Average and median of values across issues

[EYA JELASSI]

Hi Team,

I want to understand to average and median formula of values across issues on Time In Status

Regards,

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

"Average" is a widely misused word in English.  There are three averages you might be talking about when you use it - mean, median and mode.  Most of us will mean "mean average" when we use it though, and that's what the time-in-status means.

• A mean average is "add up all the numbers and divide by the number of numbers you added up"
• A median average is "put the numbers in order and pick out the one in the middle"
• A mode average is "the number that occurs the most often in the data"

Consider a sequence like 1, 1, 3, 7, 21 - mean = 6.6, median 3, mode 1.

They all have different uses and tell you different things about your data set.  When used together, they can tell you a lot more.  For example, if you look at the "average UK income", the mode won't tell you a lot, but looking at the mean and median immediately screams that there's a massive rich/poor gap.