vs. completion rate, and reorder…

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Sprint Goals That Drive Outcomes, Not Activity

BlogAugust 19, 2025335Views 0Likes 0Comments

Introduction Most teams “do” Sprint Goals, but many still ship activity instead of outcomes. The fix? Sprint Goals that are measurable, tied to your Product Goal, and tracked with EBM (Current Value, Time-to-Market, Ability to Innovate). In this guide, you’ll craft outcome-driven goals and visualize forecast vs. actual impact using a lightweight Jira dashboard. Why…

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Stop Carryover: End Unfinished Sprints with Flow Metrics

BlogAugust 14, 2025493Views 0Likes 0Comments

Introduction If every Sprint Review ends with a familiar phrase—“we’ll carry this over”—you’re stuck in the cycle of unfinished sprints. It drains morale, muddies forecasts, and delays value. The good news: this isn’t a motivation problem; it’s a flow problem. In this guide, you’ll learn how to diagnose carryover using three practical flow metrics—throughput, WIP,…

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Cut Your Time-to-Learn: Deliver Product Value & Insight Faster

BlogJuly 14, 2025620Views 0Likes 0Comments

Introduction Picture this: an idea pops up in a sprint planning session on Monday and is already teaching you real-world lessons by Friday. That lightning-fast feedback is what the Time-to-Learn metric is all about. When teams know Time-to-Learn (T2L) and shrink it, they out-learn slower competitors—and win. In this guide you’ll see why T2L matters,…

Tag: Cycle Time

Flow Debt: The Hidden Cost of Blocked Work

Forecasting Without Story Points: A Monte Carlo Playbook

From Busy to Predictable: Little’s Law in Scrum Teams

5 Signals Your Product Backlog Is Failing (and How to Fix It)

Sprint Goals That Drive Outcomes, Not Activity

Stop Carryover: End Unfinished Sprints with Flow Metrics

Cut Your Time-to-Learn: Deliver Product Value & Insight Faster

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Tag: Cycle Time

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