Limit WIP before asking people to move faster
Explain why limiting work in progress improves delivery predictability.
The move: manage the queue, not the adrenaline. A WIP limit is not a productivity cage. It is a feedback device. When a column reaches its limit, the team has learned something important: the system cannot absorb more work at that point without increasing delay. That is when agile managers should ask, “What needs to finish or unblock before we start more?” The mechanism is Little’s Law in everyday clothing: when arrival rate stays high and active work grows, cycle time grows too. Teams experience this as half-done stories, context switching, stale reviews, and demos full of caveats. The fix…
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