High Velocity, Low Progress? Find Hidden Bottlenecks with Cycle Time Trends

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Progress feels slow, even when the velocity is high. That's a common Jira problem. Velocity reports don't show hidden bottlenecks. To see the real issues, you need to ''analyze'' your Cycle Time and Lead Time trends.

This guide shows how to create trend analysis reports with Timepiece - Time in Status for Jira.

Why Trend Analysis is a Must?

A trend report is essential for any Jira team looking to optimize:

Find bottlenecks: See exactly which workflow steps are slowing things down.

Spot anomalies: Instantly see a sudden spike in wait times and find out why.

Understand delays: See why specific tasks are taking longer than expected.

Track workflow performance: Measure how your team's efficiency is changing over time.

What Are Cycle Time and Lead Time?

You need to know what you're measuring. These two are not the same thing.

Lead Time: This is the customer's view. It’s the total time from when an issue is created to when it is resolved. It includes all waiting, even time in the backlog.

Cycle Time: This is the team's view. It’s the time from when the team starts working (e.g., 'In Progress') to when the work is finished (e.g., 'Done').

How to Get Your Data?

Timepiece offers 2 primary reports to get this data. The one you use depends on your needs.

Method 1: Status Duration Report: Use this when your "Cycle Time" is a specific group of statuses (like 'Analysis' + 'In Progress' + 'Test') and you want to add them up.

You do this using Consolidated Columns, which lets you group multiple statuses into one column. 

• Open the Status Duration report.
• Click the Statuses button.
• Click Add Consolidated Column.
• Name it "Cycle Time" and select your "active" statuses into it.
  
  

You can make another one for "Lead Time" by selecting all your statuses.

Method 2: Duration Between Statuses Report: Use this when you only care about the time between a start and an endpoint. You don't care what happens in between. This is great for an SLA-like metric.

• Open the Duration Between Statuses report.
• Click the Metrics button.
• Create new metrics and name them ''Cycle Time'' and ‘'Lead Time’'

For Cycle Time, set the From Status to your starting point (e.g., In Progress) and To Status to your end point (e.g., Done).

For Lead Time, set the From Status to your backlog (e.g., To Do) and To Status to your end point (e.g., Done).

Once you click ‘'Apply’', you’ll get a report showing the raw numbers. For example, issue MSD-30 has a Cycle Time of 7.61 days and a Lead Time of 18.88 days.

How to Turn Your Data into a Trend?

You have the raw numbers, but they don't show a trend, yet. To see a trend, you must group the data. This is a simple two-step process in Timepiece for creating a Jira trend analysis report.

Step 1: Choose Your Metric (Average vs. Sum)

In the report's top-left menu, tell Timepiece how to aggregate the numbers.

Average of Total

Use this to see the average time. This is best for a typical Cycle Time trend. It answers, "On average, how long did tasks take in the last weeks?"

Sum of Total

Use this to see the total effort. This is useful for service desks. It answers, "In total, how many hours did we spend on Customer A this month?"

Step 2: Group the Data

This is the most important step. To see a trend over time, use the Group By option to select a date field.

Group by Created (WEEK)

Group by Created (MONTH)

Group by Created (YEAR)

This is how you spot if you are getting faster or slower.

You can also use the chart options (bar, column, or line) to visualize the trend, too.

How to Read the Report and Find the "Why?"

So you've built the report. What do you do with it? Imagine your report shows a stable Cycle Time of 8 -10 days, but one week it suddenly jumps to over 20 days.

This is where the report's context is key. The Number Of Issues column might show "1" or "2." This tells you the problem isn't the whole team; it's a single outlier issue that got stuck.

So, what to do in that situation? You drill down. The report doesn't just show you the "what"; it helps you find the "why." Just click on that "65.67 days" number in the table.

Timepiece's drill-down feature will open a pop-up showing the exact list of issues used for that calculation. You can open the one or two problem issues and see exactly where they spent all that time. Now you have a specific, real problem to solve instead of guessing.

Pro-Tip: Use Trend Analysis to Validate Decisions

Let's say you just put a new policy in place, hired a new teammate, or restructured your team. A trend analysis lets you compare the "before" and "after" periods, so you can easily see the effects—positive or negative—with real data. Moreover, check out this Community article to use Timepiece to track Cycle Time trends for different story point values across your latest sprints.

Stop guessing about bottlenecks. Use Timepiece - Time in Status for Jira to get real data, track your team's efficiency, and find the "why" behind your delays.

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