In this section we’ll walk through how to use LinearB to identify and verify a process bottleneck. This part is all about using data available in the app to create, test, and confirm hypotheses about where your team can improve.
Click the links below to jump to different sections.
LinearB was designed to help you:
In this section, we’re going to explore how to use the various parts of LinearB to locate and remediate a Cycle Time bottleneck. This is one of the most common use cases for LinearB and solving this problem is a great first step in building a healthier engineering practice.
We gave you a taste of the Home Dashboard in the Quick Tour chapter. If you skipped over that to dig right into the action, you may want to review it quickly. We respect the moxie, but there’s a lot to get through and we don’t want you to miss anything. Also we promise it will be quick—there are lots of pictures!
When working to identify and address a bottleneck—the Home Dashboard is the most logical jumping off point because it combines the most useful information in a single pane of glass.
Let’s identify a prospective bottleneck in your current iteration.
You know that engineering efficiency is a problem area because your team is rarely (if ever) delivering on your sprint commitments—it happens a lot, so no worries. Or maybe, your leadership has flagged your team as having a big bottleneck—maybe Review Time. Start by logging into LinearB to investigate the problem.
A good first step is for you to look at the Cycle Time metric on the home dashboard. By default (until teams are set up), the Cycle Time metric will be at the organizational level. Just select your team to begin your investigation.
https://app.tango.us/app/workflow/Identifying-a-Prospective-Bottleneck---Home-Dashboard-20d317240af24d2190a2d67827f63653
Next up is diving into Activity to see where patterns and leading indicators of process bottlenecks are arising. Use “One-Click Context” to look at the current iteration and see what’s happening with the team’s PRs and branches. Just click on the Review time bar and “One-Click Context” will take you to the automatically filtered ACTIVITY tab.