From the course: Agile Software Development

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Limiting work in progress (WIP)

Limiting work in progress (WIP)

From the course: Agile Software Development

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Limiting work in progress (WIP)

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- When we work on more than one item, we are still only working on one item at a given point in time. We switch between items. Each switch causes a loss in productivity because it takes time to be fully productive on the second task. Human beings cannot do task switching like computers. Task switching breaks our rhythm. And sometimes we try to work on one item, but our brain may be occupied with something related to another work item. Also, having multiple items in our work queue causes distractions because we struggle to focus on a single item. All this leads to lower productivity and causes delays in delivering business value. Pull system pulls work only when the process or a step within a process is ready to pull work items. Limiting WIP makes kanban a pull system. We know that we cannot eliminate work in progress, but we also know that WIP needs to be limited. We cannot set WIP to 0 because we cannot produce finished products by magic. But why not set WIP to 1 for all steps?…

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