🧮 How We Calculate Flow Time

Transparent logic. Accurate insights.

🔍 What is Flow Time?

Flow Time is the total time an issue spends across all workflow statuses — excluding time between transitions. It helps identify how long work stays in specific stages, highlighting blockers or inefficiencies.

🧠 Calculation Formula

For each status S, we calculate:

FlowTime(S) = EndTime(S) - StartTime(S)

Where:

• StartTime(S) = the moment the issue entered the status

• EndTime(S) = the time it left that status (or now, if it’s still there)

🧱 Example Breakdown

Let’s say an issue goes through the following:

🧩 Special Cases

• Issue with no history: We take its current status and set the flow start time as the issue created timestamp.

• Return loops: If the issue returns to a previous status, we log a new row — every visit counts!

⏲ Total Time

We display the total time by summing durations of all status entries:

Total Flow Time = Σ FlowTime(status₁, status₂, ..., statusₙ)

The final value is shown in the app footer like:

Total Time [ISSUE-123]: 2d 4h 35m

🧪 Live Calculations

Flow Time Report fetches live timestamps from Jira’s changelog and recalculates status duration every time the app loads.

💡 Why This Matters

✔ No hidden math — it’s all visible
✔ Supports SLA/lead time audits
✔ Ideal for retrospectives and sprint reviews
✔ Enables KPI tracking for flow efficiency