How does cycle time reporting support Agile teams?

Cycle time is one of the key Agile metrics that defines the ability of the team to complete a task in the quickest possible manner. Basically, it can be described as the time taken for one single signal task to be completed from start to finish. Teams can apply cycle time to assist them in learning more about process improvement in their workflows.

Defining clear cycle time boundaries

Lead time and change lead time are two additional Agile metrics and measurements alongside cycle time. However, these three metrics have different boundaries in terms of starting and ending times.

• Lead time: Time taken to complete the task from the moment the task is added to the backlog to deployed into production.
• Change lead time: Time from the initial code change (first commit) until the task is deployed into production.

Unlike the lead time, cycle time does not consider the time spent in the backlog. Also, unlike the change lead time that starts with the first commit of the code, cycle time starts much earlier in the development phase. Therefore, cycle time boundaries are:

• Start time: When the development phase is initiated.
• End time: When the task is deployed into production.

Importance of measuring and reporting cycle time

Here’s how cycle time supports Agile teams in achieving their goals:

1. Improve the workflow

Cycle time allows teams to see how long a specific task takes to deploy to production. Based on the time, the team can decide whether or not the task took a long time to complete. If the task took a long time, it indicates inefficiencies in the workflow that need further improvement.

2. Encourage continuous improvement

By tracking cycle time for multiple iterations, you can decide whether the changes made in the workflow are effective. If cycle time decreases over time, it indicates improved team efficiency. If cycle time increases, the team is becoming less efficient, and the workflow needs further optimization.

3. Data-driven decisions

Agile teams can make decisions based on historic project cycle time reports to increase the team and workflow efficiency instead of making random changes.

4. Setting achievable objectives

By analyzing historical cycle time data, the team can estimate and set reasonable deadlines for similar tasks. This is possible because past cycle time indicates the team’s actual performance. This approach reduces the uncertainty of completing tasks on time and increases the team’s confidence in their ability to complete the task on time.

5. Improve stakeholder communication

Stakeholders want to know how quickly a team can deliver their needs. Therefore, cycle time reports are one clear and measurable way to showcase the team’s progress and efficiency. Additionally, this helps build trust between stakeholders and the team.

6. Enhance team accountability

With cycle time reports, everyone can identify and understand how their role contributed to the team’s overall efficiency.

Calculating cycle time

Calculating the cycle time is pretty straightforward. However, manual cycle time calculation is time-consuming and prone to errors. Therefore, to calculate and report the cycle time, teams can use automation tools that are specifically built to track and report the cycle time of a task.

Tools like Jira, Azure DevOps, and Trello can automatically calculate cycle time and also give project cycle time reports that provide an overview of the team and project efficiency. Additionally, these tools can provide valuable insights such as:

1. The amount of time each task spends in each stage of the workflow(e.g., development, testing, review).
2. Pinpoint stages are where tasks spend most of the entire cycle time.

Automation can ensure that cycle time calculations are up-to-date, accurate, and easily accessible. Additionally, it allows the team to focus on continuous improvement.

How can we reduce cycle time?

Reducing cycle time is a process of continuously monitoring, analyzing, and improving the workflow to increase the efficiency of the Agile team. Here are some common best practices to optimize cycle time.

1. Regularly review the workflow to find bottlenecks and streamline processes to reduce delays in the workflow.
2. Limit the work in progress (WIP) by focusing on fewer tasks to finish them quickly with better quality.
3. Break larger tasks into smaller sub-tasks to complete them quickly and move through the workflow without unnecessary delays.
4. Leveraging automation tools for repetitive tasks in the workflow speeds up the work.

Conclusion

Cycle time is a crucial Agile metric that allows teams to spot workflow bottlenecks and improve their productivity. Properly measuring cycle time and the use of automated tools enables the teams to make informed decisions through data, set realistic objectives, and improve communication channels with stakeholders.