Which visual metric is commonly used in Kanban to analyze flow?

Which visual metric is commonly used in Kanban to analyze flow?

• A. Burn-down chart
• B. Cumulative flow diagrams
• C. Velocity chart
• D. Gantt chart

Answer: (B)

In Kanban, you want a visual that shows how work travels through the whole system over time and across different stages. The cumulative flow diagram does this by plotting the total number of items in each workflow state as time progresses, usually as a stacked area. This makes flow problems easy to spot: widening bands signal bottlenecks, flat or shrinking bands indicate stable flow or improvements, and the slopes reveal throughput and lead time trends. Because Kanban emphasizes continuous delivery without fixed sprints, a chart that tracks flow across time and states provides the clearest view of how work moves through the process. Burn-down charts focus on remaining work within a sprint and fit Scrum more than Kanban. Velocity charts summarize work completed per iteration, which doesn’t align with continuous flow. Gantt charts lay out planned timelines and dependencies rather than real-time flow, so they’re less useful for analyzing how work actually moves through the system.

In Kanban, you want a visual that shows how work travels through the whole system over time and across different stages. The cumulative flow diagram does this by plotting the total number of items in each workflow state as time progresses, usually as a stacked area. This makes flow problems easy to spot: widening bands signal bottlenecks, flat or shrinking bands indicate stable flow or improvements, and the slopes reveal throughput and lead time trends. Because Kanban emphasizes continuous delivery without fixed sprints, a chart that tracks flow across time and states provides the clearest view of how work moves through the process.

Burn-down charts focus on remaining work within a sprint and fit Scrum more than Kanban. Velocity charts summarize work completed per iteration, which doesn’t align with continuous flow. Gantt charts lay out planned timelines and dependencies rather than real-time flow, so they’re less useful for analyzing how work actually moves through the system.