Configure lead time and cycle time widgets

Azure DevOps Services | Azure DevOps Server | Azure DevOps Server 2022

The lead time and cycle time widgets show how long it takes for work to flow through your development pipeline. Lead time is the total time from when a work item is created to when it's finished. Cycle time is the time it takes your team to finish work items after they start working on them.

Key definitions

• Lead time — The elapsed time from when a work item is created until it reaches a Completed state. Use lead time to estimate delivery times and track SLAs.

• Cycle time — The elapsed time from when a work item first enters an In Progress state until it reaches a Completed state. Use cycle time to identify process bottlenecks and measure team efficiency.

The following diagram shows how the two metrics differ. For more information about how states map to these calculations, see About workflow states in backlogs and boards.

How cycle time handles reactivated work items

For work items that are reactivated (moved from a Completed state back to an In Progress state), cycle time starts from the first time the work item enters an In Progress or Resolved state category and ends the final time it enters a Completed state category. Cycle time includes the entire active work period, including any time after reactivation.

Example scenario:

• New → Active → Resolved → Closed → New → Active → Closed
• Cycle time calculation: From the first transition to Active to the final transition to Closed
• Total cycle time: Includes both active work periods and the time in Closed state before reactivation

This calculation method gives a complete picture of the total time needed to finish the work item, including any rework or extra effort after reactivation. Lead time calculation follows the same principle—it covers the entire period from work item creation to final completion, regardless of any intermediate completed states.

Lower lead and cycle times mean faster team throughput. Check these charts before or during each retrospective to find variations in efficiency and spot process problems. For more information, see Cumulative flow, lead time, and cycle time guidance.

Prerequisites

Your team's board must have columns and swimlanes configured to support your workflow.

Configure the Cycle Time or Lead Time widget

The configuration dialog is the same for both widgets. The widget catalog offers two widgets: Cycle Time and Lead Time.

1. Add the widget to your dashboard, select the actions icon, and select Configure.

2. Set the following values:

   Setting	Description
   Title	Modify the widget title.
   Team	Select the team to track.
   Work items	Select the backlog level or work item type. To select a Swimlane, choose a Backlog work item type.
   Field criteria	(Optional) Filter work items by field values, such as Release = Milestone 1. If you don't supply values, the widget includes all matching work items.
   Time period	Choose Rolling period for continuous flow (specify the number of days), or Start date for a fixed scope view (useful for Scrumban or standard sprint processes).

   

   

   Note

   You can only select work item types that are added to a backlog. To add work item types to a backlog, see Customize your backlogs or boards (Inheritance process). For on-premises XML process, see Process configuration XML element reference.

3. Select Save. The following image shows an example Lead Time chart showing 60 days of data.

   

For your charts to provide useful data, your team needs to quickly update work item status as work progresses.

Understand the chart

Both Lead Time and Cycle Time widgets display as scatter-plot charts with summary information and interactive elements.

Example Lead Time widget

Each dot represents one or more completed work items. The horizontal axis shows the completion date, and the vertical axis shows the lead time or cycle time in days.

• Larger dots represent multiple work items with the same time value.
• Dot color matches the work item type shown in the legend.
• Dark gray dots represent a mix of work item types.

Summary elements

Interactive elements

• Hover over any dot to see which work items make up the data point and the lead time or cycle time for those items.
• Select a dot to open the work item or a query that lists the work items.
• Filter the chart by selecting a work item type in the legend ( , , or another icon) to filter on that type. To go back to the original chart, refresh the dashboard.

Moving average and standard deviation calculations

• Daily moving average: The average of data points in the moving average window, based on the current day and previous N days. N is 20 percent of the number of days the chart shows, rounded down to the nearest odd number.

  • Example: If the chart shows the last 30 days, then N = 5 days (20 percent of 30 days is 6, rounded down to 5).

• Moving average window: For April 10, the window is the previous five days. The April 10 moving average is the average of all data points from April 5 to April 10.

  • If the moving average window doesn't have any data points, the chart doesn't show a moving average line. This condition can happen if there aren't enough days to calculate a moving average.

• Standard deviation: Shows as a band around the moving average and is calculated from all data points in the same moving average window.

  • If the moving average window doesn't have any data points, the chart doesn't show standard deviation.

Add a widget programmatically

You can add a Lead Time or Cycle Time widget to a dashboard by using the Dashboard Widgets REST API. Use a POST request to the following endpoint:

POST https://dev.azure.com/{organization}/{project}/{team}/_apis/dashboard/dashboards/{dashboardId}/widgets?api-version=7.1-preview.2

Related content

• Cumulative flow, lead time, and cycle time guidance
• View and configure a Cumulative Flow Diagram
• Widget catalog
• About workflow states in backlogs and boards
• Kanban board overview