If the distance between the arrival and departure curves on a team’s cumulative flow diagram is growing apart, what is likely happening?

A. The backlog is being reprioritized

B. Unplanned work is pushed into the backlog

C. WIP is decreasing

D. Lead time is increasing

The Correct Answer is

D. lead time is increasing

If the distance between the arrival and departure curves on a team’s cumulative flow diagram is growing apart, it is likely that lead time is increasing.

Why this is correct

• Increasing Lead Time: The cumulative flow diagram (CFD) visualizes the amount of work in different stages of the workflow over time. The arrival curve represents work items entering the process, and the departure curve represents items being completed. If these curves are growing apart, it means that work items are entering the process faster than they are being completed, resulting in increased lead time—the total time it takes for work to move through the entire process.

Why the others are not as correct

• The backlog is being reprioritized: While reprioritizing the backlog can affect what work gets done, it does not directly cause the distance between the arrival and departure curves on the cumulative flow diagram to grow apart. Reprioritization might change the order in which items are worked on but not necessarily the lead time directly.


• Unplanned work is pushed into the backlog: Introducing unplanned work to the backlog can indeed increase the workload and potentially impact the flow of work. However, the specific symptom of the arrival and departure curves growing apart is more directly related to the overall lead time of items in the process, rather than the mere presence of unplanned work.


• WIP is decreasing: If Work In Progress (WIP) is decreasing, it would typically mean that the team is completing work, which should bring the arrival and departure curves closer together, not further apart. A growing gap implies that work is accumulating faster than it’s being completed, which contradicts the notion of decreasing WIP.

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