{"id":735,"date":"2021-12-05T21:53:55","date_gmt":"2021-12-05T21:53:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/be-agile.agile-world.org\/?p=735"},"modified":"2021-12-05T21:53:55","modified_gmt":"2021-12-05T21:53:55","slug":"theory-of-constraints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/publicagile.org\/theory-of-constraints\/","title":{"rendered":"Theory of Constraints"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In Lean Systems, it is important to identify the most important factor that slows down work in a system (a &#8220;bottleneck&#8221;), adjust it, and continue the same process with the next-most-impactful bottleneck. <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Eliyahu_M._Goldratt\">Eliyahu M. Goldratt<\/a> describes this concept, the Theory of Constraints, in the book <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Goal_(novel)\">The Goal<\/a>. The original context for this concept was in Lean Manufacturing. It is also possible to apply the Theory of Constraints to any system where there are multiple steps to deliver value, as is the case in software development.<\/p>\n<p>When applying the Theory of Constraints, the following five-step process is helpful:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"i8Z77e\">\n<li class=\"TrT0Xe\">Identify the constraint.<\/li>\n<li class=\"TrT0Xe\">Exploit the constraint.<\/li>\n<li class=\"TrT0Xe\">Subordinate everything else to the constraint.<\/li>\n<li class=\"TrT0Xe\">Elevate the constraint.<\/li>\n<li class=\"TrT0Xe\">Avoid inertia and repeat the process.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Related Media<\/h3>\n<h4>Theory of Constraints Video<\/h4>\n<h4>Theory of Constraints Podcasts<\/h4>\n<h4>Theory of Constraints Example<\/h4>\n<h3>Related Subjects<\/h3>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"mIc7YGj91A\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/be-agile.agile-world.org\/lean\/\">Lean<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;Lean&#8221; &#8212; Be Agile World\" src=\"https:\/\/be-agile.agile-world.org\/lean\/embed\/#?secret=mIc7YGj91A\" data-secret=\"mIc7YGj91A\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"e04hv0LsaD\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/be-agile.agile-world.org\/wip-limit\/\">WIP Limit<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;WIP Limit&#8221; &#8212; Be Agile World\" src=\"https:\/\/be-agile.agile-world.org\/wip-limit\/embed\/#?secret=e04hv0LsaD\" data-secret=\"e04hv0LsaD\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3>Acknowledgments<\/h3>\n<p>Authored by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/stevemoubray\/\">Steve Moubray<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Edited by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/gphiliprogers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Philip Rogers<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Photo by <a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/@dnevozhai?utm_source=unsplash&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_content=creditCopyText\">Denys Nevozhai<\/a> on <a href=\"https:\/\/unsplash.com\/s\/photos\/traffic-jam?utm_source=unsplash&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_content=creditCopyText\">Unsplash<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Agile World Resources are provided as free resources to anyone seeking to learn more and are shared under a creative commons attribution license. This means if you use a resource elsewhere you must name <a href=\"https:\/\/agile-world.org\">Agile World Resources<\/a> as the source, who the author is, and the photo creator (if used).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Lean Systems, it is important to identify the most important factor that slows down work in a system (a &#8220;bottleneck&#8221;), adjust it, and continue the same process with the next-most-impactful bottleneck. Eliyahu M. Goldratt describes this concept, the Theory of Constraints, in the book The Goal. The original context for this concept was in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":736,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[40,31],"tags":[393,394,395,396],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v16.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Theory of Constraints - Public Agile<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"definition of theory of constraints - In Lean Systems, identification of the most important factor that slows down work in a system (a &quot;bottleneck&quot;) along with adjustments to the process to remove that bottleneck\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/publicagile.org\/theory-of-constraints\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Theory of Constraints - 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