---
title: "WIP Run Chart"
canonical: "https://support.55degrees.se/space/SP/4330225700/WIP%20Run%20Chart"
format: markdown
---
[Jira Cloud & Data Center] [Azure devops] [standalone]
**Work in Progress (WIP)** is the amount of work that has been started but not yet finished. A **run chart** is a line graph that shows the changes in a data series over time.
This chart shows your daily Work in Progress over time.
### The Chart
**Each data point** represents the amount of work-in-progress for a given day. The placement of the data point tells you two things:
1. The** date**. (horizontal axis)
2. The **number of items in progress** for the chosen date (vertical axis)
### How to Analyse the Data?
A WIP Run Chart shows how the number of items in progress changes over time. While changes in WIP can reveal important patterns, they do not automatically indicate whether your system is performing better or worse. Understanding ***why*** WIP is changing is often more important than the change itself.
#### Increasing WIP
However, a sustained increase in WIP can also indicate that work is entering the system faster than it is being completed. As unfinished work accumulates, teams may experience longer cycle times, increased context switching, and reduced predictability.
> ℹ️ **Things to investigate when WIP increases:**
> ℹ️
> ℹ️ - Is throughput increasing alongside WIP?
> ℹ️ - Has team capacity changed?
> ℹ️ - Are work items becoming blocked or waiting longer?
> ℹ️ - Is demand entering the system faster than work is leaving it?
#### Decreasing WIP
However, WIP can also decrease when less work is entering the system, team capacity has been reduced, or projects have been paused or cancelled. If throughput decreases at the same time, lower WIP may simply reflect reduced activity rather than improved flow.
> ℹ️ **Things to investigate when WIP decreases:**
> ℹ️
> ℹ️ - Is throughput being maintained or improving?
> ℹ️ - Has demand entering the system changed?
> ℹ️ - Has team capacity changed?
> ℹ️ - Are fewer items being started, or are more items being completed?
### Little's Law
To fully understand changes in WIP, it helps to understand **Little's Law**, which describes the relationship between WIP, Throughput, and Cycle Time:
This relationship indicates that WIP cannot be investigated by itself. Changes in WIP often affect, or are affected by, how quickly work is completed and how long it spends in the system.
For example, if WIP increases while throughput remains unchanged, cycle times will typically become longer. Conversely, reducing WIP can help shorten cycle times and improve predictability, provided throughput is maintained.
For this reason, WIP is most valuable when analyzed alongside throughput, cycle time, and work item age. Together, these metrics provide a more complete understanding of how work flows through your system.
> ℹ️ Want to learn more about Little’s Law? Daniel Vacanti wrote a series of articles about it: [https://www.55degrees.se/blog/post/littles-law-why-you-should-care](https://www.55degrees.se/blog/post/littles-law-why-you-should-care)
> ℹ️ **Flow Metrics Are Connected**
> ℹ️
> ℹ️ Improving one flow metric at the expense of others can create hidden problems.
> ℹ️
> ℹ️ For example, a team may reduce cycle time by focusing on smaller, faster-moving items while larger or more complex work remains in progress. Cycle time initially improves, but aging work continues to accumulate in the background.
> ℹ️
> ℹ️ When those older items are eventually completed, they often appear as long-cycle-time outliers, increasing variability and reducing predictability.
> ℹ️
> ℹ️ To get a complete picture of the health of your workflow, monitor cycle time alongside:
> ℹ️
> ℹ️ - **Work in Progress (WIP)** – Is too much work being started?
> ℹ️ - **Work Item Age** – Are items sitting in the system for a long time?
> ℹ️ - **Throughput** – Is work being completed at a sustainable rate?
> ℹ️
> ℹ️ If Cycle Time looks unusually good, check your WIP and Work Item Age charts. Sometimes the improvement comes from postponing difficult work rather than completing it.
### The Controls
The **WIP Run Chart** has a couple of controls that are unique to it, so we’ll be covering them first.
> ℹ️ Did you know that Jira users can save their carefully crafted data configuration as a **View**? [Here’s how!](https://support.55degrees.se/space/SP/3924886850/Views)
> Macro (refined-tabs)
>
> > Macro (refined-tab)
>
> These Insights offer stats on your WIP, how it’s trending and whether any signals are in need of your attention.
>
> 
>
> **WIP Summary**
>
> - **Median WIP** is your team's usual daily work in progress – a great start if you lack a WIP limit.
> - **% of Days Above Limit** shows how often WIP exceeded your ideal WIP (or median if no ideal is set). If WIP is high, it’s a great conversation to have in a retrospective.
> - **Typical WIP Range** shows where WIP falls 70% of the time. A wide range means intake is unpredictable.
> - **Average Last 30 Days** shows the mean daily WIP over the past 30 days.
