{
  "schema": "vedokrok.public-item.v1",
  "release_id": "MHC-RPUB-20260920-75ad787a",
  "url": "/knowledge/treat-growing-wip-as-a-delay-signal",
  "id": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-9130",
  "version": "0.1.0",
  "title": "Treat growing WIP as a delay signal",
  "summary": "Accumulating work usually means elapsed time will not stay neutral.",
  "kind": "heuristic",
  "body": "If throughput is stable while WIP rises, expect average time in system to rise over a stable long-run boundary. Investigate why starts exceed completions.",
  "limits": [
    "Queueing equations have specific assumptions. Use them for directional reasoning and measurement design, not as exact forecasts for arbitrary multi-stage knowledge work."
  ],
  "topics": [
    "union-systems-strategy-and-leverage-thinking"
  ],
  "intents": [],
  "source_ids": [
    "RS-0CA3EC746BA90946"
  ],
  "evidence": [
    {
      "claim": "Little's Law relates long-run average work in a stable system to arrival/throughput rate and average time in system as L = λW under stated mathematical conditions.",
      "source_id": "RS-0CA3EC746BA90946",
      "role": "supports",
      "note": "The relation does not identify root cause, queue discipline or the correct intervention; workplace applications must respect the assumptions.",
      "locator": "Abstract"
    }
  ],
  "use_when": [
    "When more work is being started than finished and people respond by opening even more tasks."
  ],
  "avoid_when": [
    "Queueing equations have specific assumptions. Use them for directional reasoning and measurement design, not as exact forecasts for arbitrary multi-stage knowledge work."
  ],
  "example": "Five projects start each week while three finish; active work climbs and stakeholders experience longer waits despite high activity.",
  "check": "The team reacts to sustained WIP growth as a flow problem rather than celebrating utilization.",
  "sources": [
    {
      "id": "RS-0CA3EC746BA90946",
      "title": "A Proof for the Queuing Formula: L = λW",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1287/opre.9.3.383"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "from": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-9130",
      "to": "MHC-D-RESEARCH-9131",
      "type": "useful_with",
      "url": "/knowledge/limit-parallel-starts-when-completion-is-the-goal"
    }
  ],
  "collections": [
    {
      "id": "RC-28D91C30CEA1CB4A",
      "title": "Systems and strategic leverage: feedback, flow, modularity, robust options, and information value",
      "url": "/collections/systems-and-strategic-leverage-feedback-flow-modularity-robust-options-and-information-value"
    }
  ]
}