Figure 218 Oct 2026From “What is Little's law?”

A Little's law check for one pipeline stage

Fix the boundary and the window, count the deals and the deal-weeks, and compare the three averages with the figures the CRM reports.

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Figure 2A Little's law check for one pipeline stage

Source: Author's decision worksheet. The definitions of the three averages over a period that need not start or end empty follow Little (2011), pp. 537 to 539; the check against the records follows the reality check reported on p. 547. Applying them to a sales pipeline stage is this guide's reading and has not been tested. The fields are reader inputs; no company data is supplied.

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B LLAW-OWN-C3 A pipeline stage read with the finite-period law (author's example, invented numbers, untested): the system is one stage bounded by its entry event and every exit (advanced, moved back to an earlier stage, won, lost, disqualified), a deal moved back into the stage counts as a new arrival; over 13 weeks, 120 deals open on day one and 270 entries give 390 deals, 1,560 deal-weeks give L = 120, λ = 30 per week, W = 4 weeks (day-one count revised after G5 N7, exits after N8); two of the three give the third; without dates, averaged weekly counts approximate L, and divided by λ, which includes the deals open on day one, they give W, while dividing by the entries alone gives a different number (5.8 weeks on these numbers), not the finite-period W (G5 F2); computed from one set of dates the three agree by construction; a gap with the CRM's own figures points to the records or the definitions (rewritten entry dates, a CRM time in stage taken only from deals that left), and lost deals left open show as a slower stage, not as a gap (revised after G5 F1); at a constant λ of 30 deals a week, a rise from 120 to 150 open deals means W rose from 4 to 5 weeks; the law cannot say why, nor give win rates, values or forecasts; Figure 1's last row and the Figure 2 worksheet.Author worksheet grounded in LIT61-C4, LIT11-C6, LIT11-C7 and LIT11-C10; untested

Grades: A, verified against the printed page of the primary source · B, primary source, text layer only · C, authoritative secondary · D, reported.

From the essay

Revenue operations & AI

What is Little's law?

Little's law, L = λW, ties three averages: items in a system, the rate they arrive and the time each spends inside. It measures and does not explain.

18 Oct 2026

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APA 7

Isoglu, S. (2026). A Little's law check for one pipeline stage [Figure]. isoglu.com. https://isoglu.com/insights/exhibits/isoglu-2026-what-is-littles-law-fig02/

BibTeX

@misc{isoglu-2026-what-is-littles-law-fig02,
  author = {Isoglu, Sinan},
  title = {{A Little's law check for one pipeline stage}},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Figure 2, isoglu.com},
  url = {https://isoglu.com/insights/exhibits/isoglu-2026-what-is-littles-law-fig02/},
  note = {From the essay {What is Little's law?}}
}

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  <a href="https://isoglu.com/insights/exhibits/isoglu-2026-what-is-littles-law-fig02/">
    <img src="https://isoglu.com/social/isoglu-2026-what-is-littles-law-fig02.png" alt="Figure 2: A Little&#39;s law check for one pipeline stage" width="3200" height="2400">
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  <figcaption>Figure 2: A Little&#39;s law check for one pipeline stage. Source: Author&#39;s decision worksheet. The definitions of the three averages over a period that need not start or end empty follow Little (2011), pp. 537 to 539; the check against the records follows the reality check reported on p. 547. Applying them to a sales pipeline stage is this guide&#39;s reading and has not been tested. The fields are reader inputs; no company data is supplied. <a href="https://isoglu.com/insights/exhibits/isoglu-2026-what-is-littles-law-fig02/">View exhibit</a>.</figcaption>
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