Status impact on metrics in Kanban

[Jovanka Jovicic]

Hello,

My Team is starting with Kanban. I am interested to understand how will status On Hold that is setup in our company with blue color impact on Kanban metrics. When PBI is in this status, it means it is blocked for further Development until blockers are resolved. Thanks!

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @Jovanka Jovicic 

Would you please clarify your status values and Kanban board layout, as those may impact the answer to your question?  In general, the built-in Jira reports/measures are based upon a board's filter and the board's column settings, and the actions of the team.

For some context, teams using Kanban practices often use the following measures:

1. Lead Time: the calendar time from creation to completion of an item
2. Cycle Time: the time from one point in your flow to another.  For example, Build Cycle Time could be from the start of work until completion.  This could be measured in calendar or working time.
3. WIP: the count of items in progress, regardless of any other indications (i.e. blocking)
4. Age of WIP: the working time an item has been in progress.

Jira out-of-the-box cannot measure Age of WIP, and the other measures can be tampered with by altering the board filter after work completes.

If your "on hold" status is before work starts on the board, there is no impact to your measures.  If instead this is a status mapped to a board column (i.e. your workflow), generally teams using Kanban would include "on hold" time and issue counts in measures.  Otherwise that is both hiding work and dis-incentivizing the team from considering how to resolve/reduce "on hold" occurrences now and in the future.

Kind regards,
Bill

[Jovanka Jovicic]

Thank you @Bill Sheboy  for your answer. As I understand we just need to keep in mind to exclude this status from calculations. 

Regards,

Jovanka

[Marta Woźniak-Semeniuk]

Hey @Jovanka Jovicic 

here is a thread where your question is answered - it will tell you how to make sure On Hold does not count into "Worked on" time https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-Software-questions/quot-On-Hold-quot-issues-and-WIP-limit/qaq-p/655468

[Jovanka Jovicic]

Thank you @Marta Woźniak-Semeniuk , but my question is related to the impact of reporting. 

[Marta Woźniak-Semeniuk]

We once used a plugin for this https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1211756/time-in-status?tab=overview&hosting=cloud it gave us data for WIP including and excluding the time spend on hold/in blocked status for reporting.

We had to do it with excel but it gave us great insight into our blocking times and it helped us manage the workflow better :) 

It's free so you can just try it out and see if it helps :)