In one project, we noticed that our sprint deliverables were consistently lagging. I started digging into our flow metrics, particularly focusing on cycle times and work in progress (WIP) limits.

Using a Kanban board integrated with our Jira system, I tracked how long tasks were sitting in each stage. It became clear that the 'Testing' phase was a major bottleneck. Tasks were piling up there because we had only a few testers compared to developers.

To tackle this, I initiated a couple of changes: First, we introduced paired testing sessions where developers and testers worked together to clear the backlog. Second, we adjusted our WIP limits to ensure that new development work didn't start unless the Testing stage had capacity.

These adjustments helped us smooth out the workflow significantly. Cycle times improved because work moved through Testing much faster, and overall team throughput increased. This not only helped in meeting our sprint goals but also boosted the team's morale as they saw their efforts yielding better results each sprint.