Cumulative Flow Diagram

At Flomatika, we had been using a basic cumulative flow diagram to observe our delivery flow. But as our team grew and processes scaled, we had a hard time extracting insights comprehensively. It was also especially challenging to spot a problematic workflow stage that’s lost among multiple workflows. It was then that we realized that it’s time we give it some Flomatika spin.

Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFD) is a data tool that visually presents the “flow” of tasks from one state to another. It also shows the pace of your tasks’ delivery and helps analyse process stability. The vertical axis or the Y-axis represents the number of work items, whereas the time is plotted on the horizontal axis or the X-axis. The colourful bands represent different workflow stages and their size indicates the number of items moving through various states before being completed. Ideally, the bands should be rising together and in parallel to each other.