How is "time blocked" handled for calculating cycle time in Jira Control Chart?

[Jeff Streitel]

I am trying to find the following to determine whether we can use Jira Control Chart as a reliable cycle time measure:

1. What is the formula used for calculating Average cycle time in Jira Control Chart (the red line), and
2. When a story is tagged as being Blocked, how does that impact the calculation? i.e. is Blocked time being included in the cycle time calculation or is it excluded because work is not in progress?

Thanks for any help anyone can provide!

[Trudy Claspill · Accepted solution]

Hello @Jeff Streitel 

Welcome to the community.

I don't know the answer to #1.

For #2 setting the status of an issue to Blocked has no impact on the calculation.

Jira has three categories for Statuses 

• To Do
• In Progress
• Done

Every Status that is defined in Jira falls into one of these Status Categories. Your Blocked status is probably in the In Progress status Category. From Jira's perspective the issue is still "in progress" for purposes of cycle time calculations.

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @Jeff Streitel -- Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

Yes, and...to Trudy's answer:

For an explanation of how the average cycle time values are computed on this "control chart", please review this documentation article: https://support.atlassian.com/jira-software-cloud/docs/view-and-understand-the-control-chart/

And if by "blocked" you mean the feature to mark an issue with the flag, I do not believe this chart accounts for that condition as the measures are based upon time in status.  You would need a marketplace addon or additional processing to manage any time for issues marked with a flag as "blocked".

Kind regards,
Bill

[Jeff Streitel]

Thank you @Trudy Claspill and @Bill Sheboy for the responses. This helps explain the blocked issue question- makes sense!

I did read the documentation and couldn't find an explicit answer for my first question (what is the formula used for calculating Average cycle time in Jira Control Chart- the red line?).

But, maybe I'm over-thinking it. Using the below example screen grab, do you think this is a correct statement (i.e. definition of the red line)?

The average cycle time between Nov 1 and Feb 28 was 4w 1d 7h for a population of 6,761 completed issues during that period.

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi, Jeff.  I would add to that definition...

• The average cycle time...during that period
• based upon my filters selected for this report (status values and quick filters),
• based upon the most recent workflow definition for the issues shown, and
• based upon my Jira site definitions for working days and hours.

Regarding that middle item, if your workflow changed during that report timeframe the "cycle time" values may be less than actuals.  Jira has no concept of version control for workflow and so if the issue activity/history gets "zapped" during a workflow change the measures are altered also.

[Jeff Streitel]

Thanks for the extra clarity!

[Emre Toptancı _OBSS_]

Hello @Jeff Streitel

For maximum flexibility/transparency while calculating cycle time and blocked times, I can recommend our app Time in Status app. It is built for this exact need. It is available for Jira Server, Cloud, and Data Center.  

Time in Status mainly allows you to see how much time each issue spent on each status and on each assignee.

       

The app has Consolidated Columns feature. This feature allows you to combine the duration for multiple statuses into a single column and exclude unwanted ones. It is the most flexible way to get any measurement you might want. Measurements like Issue Age, Cycle Time, Lead Time, Resolution Time etc.

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 (organization) 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.

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.

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.

And the app has a REST API so you can get the reports from Jira UI or via REST.

  

Using Time in Status you can:

• See how much time each issue spent on each status, assignee, user group and also see dates of status transitions.
• Calculate averages and sums of those durations grouped by issue fields you select. (For example, see average InProgress time per project and per issue type.)
• Export your data as XLS, XLSX, or CSV.
• Access data via REST API. (for integrations)
• Visualize data with various chart types.
• See Time in Status reports on Jira Dashboard gadgets

https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1211756/

EmreT