How to Capture Full Cycle Time in Jira Control Chart with Back-and-Forth Status Transitions

[Jacob I]

Hi Atlassian Community,

I'm working with Jira’s control chart to measure cycle time and need to capture the full cumulative time that issues spend in specific 'In Progress' statuses, including any back-and-forth transitions. My main question is whether selecting columns in the control chart displays only the most recent time an issue was in those statuses, which would exclude the full time spent if it moved in and out of these statuses multiple times.

Could someone guide me on:

1. Configuring the control chart or using quick filters to capture the total cycle time across all transitions into and out of 'In Progress' statuses?
2. Whether quick filters targeting each relevant 'In Progress' status are necessary, or if there’s an alternative configuration?
3. Tips for using the control chart's rolling average to ensure meaningful trends in cycle time.

Thank you for your help!

[Bill Sheboy · Accepted solution]

Hi @Jacob I -- Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

As a disclaimer, I do not work for Atlassian or any marketplace vendor.  I am just another Jira user with a bit of experience in process analysis in various domain areas.

I agree with @Danut M _StonikByte_: if you need an actual control chart to manage anything other than lead time for a very simple workflow, a marketplace app (or custom built) chart will be better than Atlassian's interpretation of a control chart.

For your specific questions...

In my experience, and according to the documentation, the built-in chart does accumulate total time in a status by using the issue history information.  However that is impacted by the known defects in the logging of status transitions in the issue history for some Jira sites; usually, this aspect of the chart works as expected.  For a more complicated flow which spans different boards, all bets are off as the reporting uses the history, regardless of board column / status mapping, and so measures would span time from multiple boards if the status values overlapped (e.g., done).

Regarding using quick filters, that can help with the chart's challenges in scaling and status selection, however there does not appear to be a way to correctly manage time-in-status for individual status values, other than for a very simple workflow.  (If you push / pull all issue history into another tool, such as a log file viewer, it would be possible to build more accurate control charting.)  The one thing quick filters can help with for the built-in chart is hiding outliers...but only if you manually tag them or build an automation rule to do so.

For the rolling average and Atlassian's interpretation of standard deviation, I find both of them of suspect accuracy and not effective for helping teams manage flow effectively.  Using alternatives which show a single value for a period of time are more helpful.  (e.g., average build cycle time for the last N weeks, or the current lower / upper control limits, etc.) 

And so my final tip would be: try the built-in chart if you have a simple workflow to learn how it does / does not help the team manage flow, and use a trial of some of the marketplace apps to observe how they compare.

Kind regards,
Bill

[Jacob I]

Thank you! Do you know if easyBI has the ability to calculate total cycle time? Or is that limited as well?

[Bill Sheboy]

I have not used that tool and so do not know, although I suspect the answer is "yes".  If a tool can pull in and parse the issue history, it can identify the when / duration issues were in specific status values...then the next step is to align that with the workflow for measurement calculation.

Which reminds me of another limitation of the built-in reporting: lack of change management to effectively show changes in measures when workflow changes.

[Danut M _StonikByte_]

Hi @Jacob I,

I'm afraid that the Jira's Control Chart report cannot be customized for achieving what you want. You'll need something more advanced and more flexible/configurable.

My advice is to search on Atlassian Marketplace for an app that is able to do this type of calculation. 

If you consider the idea of using an app, our Great Gadgets app might be the perfect solution. It offers Control Chart gadget that is similar to the Jira's report but much more advanced and configurable. 

In addition, the same app offers a Time in Status gadget that lets you calculate the "time in status category" directly - so you will get the total or average time in "In progress" category with just a few clicks!

And both gadget display a Data tab with details at the issue level, so you can identify where the delays come from.

See also this article: How to measure Cycle Time and Lead Time in Jira or Confluence with Great Gadgets app.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact support@stonikbyte.com at any time.

Danut.