I recently made the assumption that I did not need to explain why shorter cycle times were generally desirable. However, I was mistaken, so let me explain:
If the average cycle time from starting to finishing a user story goes from 20 days down to 5 days:
Does this mean that the developers are writing code 4 times faster? NO
Does this mean the customer is getting 4 times more features delivered? NO
So what does it mean?
It means:
- we can see meaningful progress 4 times faster
- we deliver something 4 times more often
- we are seeing problems in our end-to-end process 4 times faster
- we are probably able to predict 4 times more accurately
- we practise all of our end-to-end processes 4 times more and so have 4 times more chance of getting better at them
- our focus is 4 times better and so our effort is 4 times more likely not to be wasted
- we are working 4 times smarter!