>
> **WIP Stability & Trend**
>
> - **Current Status** indicates when WIP departs from its usual range and for how long. Several consecutive days outside the range signal a sustained shift rather than a single spike.
> - Longer streaks imply structural change (new intake, blocked items, capacity shifts).
> - Short streaks may self-correct while long ones require attention.
> - The** Percentage of Days Within a Typical Range** gives you the number behind the rating — useful for tracking improvement over time.
> - A **Stability Rating** shows you the overall stability at a glance - taking into account stability in the whole period.
> - The **Trend of Average WIP** is an early warning of system overload or improvement.
>
> > Macro (refined-tab)
>
> The Moving Average shows the average number of items in progress for the past X interval.
>
> To show the Moving Average line on the chart, click on “Moving Average” under the chart, and the green dotted line will appear.
>
> 
>
> To hide it, click it once more; it will then be struck through and greyed out.
>
> 
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> To change the interval for the Moving Average, navigate to Controls for this Chart and enter the desired value. The interval affects the time period used for calculating your WIP.
>
> 
>
> As shown in the example above, each green dot shows the average WIP over the past 14 days.
>
> *Missing dots at the beginning of your chart?* Based on the chosen interval, you might need more days to calculate the average.
>
> 
>
> > Macro (refined-tab)
>
> When you choose Date and/or WIP, the value on the relevant axis will be highlighted based on your cursor placement.
>
> > Macro (refined-tab)
>
> To show the **Data Control**, click the symbol in the top right-hand corner of the chart, and it will appear below the chart.
>
> With this control, you can further **narrow down the data included in the chart.** When doing so, the percentiles and summary statistics will be **re-calculated**.
>
> All you have to do is click and drag over the desired time period and/or cycle time range, or use the date selector in the top-right corner of the Data Control.
>
> 
>
> > ℹ️ **Want to zoom in on the chart? **
> > ℹ️
> > ℹ️ You can zoom in on the cycle time chart itself, without triggering a re-calculation of percentiles and summary statistics. If you use the Data Control to zoom in, it will re-calculate those automatically.
### Additional Chart Controls
> Macro (refined-tabs)
>
> > Macro (refined-tab)
>
> This All Charts Control allows you to choose static dates or rolling period of time, so you can see data from a specific date range. The Data Control will only show and use data from the time period chosen here.
>
> 
>
> - To get **Static Dates**, select directly on the Visible Period’s calendar or manually enter the dates you want in the designated boxes below. These dates will remain the same, hence the *static*.
> - For a **Rolling Period**, pick one of the pre-made options to the right of the Visible Period’s calendar. This period will update to the current day, hence the *rolling*.
>
> > Macro (refined-tab)
>
> 
>
> The **Ideal WIP** feature helps you visualise your team's current WIP levels against a target range that reflects your team's desired operating capacity.
>
> Teams can agree on the optimal balance of work in progress, enough items to keep people productive and work flowing, but not so many that attention becomes fragmented, queues grow, and work ages unnecessarily. Maintaining WIP within this range helps teams improve flow efficiency, reduce cycle times, and increase delivery predictability. The range is often called “WIP limits.” *Feel free to read more about WIP limits in this blog post: **[Does Every Column on the Board Need a WIP Limit?](https://www.prokanban.org/blog/does-every-column-on-the-board-need-a-wip-limit)*
>
> You can configure:
>
> - A **minimum WIP value** to indicate when the team may be underutilised. It will then be shown on the chart as a yellow line.
>
> 
>
> - A **maximum WIP value** to indicate when the team may be taking on too much work. It will then be shown on the chart as a yellow line.
>
> 
>
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> - Both values to define an **ideal WIP range**. This range is then highlighted in green over the chart which allows you to quickly identify items outside of your ideal range.
>
> 
>
> > Macro (refined-tab)
>
> In the Workflow Stage Control, you can define what stages are regarded as [NOT Started] , [in progress] and [finished] , respectively.
>
> All the stages marked in blue will count as [in progress], and the cycle time will be counted from the day a work item entered the first stage in blue, until the day it left the last stage in blue.
>
> All the stages marked in green will count as [Finished work], and those work items will therefore be displayed on your Cycle Time Scatterplot.
>
> To change what stages are included in your cycle time, simply check or uncheck the tick boxes. And remember - all the stages in blue are included in your cycle time. Here’s an example.
>
> | | |
> | --- | --- |
> | 
1. No changes were made.
Cycle time counts from when an item enters “In Progress”, until it enters the ‘Done’ stage. | 
2. ‘Done’ has been unchecked.
Cycle time counts from when an item enters “In progress”, until it enters “Pending Release”. |
>
> > Macro (refined-tab)
>
> The Item Filter gives you the option to narrow down the data you’re analysing by attribute - this includes any Custom Fields brought in during the data set creation process.
>
> 