Cycle time in Kanban and Scrum: calculating cycle time in Jira

Cycle time is the amount of time it takes for a task to move from the start to the finish line. In Agile, cycle time helps teams see how quickly they can deliver value to their customers while finding ways to do things faster without sacrificing quality.

Cycle time usually complements two metrics: lead time and throughput. While lead time measures the total time from when a request is made until it's delivered, cycle time focuses only on the active work phase. Throughput, on the other hand, looks at how much work is completed over a certain period.