Flow Metrics Self-Assessment for Teams

Check how work moves through your team, then compare it with your tool's flow data.

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What is a flow metrics self-assessment?

Flow is how work moves through a team from started to finished. The Kanban Guide names four flow metrics that every Kanban team must track: work in progress, throughput, work item age and cycle time. Most teams can already get these numbers from tools such as Jira, Azure DevOps, Linear or GitLab. This check asks how the team experiences flow, not what the numbers are. Each person rates 10 statements privately, covering shared definitions, visible work, limiting work in progress, stuck work and predictability. Put your tool's flow charts next to the results when you discuss them, then turn the lowest scores into actions in a retrospective.

Dimensions

Definitions & Visibility

Whether the team agrees on what its work is and can see all of it.

  • Started & Finished

    We all agree on when a piece of work counts as started and when it counts as finished.

  • Visible Work

    All of our work, including unplanned requests, is visible in one place.

Limiting Work in Progress

Whether the team keeps unfinished work low enough for items to keep moving.

  • Finish Before Starting

    We finish work already in progress before we start something new.

  • Work in Progress Limits

    We keep the amount of work in progress low enough that items keep moving.

Stuck Work

Whether aging and blocked work gets noticed and dealt with.

  • Oldest Items First

    We regularly check our oldest unfinished items and act on them.

  • Blockers Cleared

    Blockers are raised as soon as they appear and cleared quickly.

  • Worked On, Not Waiting

    Our work items spend more time being worked on than sitting and waiting.

Predictability

Whether the team knows how long work usually takes and finishes it at a steady rate.

  • Known Timeframes

    We know how long similar work usually takes and plan around it.

  • Steady Finishing Rate

    We finish items at a steady rate rather than in big bursts.

Learning From Flow

Whether the team uses its flow data to improve how it works.

  • Flow Data in Retros

    We look at our flow data in retrospectives and change how we work because of it.

When to use this health check

  • When the board looks busy but little seems to get finished.
  • When your tool's charts show a problem, such as items aging or work piling up, and the team needs to talk about why.
  • When a team starts using Kanban or changes its workflow, to check the basics are in place.

Tips & tricks

  • Bring the numbers. Most trackers can chart them, such as the control chart and cumulative flow diagram in Jira, the cycle time and lead time widgets in Azure DevOps, Linear Insights or GitLab Value Stream Analytics.
  • Where the team's ratings and the charts disagree, talk about why. That gap is often the most useful part of the discussion.
  • Start with your oldest unfinished items. Asking why each one is stuck usually leads straight to the blocker or the policy that needs to change.
  • Agree on what 'started' and 'finished' mean before you compare data over time, or the numbers won't mean the same thing from one month to the next.
  • Turn one or two of the lowest scores into actions in your next retrospective, and run the check again in a few weeks to see what changed.

Frequently asked questions

What are the four flow metrics?
The Kanban Guide lists four. Work in progress (WIP) is the number of items started but not yet finished. Throughput is the number of items finished in a given period, such as a week. Work item age is how long an unfinished item has been in progress so far, and cycle time is how long a finished item took from start to finish.
What is work item age?
The time since an item was started, for work that isn't finished yet. Unlike cycle time, you can see it while the work is still in progress, so it warns you early when something is stuck. The Kanban Guide asks teams to make sure items don't age unnecessarily, using their expected time to finish as a guide.
How do flow metrics relate to DORA?
DORA's change lead time, the time from a code commit to running in production, is a flow measure for one part of the process. Flow metrics cover the whole path from started to finished, including the work before any code is written. Use the DORA Metrics Self-Assessment for delivery and this check for how work moves through the team.
Do we need a tool to use this check?
No. The statements ask how the team experiences flow, so anyone can rate them without data. The discussion is better with numbers, though, so if your tracker shows cycle time, work in progress or aging items, bring those charts along.
How do we use flow data in a retrospective?
Look at the lowest-rated statements next to the matching chart, such as aging items or work in progress over time. Ask what's causing the pattern and agree on one change to try, such as a lower limit on work in progress. Check the same chart at the next retro to see whether it helped.
Who created the Kanban Guide?
John Coleman and Daniel Vacanti. The current version was published in May 2025 at kanbanguides.org under a Creative Commons license. The statements in this check are TeamRetro's own. TeamRetro isn't affiliated with the authors or with Kanban Guides.

Based on the flow metrics in The Kanban Guide (May 2025) by John Coleman and Daniel Vacanti.

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