Business on Marat Kiniabulatov | Agile Coach, OKR, PMO

Boosting Efficiency with WIP Aging Insights and Tools

Wed, 29 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

When examining real workflow data, there’s a common pattern: clusters of tasks that have aged significantly, some clearly stagnating beyond ~~recognition~~ acceptable timeframes. These cases point to one of the most important yet very often overlooked metrics in flow management: WIP Aging.

WIP (Work In Progress) Aging measures the elapsed time that a work item has spent in active progress but remains incomplete. This metric serves as an early warning system for workflow problems, helping teams identify where work gets stuck before it significantly impacts delivery timelines. Unlike cycle time, which analyzes completed tasks retrospectively, WIP Aging provides real-time visibility into current work, making it the single most actionable metric for proactive flow management.

Monte Carlo Simulation: Forecasting Throughput and Project Timelines

Tue, 16 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

TL;DR: Forecasting team Throughput is super-easy and much more reliable than traditional methods, if you limit your work in Progress. Reliability confirmed by research data.

We’ve already extensively covered Throughput (one of the flow metrics), how to analyze Throughput data from 3 key angles. And why it’s better for forecasting than storypoints.

Now let’s get to essentials and practical questions that our management looooves to ask: “When will you guys finish this project of X items”?

3 key data slices to understand your team's Predictability through Throughput (pun intended).

Wed, 10 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Today we’ll talk about Throughput metric. Why is it so important, how to read it’s patterns and what to be cautious about.

Premise

Imagine walking into a bar on a Friday evening, exhausted, and ordering a beer flight. The bartender thinks:

“Over the past hour we completed 12 orders; there are 4 in progress; this will be the fifth. Your flight will arrive in 20–25 minutes.”

There are no subjective complexity estimates - only historical data to forecast wait time. Wouldn’t it be great if an IT team could plan as simply, honestly, and predictably? ~~Ha-ha, you wish~~

5 Reasons Why Your Story Points Aren't Working (And What to Do About It)

Thu, 26 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Over seven years of running Story Points workshops, I’ve seen the same pattern: teams learn the technique, apply it for a few sprints, then gradually drift back to old habits. At my current scale — 47 teams, around 400 people in IT — 60% use Story Points, 40% don’t. What’s interesting: those 60% who do use them do it completely differently.

Even 3 months after the training, only 20-30% use Story Points correctly (as intended). The problem isn’t the tool itself, but how we use it and what we expect from it.

Product Operations: simple steps to build transparent Feature Pipeline to dramatically lower Lead Time

Tue, 07 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

(Experience from an AI-Based Fintech KYC SaaS Startup Focused on LATAM and Africa)

Your regular challenge: When Sales, Marketing and IT Speak Different Languages

Our SaaS startup served emerging fast-paced fintech markets (it still is). Speed + compliance were existential. Since most startups live on venture capital with limited runway, every delay in shipping value to the market means lost clients and regulatory risk. It also a huge roadblock on your path to become self-sustainable. So you need to be super frugal and efficient.