If your Kanban board is the map, then a cumulative flow diagram (CFD) is the weather radar. It shows you where things are flowing smoothly, and where storms might be building.

A CFD is a visual chart that tracks how many items are in each stage of your workflow over time. When used properly, it helps teams spot trends, bottlenecks, and system health without needing a wall of sticky notes or daily guesswork.

Want to see how it works in under 3 minutes? This short explainer breaks it down quickly and clearly:

This isn’t a must-have for every team, but if you’re serious about improving flow and reducing delays, a CFD is a simple and effective tool worth exploring.

We’ll introduce some more Agile metrics in the next topic to help you measure what matters and track progress without overcomplicating things.