An item can spend days ‘in progress’ while nobody is actively working on it.
Someone has started it. Everyone involved is busy. Yet the item is waiting for an answer, a review or its turn in somebody else’s queue.
If we want to understand why delivery takes so long, we need to notice the gaps between the work.
Busy people, waiting work
Imagine a small website change.
Writing it is straightforward. Reviewing it takes little effort. Publishing it is quick.
But between those steps, it waits:
- for someone to clarify a requirement
- for a reviewer to become available
- for approval from another department
- for the next release window
Each person might complete their part promptly once they pick it up.
But delay sits between their contributions.
Speeding up the writing would leave those queues untouched.
‘In progress’ hides different realities
A board column labelled ‘In progress’ can contain two very different things:
- work receiving attention
- work waiting for attention
That distinction matters.
Kanban’s cycle time measures the elapsed time from an item starting to finishing. The clock keeps running during the gaps, even when active work stops.
From the perspective of someone waiting for the result, those gaps are part of the delivery time.
Look at the work, not just the workload
When something takes too long, it is tempting to ask whether people could work faster.
Another useful question is: where is the item spending time without moving forward?
That shifts our attention towards queues, dependencies and decisions.
Some waiting has a purpose. A necessary review deserves time and care. But waiting for a review to begin is different from the review itself.
Before asking a team to squeeze more into its day, make the waiting visible.
The next opportunity to improve delivery may be in the space between two tasks.
