How much of the time is actually work?

Trace a piece of work through its steps; each step has hands-on work time and waiting — in a queue, blocked, or in review. Flow efficiencyFlow efficiency is the fraction of lead time spent doing actual work: active time ÷ (active time + wait time). Most software teams are surprised to find it in the 10–30% range. is the share that's real work — and it's almost always far lower than people guess.

End to end
27.3%Flow efficiency
22 daysLead time
6 worked / 16 waitingActive vs waiting (days)
Work 27.3%Waiting 72.7%
Moderate waitWork is only being worked 27.3% of the time it's in the system — the rest it sits in a queue. To reach 50% efficiency, reduce total waiting by 10 days.
Value stream
StepWorkWait
27.3% of lead time16.7% work · 83.3% waitingbiggest queue
22.7% of lead time60% work · 40% waiting
20.5% of lead time11.1% work · 88.9% waiting
18.2% of lead time25% work · 75% waiting
11.4% of lead time20% work · 80% waiting

The work slice is thin. "Code faster" barely moves the number — halving the active time only shifts efficiency from 27.3% to 15.8%. But cutting the waiting time in half moves it to 42.9%. That's why smaller batches, WIP limits and fewer hand-offs are the real lever — the same insight behind Little's Law and the queue cliff: when utilisation is high, queues grow far faster than the load that feeds them.

flow efficiency · active ÷ lead time