Measuring Cycle Time for Stories

[Eugene Kania]

Hi!

What is available in Rally to help folks get started with measuring cycle time for user stories? Does the tool time stamp when a story is marked "In Progress" and then provide another time stamp when the story is marked "Accepted"? Can we dump such data into a spreadsheet and do further analysis/summary?

Thanks!

Gene

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Eugene Kania

Program Manager – Mainframe Division

Broadcom, Inc.

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[Eric Christ]

There are several different ways:

1. From your team board, select the Show Cycle Time Report option from the smaller gear icon in the upper right. If you just want user stories included, then filter the board to just show user stories.
2. On your dashboard or Reports screen, you can add one of four cycle time chart apps.
3. The Reports menu has a Cycle Time Data option.
4. The Reports option in the Reports menu has a Cycle/Lead Time report.

There may be others but those are the ones that come to mind.

[Niveditha (Nivi) Gadamchetty]

Hey Eric,
1. When I tried to apply filters on my board and then checked the cycle time report, I didn't see any difference. It still showed the same summary metrics and same graph as without filters.

Is that how it's supposed to behave?

Regards,
Nivi

[Eric Christ]

That's not my understanding for how it should work. On my team board, when I leave all filters blank, I get one set of metrics in the Cycle Time report. When I use the filter to only show user stories, I get a different set of metrics in the Cycle Time report. I use the small gear in the upper right corner of the team board to generate the report.

[Niveditha (Nivi) Gadamchetty]

So these are the options on the Team board that I see.

If I hit the settings icon, I go to the flow state settings page.

Only when I hit the icon in the middle, I see the cycle time graph option.

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Regards,
Nivi
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[Eric Christ]

Okay, you're using that board. We use a different board. In that case, you can add the Cycle/Lead Time app to your dashboard or a custom Reports page and configure it to show only user stories.

[Eugene Kania]

Eric,
I found the 4 cycle time apps which you mention... thanks!
One of them is not of interest. One is a "Core" app and two are "Community" apps.
Where can I learn how to understand/interpret them? How one uses them to understand what is happening and how to help a team with continuous improvement or to diagnose if there is a problem?
The "Core" app and other Rally charts that you mentioned show the x-axis to be monthly or weekly.
So, is the average days based on the count of work items that were "Accepted" in that month?
Is there a way to make the x-axis by Sprint rather than by month or week?
Why did Rally choose by month or by week?
Gene