Name: How to Actually Read a Cumulative Flow Diagram
Uploaded: 2026-10-02T10:24:24.000Z
Duration: 32 min 14 s
Description: Full webinar: read WIP, Cycle Time and Throughput off a Cumulative Flow Diagram, spot bottlenecks, starvation, staircases and stalls, and see what they say about your team.

Most teams have a Cumulative Flow Diagram on their dashboard; very few were taught to read one. This session covers Little's Law, the three flow metrics you can read straight off a CFD, the four patterns to recognise on sight, and what each pattern says about how a team works, through the lens of Lencioni's Five Dysfunctions.

What you'll learn

Little's Law in plain terms: Cycle Time = WIP ÷ Throughput, with worked examples
The six properties that make a chart a real CFD, and the mistake almost everyone makes when building one
Reading the chart: vertical distance = WIP, horizontal distance = Cycle Time (approximate), slope = Throughput (exact)
What a CFD can't tell you, and why a "backlog band" doesn't belong on it
Four named patterns: Bottleneck, Starvation, Batch/Staircase and Complete Stall
One 28-week project where all four patterns appear in sequence
Mapping each pattern to Lencioni's Five Dysfunctions of a Team: trust, conflict, commitment, accountability, results
A real case: SCHLENK's R&D team cut 85th-percentile cycle time from 110 to 44 days using WIP limits and a tighter review cadence (Businessmap case study)

What to take with you

Vertical = WIP, horizontal = Cycle Time (approximate), slope = Throughput (exact)
If it's built from headcounts, don't trust it: check for lines that decrease
No backlog band, ever: it isn't a real arrival
Four shapes to recognise on sight: bottleneck, starvation, batch/staircase, stall
Every pattern is also a culture question, not just a metrics question. Ask what's behind the shape before fixing the number