What determines which Issues are included in Jira Control Charts?

[Al.Simons]

Hi. I'm trying to find a definitive answer to what should be 2 very simple questions about Control Charts.

My Kanban board has 7 columns, my control chart includes columns 2, 3, 4 and 5 and I want to track cycle time from the moment an issue enters column 2 to when it leaves column 5. I'm not using any quick filters.

Some issues that till in one of the Kanban columns mentioned above are shown in the Control Chart, others are not; many of these are NOT set as resolved, which I've seen others on this forum suggest is the trigger for inclusion.

Also, I'm not clear whether the time spent in the current column "so far" is included, or whether the time is only included in the displayed Cycle Time once it leaves a column.

So here are my 2 questions:

1) What criteria must be met for an issue to be included in a Jira Control chart?

2) Is time spent in a column "so far" included in Cycle Time calculations?

Thanks, Al

[Al.Simons · Accepted solution]

In case anyone else is looking for this answer, I believe I now have much more understanding. For clarity, I am NOT using a next-gen project.

Here is my understanding...

An issue is always included in it's project's control chart, unless you setup a filter to exclude it, but the times shown and used in calculations are only taken in to consideration when an issue transitions from one state to the next. This means that if an issue gets "stuck" in a column for a long time, the control chart won't show this and will continue to report the cycle time as-was when that issue entered it's current state.

At some later point, when that "stuck" issue eventually moves to the next state, having finally achieved some progress, the control chart will now show a spike in cycle time as the long period of inaction will now get included in the cycle time calculation. Time spent in the current state is ignored for cycle time calculations.

My preference is to add a filter to only include issues which are "done", so you only see cycle time data for issues which have completed their journey through your workflow.

Hope that helps!

Thanks to Stefan above for helping me reach this understanding :)

[Dillon Weyer]

I still see inconsistencies. With all columns, besides backlog selected, I sometimes see items that are in progress on the chart, and some which don't show on the chart.

[Danut M _StonikByte_]

Hi Al,

You could also try our app Great Gadgets for Jira Server or Great Gadgets for Jira Cloud.

One of the 10 dashboard gadgets included is the Control Chart gadget, which is based on a Jira filter and is fully customizable.

See https://bitbucket.org/StonikByte/great-gadgets-add-on/wiki/Home#!control-chart-gadget

Danut

[Stefan Peruzzi]

Hi Al,

I'm not sure about your 1st question but about the 2nd:

only cycle time of issues having left a status is shown, meaning time "so far" in a status is not included - it would be very valuable to have this information as a early warning sign

ciao

Stefan

[Al.Simons]

Thanks for your insights, Stefan :)