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A/B Testing

Queue Management

Controlling work in progress and optimizing flow

Queue Management is the practice of controlling work in progress and optimizing flow through development processes to maximize throughput and minimize delays. This concept from operations management and Lean thinking recognizes that too much concurrent work creates bottlenecks, context switching, and delays. The core principle is limiting work in progress to capacity, ensuring smooth flow rather than maximum utilization. Queues form when work arrives faster than it can be processed, when there are bottlenecks in the system, or when variability in work or capacity creates delays. Long queues cause increased cycle time, higher costs from context switching, reduced quality from divided attention, delayed feedback, and decreased predictability. Queue management strategies include limiting WIP through explicit caps on concurrent work items, visualizing queues making wait times visible, addressing bottlenecks by adding capacity or reducing demand, balancing flow ensuring even distribution, and implementing pull systems where new work starts only when capacity exists. Kanban is a queue management system using boards with WIP limits, pull-based flow, and continuous delivery. The approach emphasizes finishing work over starting work, making queues and blockers visible, and optimizing whole system not individual parts. Benefits include faster delivery through reduced cycle time, improved quality from better focus, increased predictability, better visibility of problems, and higher throughput at same capacity. Challenges include discipline to maintain WIP limits, cultural shift from utilization to flow focus, and managing stakeholder expectations about starting work. Best practices include measuring and visualizing cycle time, setting appropriate WIP limits through experimentation, addressing blockers quickly, batching similar work types, and continuously improving flow. Product managers support queue management by respecting WIP limits, prioritizing ruthlessly, removing blockers, and focusing on delivering finished work over starting new items. Effective queue management dramatically improves team performance and delivery predictability.

Understand Queue Management in product operations. Learn how limiting WIP and optimizing flow improves delivery speed and quality.