CA-01

Dominant Stage Bottleneck

CFD Advanced

Default severity: medium
PrioritizationProcessMetricsOutputRisk

What it detects

Any configured active status is the single thickest band and its share of total WIP exceeds the configured dominance threshold.

Detection formula

active_statuses = config.workflow.active_statuses // array of active status names FOR each_status S IN active_statuses: status_share = band_height(S) / total_wip_height IF MAX(status_share for all S) > config.ca.dominance_threshold // default: 40% THEN CRITICAL

Examples in practice

  • A team shows any configured active status is the single thickest band and its share of total wip exceeds the configured dominance threshold while active statuses is set to Configured per workspace.
  • Example signal: Any configured active status is the single thickest band and its share of total WIP exceeds the configured dominance threshold.

Suggested response

Use planning-event context when interpreting advanced CFD bottlenecks, spikes, and ageing WIP.

Coaching playbook

Symptom

Any configured active status is the single thickest band and its share of total WIP exceeds the configured dominance threshold.

Why it matters

When "Dominant Stage Bottleneck" keeps appearing, the team is signalling a repeatable process gap. Left unexamined, the pattern hides where work really stalls and makes improvement metrics harder to trust.

What you can achieve

Use planning-event context when interpreting advanced CFD bottlenecks, spikes, and ageing WIP.

Facilitation questions

  • What system change would stop "Dominant Stage Bottleneck" from firing again?
  • What do the cited issues have in common — same root cause or same workaround?
  • Who owns the two-week experiment and how will we verify on the next import?

Run this rule against your own tracker data with Flow Analyzer.

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CA-01: Dominant Stage Bottleneck — FlowAnalyzer