Cycle Time
What Is Cycle Time?
Cycle Time measures how long work takes from the point active work begins until the work is completed. In software delivery, teams often define it as the time from In Progress to Done.
Why Cycle Time Matters
Cycle Time helps teams:
- spot bottlenecks in development, review, testing, or release steps,
- improve flow predictability,
- estimate delivery more realistically,
- understand throughput without relying only on output volume.
How To Use Cycle Time
Cycle Time becomes more useful when teams:
- define workflow states clearly,
- track trends over time instead of single outliers,
- compare wait time versus active work time,
- pair it with quality and reliability metrics.
Cycle Time is a flow metric. It does not replace DORA metrics, but it complements them.
Related Terms
Related Pages
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