BACKLOG OPACITY
The number is known. What is in it is not.
01 DEFINITION
Condition in which what is waiting is reported as a quantity while its composition is not, so a queue that is growing and one that is changing character look the same.
02 CONDITIONS
UNCERTAINTY
MISSING
What the queue is made of is not part of what is reported about it.
TIME PRESSURE
MODERATE
The queue grows while the reporting about it stays the same shape.
ERROR ASYMMETRY
DEFERRED
Acting on the count costs nothing until the composition was what mattered.
OPERATOR STATE
SUPERVISORY
The person deciding reads a number produced for them.
03 WHERE IT APPEARS
MEDICALA waiting list is reported as a length and not as what is waiting in it.
PUBLIC SERVICECase volumes are published and the composition of those volumes is not.
MANUFACTURINGWork in progress is counted and what is in it is known only by walking the floor.
LOGISTICSA hold count is reported and the reasons for the holds are not aggregated.
FINANCEAn exception queue is measured by size and its makeup is not a reported quantity.
AI EXP.A review queue is shown as a number to people whose decision depends on what is in it.
04 WHERE THIS IS SURFACING
This surfaces wherever volume is easier to measure than content. The count is a fact anyone can produce, and what the count contains is the thing that would change what to do.
What stays unresolved is how much of a queue may be characterised before characterising it becomes the work — describing it takes effort from clearing it, and counting it says nothing about what is in it.