These slides illustrate Little's law. Download for animation.

1. Illustration of Little’s law
Little’s law states that
Work _ in _ process
TotalLeadTime =
Average _ completion _ rate

2. Let’s study development of three softwares A, B & C
Conception phase Development phase Validation phase
Team #1 Team #2 Team #3
A
These are the 3
softwares to B
develop
C
Work capacity for the threee projects is limited by available resources.
Each phase is done by a different team.
And one team’s resources only allow working on one project at a time.

3. Let’s study development of three softwares A, B & C
Conception phase Development phase Validation phase
Team #1 Team #2 Team #3
All three softwares
are being
developed without
A
defined priority. Software A made available at tA
Work is being done
on the software B
whose client shouts Software B made available at tB
the loudest at any
given moment in
time. Sounds C
familiar? Software C made available at tC
t
tA tB tC
A’
Work capacity for the threee projects is limited by available resources.
The three softwares Software A’ made available at tA'
are Each phase is done by a different team.
developed using
a defined priority: B’
firstAnd one team’s resources only allow working on one
A’, then B’, then Software B’ made available at tB’ project at a time.
C’.
C’
Software C’ made available at tC’
t
tA’ tB’ tC’ tA tB tC

4. Comments, anyone?
Illustration of Little's law by Nicolas STAMPF, Stéphane LESAGE is licensed
under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Please visit www.appreciatingsystems.com.