Cycle Time Chart

How long does something like this usually take us?

The chart shows one dot per finished work item: when it was resolved (horizontal axis, every day of the window, also days without finished work items) and how many calendar days it took from start to finish (vertical axis). Reference lines show percentiles or the mean of all dots. An optional trend line shows how cycle time changes from week to week or month to month.

Which work items count

Work items from the chosen project or saved filter that were resolved within the time window and had started before that. The window covers the last N days ("Days previously") up to now, in your time zone. A work item has started once it has entered a status in Jira's In Progress category. Work items resolved without ever being in progress have no cycle time and are not shown.

How cycle time is calculated

Cycle time runs from the first time a work item entered an In Progress status to its resolution date, in calendar days including weekends.

• The start is the first entry, not the latest. If a work item goes back to To Do and is picked up again, the time in between counts.
• A work item that was resolved, reopened and resolved again is measured to its last resolution, including the time in between.
• Whether a status counts as In Progress follows its current category in Jira. A status that no longer exists counts as not in progress.

Rework

Work items that went from an In Progress status back to a To Do status are shown as a separate series, "Rework". Their tooltip says how often, for example "⚠ 2x returned to To Do". Their time is not reduced: the whole span counts. Reopening a resolved work item is not counted as rework.

Reference lines

The 85th percentile line marks the cycle time that 85% of the dots stay at or below; the 50th percentile is the median. Values between two work items are interpolated. The mean is the arithmetic average; a few very long work items pull it up. Only the 85th percentile is shown by default. Each line carries its value, for example "85th: 12d 4h", rounded up to the next full hour. When lines are close together, they share one label above the highest of them, highest value first. In a very small widget with many reference lines, a label can sit across other lines; show fewer lines or give the widget more room. If a few work items took far longer than the rest, the vertical axis ends above the others and each of them is a triangle at the top edge, labelled with its cycle time. A reference line always stays on the axis, even when one long work item pulls it up.

Trend line

The trend line groups the work items by the week or month they were resolved in and plots one value per period, on the period's last day (today for the current period), by default the 85th percentile of that period's cycle times. Periods without finished work items get no point. Hover over a point to see the period and how many work items it is based on. A value based on a handful of work items can move a lot from one period to the next.

Settings

When the chart is empty

If no work item resolved in the window had started, the chart says: "No cycle times to show: no work item resolved in this window had entered an In Progress status." A longer window or a different source usually helps.

Opening work items

Click a dot to open its work item in Jira. Where several work items sit on exactly the same spot, the click opens all of them. The tooltip says what a click will open; for more than 300 work items it says "Too many to open" instead. Reference lines and the trend line are not clickable.