Average cycle time in Jira Control Chart when tickets aren't completed within sprint

Question

I'm using the Control chart to track average cycle time per sprint BUT obviously when the sprint closes, if any tickets remain open, it won't be included in the averages and so the cycle time can look great when the team actually have tickets rolling over.

Is this because it shouldn't be used as an end of sprint metric and more of a snapshot along with other metrics? I'm not finding it to be a useful metric for teams that are rolling over work (I know work ideally should not be rolled over, but it does happen).

Mehmet A _Bloompeak_ · Answer

Hi @Christina Patrick

If you prefer a more flexible and detailed reporting on cycle time, you can try Status Time Reports app developed by our team. It mainly provides reports and gadgets based on how much time passed in each status.

Here is the online demo link, you can see it in action and try without installing the app. For further details, you can have a look at Cycle Time and Lead Time in Jira: Productivity Measurement with Two Critical Parameters article and Status Time Reports How to Videos.

* This app has a dynamic status grouping feature so that you can generate various valuable reports as time in status, time in assignee, status entry dates and status counts, cycle time and lead time, resolution time, average/sum reports by any field(e.g. average in progress time by project, average cycle time by issue creation month).

* You can search issues by Project, Issue Type, Status, Assignee, Issue Creation/Resolution Date(and any other Date field) and JQL Query.
* Status durations are calculated according to the working calendar you define. Once you enter your working calendar into the app, it takes your working schedule into account too. That is, "In Progress" time of an issue opened on Friday at 5 PM and closed on Monday at 9 AM, will be a few hours rather than 3 days.
* You can set different duration formats.
* You can export reports in CSV file format and open them in MS Excel.
* You can also add this app as a gadget to your Jira dashboards and reach “Status Time” from Issue Detail page.
* You can enable/disable access to Status Time reports&gadgets and Issue Detail page per project, users, groups or project role.

If you are looking for a completely free solution, you can try the limited version Status Time Reports Free.

Hope it helps.

Valeriia_Havrylenko_SaaSJet · Answer

Hi @Christina Patrick  👋

If you want to track time Average cycle time, a better alternative to JIRA Control Chart is our Time Between Statuses add-on which generates reports of the transition time from one status to another. With add-on you can easily have Average cycle time. All you need is configure status group once and you will get you report always.

Try it! Add-on has a 30-day free trial version and free up to 10 users. 
Hope it helps 😌

Gizem Gökçe (OBSS) · Answer

Hello @Christina Patrick ,

JIRA Control Chart is a very handy built-in Jira reporting tool, but unfortunately it has too many limitations.  Today I see two of your questions regarding Jira control chart and they are both related with the limitations of it.

To be more flexible and get the report you want, I recommend using a marketplace application. Timepiece - Time in Status for Jira which is developed by my team at OBSS, is the tool I would highly recommend. It is available for both Jira Cloud, and Data Center.

Time in Status mainly allows you to see how much time each issue spent on each status or each assignee. You can combine the time for multiple statuses to get metrics like Issue Age, Cycle Time, Lead Time, Resolution Time etc.

You can easily use your predefined sprints as filter type and you can create reports calculated specially for your sprints. The best thing about our application is that you do not have to wait for the sprint to be completed to receive the report. You can get a report instantly, whenever you want.

For all numeric report types, you can calculate averages and sums of those durations grouped by the issue fields you select. For example total in-progress time per customer or average resolution time per sprint, week, month, issuetype, request type, etc. The ability to group by parts of dates (year, month, week, day, hour) or sprints is particularly useful here since it allows you to compare different time periods or see the trend.  (please see the screenshot below)

Time in Status reports can be accessed through its own reporting page, dashboard gadgets, and issue view screen tabs. All these options can provide both calculated data tables and charts.

The app calculates its reports using already existing Jira issue histories so when you install the app, you don't need to add anything to your issue workflows and you can get reports on your past issues as well. It supports both Company Managed and Team Managed projects for Jira Cloud.

Visit Timepiece - Time in Status for Jira to explore how our JIRA add-on can revolutionize your metrics measurement process. Enjoy a 30-day free trial to experience the full range of features.

Hope it helps,

Gizem