Comment by pjot | Hacker News Reader

Comment by pjot | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

Eh, not necessarily. Queuing is a function of throughput, which by definition takes processing time into account.

  Queue length = arrival rate * processing time

Transitive properties allow you to solve for one variable, given you have the other two. This is known as Little’s Law[0].

With this, you can now deduce/estimate how long a ticket will be in the backlog, how fast you need to complete a task, how long until everything is finished.

[0]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little%27s_law

> This is known as Little’s Law

Little's law lets you calculate the third variable easily, given that you know the other two. You can calculate from existing data.

As such, it doesn't help you calculate forecasts. Or you can, if you make assumptions on the distributions. But some outliers can then turn the reality very different from what your forecast was.

> how fast you need to complete a task

You can calculate how fast you need to complete a task. But if an outlier task comes your way, it doesn't help you to actually complete that particular task in time.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com