Minimizing cycle time
Cycle time is a key metric for kanban teams. Cycle time is the amount of time it takes for a unit of work to travel through the team’s workflow–from the moment work starts to the moment it ships. By optimizing cycle time, the team confidently forecast the delivery of future work.
Overlapping skill sets lead to smaller cycle times. When only one person holds a skill set, that person becomes a bottleneck in the workflow. So teams employ basic best practices like code review and mentoring help to spread knowledge. Shared skills mean that team members can take on heterogeneous work, which further optimizes cycle time. It also means that if there is a backup of work, the entire team can swarm on it to get the process flowing smoothly again. For instance, testing isn't only done by QA engineers. Developers pitch in too!
In a kanban framework, it's the entire team's responsibility to ensure work is moving smoothly through the process.