Kanban metrics ?

[Mirela Todorova]

Hi all,

I recently got a Kanban project and am wondering how can I report on Kanban metrics in Jira, like:

Lead Time

Cycle Time

Throughput

Source: https://www.cprime.com/resources/blog/kanban-metrics-how-to-track-metrics-for-a-kanban-team/

[Danut M _StonikByte_]

Hi @Mirela Todorova,

The best option here is to create a powerful dashboard in Jira with all the necessary Kanban metrics in place. You can easily do this with our Great Gadgets app. It offers all you need: cycle time, lead time, throughput, WIP, Flow Load, Flow Distribution, WIP Aging, CSAT, CFD and more. These fully covers the metrics from the article that you mentioned. Here are some examples for what you mentioned:

Lead Time or Cycle Time as Trend Chart

Lead Time or Cycle Time as Control Chart 

Lead Time or Cycle Time as Histogram Chart

Throughput  

Have a look over these articles on our blog to see what you can track with our app and how: 

• An effective dashboard for Service Desk and Customer Support teams in Jira Service Management 

• 10 “must-have” gadgets for any Kanban dashboard in Jira 
• How to track multi-team or scaled-agile projects (such as SAFe®) in Jira with Great Gadgets app 

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us at support@stonikbyte.com.

Danut.

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @Mirela Todorova 

A couple of things to consider for those measures is: how do you want to measure them (by item, by average, etc.) and how often do you want to review them?

With the built-in, Atlassian interpretation of a control chart and cumulative flow diagram, you can view averages (and sometimes individual) measures.  Please look here to learn about those: 

• https://support.atlassian.com/jira-software-cloud/docs/view-and-understand-the-control-chart/
• https://support.atlassian.com/jira-software-cloud/docs/view-and-understand-the-cumulative-flow-diagram/

However if you want to perform more analysis, perhaps reviewing outliers, I recommend investigating marketplace addons for dashboard gadgets and reporting.  Those will provide more capabilities and clarity than the built-in reports.

It is possible to create lead time, [build] cycle time, WIP Age, etc. measures, at a story level, with custom fields and automation rules.  However I recommend starting with the built-in tools to learn if they provide what you need before trying that or investigating the marketplace for addons.

Kind regards,
Bill

[Peter Van de Voorde]

I want to just add my 2 cents here. I agree with @Bill Sheboy that it's best for you to first deep dive into what's available out of the box and how this can start helping you and your team measure and improve the way you're working.

Once you've figured out the basics you could always look into drilling deeper into the metrics. But in the end it's not the metrics that will help you improve, it's what you do with them and the actions you take to improve those metrics and your team performance.

Like the agile manifesto says: "Individuals and interactions over processes and tools"

So even though the metrics and the process can help, in the end it's up to the individuals to make the changes needed to improve.

I also wanted to share a link to the Marketplace in case you wanted to check out what's available: https://marketplace.atlassian.com/search?query=Kanban