What is the Cycle Time

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Cycle Time is a concept used in process management and lean manufacturing that refers to the total time it takes to complete a single unit of work from start to finish. It's the time elapsed between the beginning of a process and the end, including all the steps, delays, and handoffs in between.

Just like Lead Time management, Cycle Time management is crucial for improving efficiency, reducing waste, and increasing productivity. By minimizing Cycle Time, you can complete more work in the same amount of time, increasing profits and customer satisfaction.

The Concept of Cycle Time

Let's first clarify what we mean by "Cycle Time."

At its core, Cycle Time is a metric that teams use to measure the total time it takes to complete a task from start to finish. This includes not only the time spent actively working on the task but also any waiting time that may occur between work stages.

Think of it like this: imagine you're making a sandwich. 

Your cycle time is when it takes you to gather the ingredients, assemble the sandwich, and clean up afterward. It's important to note that any time spent waiting for the toaster to pop or for the mayo to be handed to you is also included in your cycle time.

Why You Should Calculate Your Cycle Time for Better Results

Calculating your Cycle Time may seem like a mundane task for executives, but it actually provides several important benefits for your team and customers.

Firstly, knowing your Cycle Time enables you to estimate your team's delivery dates accurately. You can give your customers reliable and realistic delivery expectations by tracking your production rates in real-time.

This, in turn, helps you manage their expectations and ensure that you deliver on your promises.

Secondly, calculating your Cycle Time helps you better manage your team's time. When you understand how long it takes to produce a unit or complete a task, you can assess your current and future workload to determine if you have enough time and resources. 

If not, you can proactively hire additional staff or adjust your schedule to meet your deadlines.

Cycle Time and Lead Time: What's the Difference?

Imagine that you are a product manager for a software company, and your team is responsible for developing and delivering new features to your customers.

Cycle Time, in this context, would refer to the time it takes for your team to complete a specific task or user story, from the moment they begin working on it to the moment it is ready for deployment. For example, if your team is working on a new feature that allows users to schedule recurring events, cycle time would measure the time it takes for your team to design, code, test, and deploy that feature. 

Lead Time, on the other hand, refers to the total time it takes for your team to deliver a new feature to your customers, from the moment the request or user story is received to the moment it is deployed and available for use. For example, if a customer requests a new feature that allows them to integrate with a third-party service, the lead time would measure the time it takes for your team to prioritize the request, design and code the integration, test and deploy the feature, and communicate the availability of the feature to the customer.

How to Improve Cycle Time Using the Add-on for Jira

It is clear that a metric must first be measured to improve it. At the same time, measuring and observing based on historical data is desirable to make the decision-making process more informed and productive.

The calculation of metrics, which can be called one big concept of Delivery Time, in Jira is based on the fact that it is necessary to summarize all the durations of transitions between statuses and the stay of tasks included in a particular metric. (Here, we advise you to understand the difference between the concepts of Time in Status and Time Between Statuses. If you need anything, there is an article from our team describing everything in detail.) 

Grouping statuses is not a default option in Jira, so let's use the Time Between Statuses app from SaaSJet. 

1. Set up work calendars. To ensure that the calculation is correct and does not consider your non-working hours, you can set up a work schedule for each project: specify a time zone, define working days, add breaks, holidays, etc.
2. Group transitions between statuses according to your workflow. Remember to pause the calculation timer for certain statuses, such as On Hold. The screenshot below shows an example of the Cycle Time metric. Pay attention to the right side of the configuration window. There, you can set warning and critical limits for time metrics. If they are exceeded, they will be highlighted in yellow and red in the report, respectively. Also, you will receive a notification in the issue and to the emails of the specified persons.
3. Go to the grid and analyze the Cycle Time indicators.

That's it. With a few simple steps, you can analyze the necessary time metrics and improve your workflows. Please note that the summary row in the table headers also calculates the average. Don't forget that you can always export the report in XSL or CSV format and share it with other team members or stakeholders who don't have access to your Jira. 

Take advantage of your 30-day trial and make the most of the app. Do you have additional questions? Our experts will be happy to arrange a demo call and help you. See you on the SaaSJet team! 🙂