4dayscale

4dayscale is a time-scale concept used in project planning and resource management to model activities over four-day cycles. It treats each four-day block as the primary unit of analysis, allowing teams and organizations to compare workload, capacity, and throughput across successive cycles. The concept is designed to complement existing metrics by providing a compact, repeatable horizon for short-term planning.

Origin and purpose: The idea emerged to address environments where work patterns do not align neatly with a traditional seven-day week or longer sprint cycles. It has been discussed in operations research and agile management as an alternative framework for teams that routinely operate in four-day bursts, enabling clearer visibility into capacity utilization and demand during each cycle.

Structure and metrics: A 4dayscale cycle comprises four consecutive days. Within each cycle, a scale—commonly 0 to 100—captures intensity, utilization, or completion progress. Aggregation across multiple cycles supports trend analysis and capacity planning. Some approaches pair 4dayscale with standard performance indicators such as throughput, lead time, and cycle time, adapting them to the four-day horizon.

Applications: The framework can be applied to software development, manufacturing, logistics, and data processing. It supports capacity forecasting, staffing decisions, automation triggers, and policy rules tailored to a four-day cadence. It is particularly suited to organizations that organize workflows around four-day work periods or that seek more frequent planning horizons than monthly forecasts.

Reception and limitations: Proponents cite simpler horizon alignment and improved responsiveness, while critics caution about coordination with other calendars and the need for tooling to maintain consistency across teams. See also time boxing, sprint, four-day workweek, capacity planning.