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Work In Progress (WIP)
Definition: Work in Progress (WIP) measures the total number of tasks that are currently active in the development process at any given time. This includes all work that has been started but not yet completed and delivered.
Why It Matters
Monitoring and limiting WIP is a fundamental principle of Lean and Kanban methodologies that has a profound impact on team performance.
Reveals System Overload: High WIP is a clear sign that a team is overloaded. When too many tasks are being juggled at once, it leads to increased context switching, reduced quality, and developer burnout.
Directly Impacts Cycle Time: According to Little's Law,
Cycle Time = Work in Progress / Throughput. This means that for a given team's throughput, the only way to decrease Cycle Time is to decrease the amount of Work in Progress.Encourages Finishing: High WIP often means many tasks are started but few are finished. Limiting WIP forces the team to collaborate and complete existing work before starting new tasks, which improves flow and value delivery.
How to Measure It
WIP is a simple count of all active tickets or tasks in the "in-progress" stages of a workflow.
WIP = Count(Tasks Started) - Count(Tasks Completed)
It is most effective when visualized on a Kanban board, where the number of cards in each "in-progress" column can be seen at a glance.
Interpretation
Goal: The goal is to maintain a low and stable level of WIP.
Use WIP Limits: The most effective way to manage WIP is to set explicit limits on how many tasks can be in any given stage of the workflow. This is a core practice of
Work in Progress (WIP) Limits.Look for Bulges: If work consistently piles up in a specific stage (e.g., "In Review"), it's a clear indicator of a downstream bottleneck that needs to be addressed.