Cycle time

A cycle in Yandex Tracker is the order of issue resolution stages within a specified time period. Each stage refers to a certain status.

The Cycle time widget combines two data views related to working with cycles:

• The Cycle time chart allows you to analyze the time spent on a workflow. The chart shows the total time spent on all issue stages from the first switching from the initial status to the last switching to the final status.

• The control chart allows you to track deviations from a moving average cycle time calculated from a sample of issues within the specified period.

The widget combines both charts and displays:

• Issues that deviate from the cycle time.
• Cycle time dynamics on the selected percentile and moving average.
• Changes in the issue deviation band from the average cycle time.

To configure a widget, set the following:

• Name: Name to display in the widget header.

• Issue source: Filter on the basis of which the list of issues is formed. You can select a system filter or a previously created filter from the list or specify a filter using the query language or parameters.

• Initial statuses: Statuses in which work on the issue has started.

• Final statuses: Statuses in which the issue is considered resolved.

• Exclude statuses: Statuses for which the time spent should be excluded from calculations.

• Automatic update: Option that automatically rebuilds the widget's charts. The Step parameter defines the update frequency.

• Period: Period for generating the diagram. To make sure the chart period starts from the current date when updating the widget, set up a dynamic date range: open the Main or Other tab and select a range.

  You can also set up the period directly on the chart: click in the top-right corner of the widget and specify the range.

• Step: Step value on the axis with period. As a step, you can use days, weeks, months, or sprints.

• Working hours: Period of working time during the day. It allows you to exclude non-working hours, weekends, and holidays from the cycle time.

• Percentile: Percentage of values in the data sample against which the percentile is calculated.

• Show goal: Option that adds a goal line to the chart. A goal is the planned number of days required to complete issues.

• Moving average: Option that adds an averaged time value line to the chart. It allows you to see how the issue goes through the cycle by the median. The chart is smoothed for better visualization, so it will not match the 50% percentile chart.

• Standard deviation: Option that adds a mean square deviation line to the chart. It can help you estimate how widely the values are scattered from the average. The less the width of the standard deviation band is, the more stable the command's operation is.

• Display issues: Option that enables the display of issues and their links on the chart for quick navigation.

Data display

A sample of issues used to build the chart is generated based on the user access rights. If a different user opens the widget, they will not see issues they do not have access to. These issues will be hidden with ***.

You can configure the data display on the chart:

• Select it to expand the chart area.

• Click the point on the chart to pin the issue list tooltip. From the tooltip, you can open a tab with preset issue filters to search for system problems in the process.

• You can change the data view by switching the legend items above the chart by pressing Ctrl on Windows or Command on macOS.

• The widget shows the last update time to indicate data freshness. To see the exact sample building date and time and the name of its initiator, hover over .

Data analysis

On an issue layer, the widget displays issues on the X and Y axes, where the X axis represents a step, and the Y axis, cycle time.

To prepare the issue layer, Tracker collects the following data:

1. Issues are selected in the widget settings by filtering.

2. Issues are broken down by intervals.

3. Cycle time is calculated for each issue considering excluded statuses and working schedule.

4. Issues within the same step are sorted in ascending order by cycle time.

5. The obtained values are displayed as points.

6. The adjacent issues are collected in a cluster to save the space (a bigger point on the chart).

You can open the list of issues that form a line on the chart in any of its points. To do this, click a point on the line and select a filter parameter in the tooltip. The filter will open in a new tab.

Analyzing the time spent in a certain status

A ticket remains in different statuses, such as testing or code review, for a certain time. Certain stages significantly impact ticket cycle time and require optimization.

Select the view of cycle time by layer to identify which stages cause delays. To do this, select the By status tab.

• Each layer shows the time issues spend in a status at the chosen percentile.

• To build a cycle time chart by status, select a point on the layer and click the status in the tooltip.

Using counters and a multi-percentile

To compare the cycle time of issues by different percentiles on the same chart, go to the widget settings, Chart parameters, open Percentile, and select multiple values. This chart helps you understand how much higher the outliers at the 100th percentile are compared to the median represented by the 50th percentile line.

To display counters, click in the top right corner of the widget. The chart supports the following counters:

• The percentage of issues whose cycle time is below the target level set in the widget settings.
• The arithmetic mean of the cycle time for all issues in the sample.
• The arithmetic mean of the cycle time for issues for each selected percentile.

The line length under the counter name shows its relative value.