Policy : Limit Work in Progress (WIP)

Commitment to Focus, Flow, and Faster Delivery
Starting more work does not mean delivering more value. Context switching, multitasking, and excessive work in progress slow teams down, reduce quality, and delay customer outcomes. To maximise flow efficiency, we prioritise completing work over starting new work, ensuring that teams focus on delivering value, not just being busy.
By limiting work in progress (WIP), we create a high-performance delivery culture where teams can work smarter, reduce bottlenecks, and accelerate value delivery.

What This Means
Engineering teams must adopt flow-based delivery, ensuring that work moves swiftly and predictably from start to finish. WIP limits help teams avoid overloading themselves, reduce dependencies, and deliver incremental value faster.

Our commitment to Limiting Work in Progress (WIP) is built on:

  • Focus on Flow Efficiency – We optimise team workflows to minimise idle work and ensure steady, predictable delivery.
  • Reduce Multitasking & Context Switching – We encourage teams to focus on completing tasks before taking on new ones, improving efficiency and quality.
  • Smaller Batch Sizes & Incremental Delivery – We break work into small, manageable chunks that can be shipped quickly and safely.
  • Fast Feedback & Learning Loops – By delivering frequently, we gain early insights, reduce risk, and adapt quickly.
  • Data-Driven Prioritisation – We ensure that teams focus on the most valuable work, aligning effort with business and customer impact.

Why This Matters
Too much work in progress leads to delays, inefficiencies, and unfinished work piling up. By limiting WIP, we:

  • Deliver value faster by focusing on finishing work, not just starting it.
  • Reduce cycle times and increase predictability in delivery.
  • Improve quality by enabling deeper focus and reducing rushed work.
  • Create a healthier, more sustainable work environment for engineers.

Our Expectation
All teams must actively monitor and limit work in progress, ensuring that focus remains on completing work efficiently rather than spreading effort too thin. Leaders must reinforce the importance of flow efficiency, empowering teams to say no to excessive parallel work and prioritise finishing over starting.
To support this policy, work-in-progress limits, flow metrics, and lean delivery practices will be embedded into our engineering processes, ensuring that teams can maintain a steady, high-quality, and sustainable pace of delivery. By embracing WIP limits and flow-based delivery, we create a faster, more efficient, and high-impact engineering organisation - delivering Better Value Sooner Safer Happier.

This policy reinforces lean delivery, focus, and efficiency, ensuring that teams prioritise completing work over simply taking on more.