A Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFD) shows how work moves through a project or process as time goes by. It shows how things are going and how they are spread out across different stages or states. A CFD is usually used in Agile and Kanban, but it can also be used to keep track of how far along a project’s features are.
The cumulative Flow Diagram of finished features shows visually how features move from one state to another over time. It helps teams keep track of their work, find bottlenecks, and make well-informed choices to make feature development faster and better. A Cumulative Flow Diagram of finished features could look like this:
Axis: The CFD has a time axis (e.g., days, weeks, or sprints) on the horizontal axis, which shows how long the project will take or how long a certain time period will be.
States: The vertical line shows the different states or stages that the features go through as they get bigger. Depending on how the project works, these states can be “Backlog,” “In Progress,” “Testing,” or “Completed.”
Bars: A coloured bar for each state shows how many or what share of features are in that state at any given time. The height of the bar shows how many traits are in that state as a whole or as a percentage.
Flow: The CFD shows how things move from one state to another as time goes on. When new features are added to a state, the width of each bar grows. When features are finished or move to the next state, the width of each bar shrinks.
The CFD gives a visual picture of how features change from one state to another. How steep or flat the bars are shows how quickly features are finished or how well the development process is working. A steady upward slope in the “features completed” state shows steady progress, while changes or plateaus could mean that there are bottlenecks or delays.
Tracking: The CFD helps find patterns, trends, or possible problems in feature completion by comparing the heights of the bars over time. It gives information about the general progress, the size of the backlog, and how the work is distributed. This lets teams make decisions based on data and take corrective actions if they need to.
Limitations: It’s important to remember that a CFD of finished features alone might not show the whole story of how a project is going or how well it’s doing. It only looks at finished features and doesn’t take into account features that are still being worked on or haven’t been tested yet. Because of this, it’s best to use other measures and charts along with the CFD to get a full picture of how the project is going.
