All the work started but not yet finished.
— Making Work Visible, Second Edition, Dominica Degrandis
Work-in-Progress (WIP)
3 of our books define this term — and their definitions are worth reading side by side.
The quantity of work items currently under process within the value stream, from the inception of effort to completion. This is often tracked per stage to highlight accumulation and reveal a constraint.
— Flow Engineering, Steve Pereira and Andrew Davis (as “Work in Progress (WIP, Flow Load, or Work in Process)”)
WIP can be thought of as the functionality, architecture, or inventory work that is in progress but not yet completed.
— Industrial DevOps, in “Chapter 6: Implement Data-Driven Decisions”, Dr. Suzette Johnson and Robin Yeman
See also Too Much Work-in-Progress (WIP) · value stream · Flow Load · WIP Limit · A3 · Capacity Utilization
Filed under Flow & Lean