In this article:
1. Introduction to the Process Efficiency Metric
2. How to Measure Efficiency?
2.1. Board Cycle Time Configuration
2.2. Activity vs Queue Columns
3. How to Mark a Column as "Activity" or "Queue"?
4. What Is the Process Efficiency Formula?
5. How to Add the Process Efficiency Widget?
6. How to Improve Your Efficiency?
Efficiency Improvement Tips
Recommended reading
In essence, process efficiency means making things work better and faster. It is about improving how teams work together and get more done with less wasted effort. Let's explore this metric in more detail below.
1. Introduction to the Process Efficiency Metric
The Process Efficiency metric allows you to keep an eye on how efficient your process is. Measuring efficiency in your Kanban process helps teams analyze performance, identify bottlenecks, remove waste, and improve their flows.
In Businessmap, you can easily measure efficiency with the predefined Process Еfficiency Widget (check pt. 5). The widget calculates the ratio between the actual value-adding time, during which a team member actively works towards completing a task, and the entire lead time required to complete the task.
In other words, the widget separates the value-adding time from the non-value-adding time (wait time + blocked time) to produce the efficiency metric (%). Moreover, the widget indicates whether you have made efficiency improvement or efficiency regression compared to the previous selected time period.
2. How to Measure Efficiency?
Getting accurate efficiency metrics requires an initial system configuration and a good understanding of the Kanban concept. If you want to track efficiency as well as other time-related metrics, there are two major things that you need to take into consideration during the Kanban board setup process:
- The Board Cycle time configuration
- Mark columns in your workflow as “activity” and “queue”
2.1. Board Cycle Time Configuration
The cycle time is configured per board. The system tracks the time that cards spend in each column, then it adds those values together to form the cycle time of the card. You can select which columns in your workflow to include in the cycle time calculation.
The cycle time metric has a major impact on the process efficiency calculation. You can learn more about the cycle time configuration here.
2.2. Activity vs Queue Columns
When you create your workflow, make sure that each column is marked as an "activity" or a "queue" column. What is the difference?
The example below illustrates a simplified product development process:
All columns where tasks are actively being worked on towards the completion of a given goal generate value-adding time and should be marked as "activity" columns. In the example above, such columns are “Development” and “Verification.”
When cards are in the “Development” column, team members are working on implementing the code. Cards in the “Verification” column indicate that a senior team member is reviewing the code.
For the remaining time, cards stay “waiting” in the columns marked as "queue," thus generating non-value-added time. Such columns are “Ready to start” and “Ready for verification.”
Businessmap automatically records the time each card has spent along the process: from the initial phase until delivery (lead time) and separates value-adding time and non-value-added time.
3. How to Mark a Column as "Activity" or "Queue"?
To mark a column as an Activity of Queue, open the edit workflow designer of the respective board. Click on the gear icon that belongs to each column and under the Column type menu checkmark if the column is “activity” or “queue.” Click on Save to complete the configuration.
4. What Is the Process Efficiency Formula?
This is the process efficiency formula:
Process Efficiency[%] = (Value-added Time / Cycle Time) * 100
where:
- Value added time = Cycle Time - Non-value added time
- Non-value added time = Wait time + Block Time
and:
- Cycle time accumulation depends on your workflow's configuration and is accumulated only in columns that belong to that configuration.
- Value-adding is the time the card spends in activity columns such as "Development" and "Verification" = 5 days.
- Non-value adding is the time spent in queue columns like "waiting for review" or blocked = 5 days.
Let's illustrate this with an example from the image above.
When developing a new feature, a programmer needs 10 days to move a card through the process from “Requested” to “Done.” During this, the card spends 5 of the 10 days in columns where the activity takes place (Development, Verification) and 5 of those 10 days in queues (4 days: Bus. Requirements, Ready to Start, Ready for Verification) and block status (1 day).
When you calculate the ratio between value-adding and lead time in the scenario described above [(5/10)x100], your resulting percentage will represent the efficiency of the process of completing the given task — in this case, 50%.
TIP: If you manage to decrease the time each card spends in the "Queue" columns, your team will improve the efficiency results.
5. How to Add the Process Efficiency Widget?
The Process Efficiency Widget is a predefined widget that is available in the dedicated Widgets panel in Businessmap. To add the widget, open a custom Dashboard of your choice, and click on Add Widget. You will find the Process Efficiency widget under the Miscellaneous widgets section. You can learn more about the Process Efficiency Widget setup here.
6. How to Improve Your Efficiency?
The Kanban method aims to support the development of a smooth workflow that delivers value to the customers. Therefore, processes should be constantly optimized and polished.
One of the main telltales for a problematic area in the process is the presence of buffers i.e. "Queue" columns with a large number of cards. This means that the column gets more work items than the team can process.
Many reasons stand behind such a bottleneck: lack of human capacity, a bad work estimation, or a business environment that allows “work context switching,” etc.
Work items can get stuck for a variety of reasons, which always leads to longer delivery times and lower efficiency.
Efficiency Improvement Tips:
1. To minimize your delivery time, start searching for the reasons that cause “Queues” in your process, and analyze cards that accumulate more "waiting" or "blocked" time. This proves how important it is to create "queue" columns before each "activity" stage in your flow. If the tasks in the "queue" column grow significantly compared to the cards in the "activity" column, then you have found your bottleneck.
TIP: Use the analytics modules in Businessmap to monitor your workflow and analyze the cycle time of your cards.
2. Start using Work in Progress Limits (WIPs) to keep a steady rhythm of your flow.
WIP means the allowed number of items that a stage can hold or a team member can work on at the same time. This lean principle embedded in the software prevents the accumulation of too many cards in a given stage and helps team members minimize context switching and completing tasks faster.
For example, if your WIP limit is set to "3" and the given column already holds three cards, the system will not allow adding a new card or would only allow it with reason (i.e. exceeding the limit).
Recommended reading
To learn more about the efficiency concept, we recommend visiting our blog and checking out these articles that dive deep into the flow efficiency topic: