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Criterion
Value Stream Mapping workspace showing the question, observations, and next decision.
Delivery
Value Stream Mapping
Paper illustration of a four-column Kanban board with limited ongoing work, a visible blocker and a review loop.
Engineering
Kanban
Paper illustration for Dot Estimation.
Facilitation
Dot Estimation
Paper illustration for Ideal Days.
Agile
Ideal Days
Purposedifferent
When delivery work dissolves into wait times, handoffs, and hidden effort, Value Stream Mapping makes the actual flow visible. The method exposes bottlenecks, idle time, and feedback loops so lead time and improvement levers become tangible.When work sits in too many parallel streams, throughput suffers and no one sees the bottlenecks. Kanban makes the flow of work visible and limits overload so a system becomes calmer and more predictable.When size or effort can only be estimated roughly, Dot Estimation condenses the group's experience into a quick range. It turns individual contributions into a visible selection. The result is captured as an Effort Heatmap, Risk Signals, and Discussion Targets.When effort needs to be thought of as real working time, it offers a simple common denominator for comparison. It sorts work by value, risk, and delivery ability. The result is captured as Ideal Day Estimates, Assumption Notes, and Capacity Caveats.
Complexitydifferent
MediumMediumLowLow
Timedifferent
1-3 hOngoing5-20 min15-60 min
Participantsdifferent
4-102-123-202-9
Formatdifferent
WorkshopWorkshop + asyncWorkshopWorkshop + async
Outputdifferent
Current-state map, Future-state map, Bottleneck listKanban board, WIP policies, Flow metricsEffort Heatmap, Risk Signals, Discussion TargetsIdeal Day Estimates, Assumption Notes, Capacity Caveats
Tagsno overlap
LeanFlowWasteDelivery
FlowVisual managementDelivery
EstimationEffortRisk
EstimationEffortAgile
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