Measure your cycle times. Monitor your completed tasks. Observe your cycle time trends.
In the Cycle Time Scatterplot for Asana, each data point on the graph represents a finished task on your board in Asana. The diagram shows the date that you finished your tasks, as well as how long they took to be delivered. The height of the dots indicates their cycle times - the higher up the dot, the longer it took for a task to be delivered.
Observing and analyzing your cycle times enables you to evaluate how quickly you are delivering value to your customers. The goal is to reduce the delivery times to an optimal level for your team.
Click on each dot to see a breakdown of the task’s details such as the type of the task and a direct link to the task in Asana. You can also perform an analysis of the time that the task has spent in each process state.
Tasks with the same cycle time and delivery date will be clustered together. To analyze each task individually, click on the dot and expand the details.
The Cycle Time Scatterplot for Asana uses the cycle times of all tasks completed within a specific time frame to give you a probabilistic task completion forecast. The dotted horizontal lines stretching across the graph, the percentile lines, can be used to establish service level agreements and define the likelihood that different commitment points will be met. A higher percentile equates to a greater chance of completing an assignment on time.
You can filter your data by task type or class of service. That way you can provide different SLAs for the different types of tasks you’re about to commit to.
By using the “Process Metrics” widget on the Cycle Time Scatterplot for Asana, you can assess your cycle times and the probabilities that come with each of them. This view provides a concise representation of your delivery performance.
Evaluate the cycle times that come with the percentiles for each process state to identify which step in your workflow has the biggest impact on your performance.
The dotted green line crossing the graph is your cycle time trendline. It uses polynomial regression to plot how your cycle time trend varies throughout the selected time period.
If the trendline goes up, this often means that your team is struggling to meet demand. In order to avoid tasks being forgotten or left idle, consider implementing explicit policies to swarm tasks if they pass certain percentile lines.
By using the ‘Percentiles’ widget on the Cycle Time Scatterplot for Asana, you can monitor how your cycle times and their probabilities change over time. Ideally, the percentile lines should stay close to each other, while slightly going down. If this is the case, this means that your team delivers value at a consistent pace.
If the lines go up, the first thing to assess is your work in progress. Applying strict WIP limits to your workflow is the best way to achieve faster delivery times.
The Cycle Time Scatterplot for Asana enables you to immediately spot any outliers. These are often forgotten or neglected tasks in the process. Tasks that have significantly longer cycle times make good candidates for a closer examination to identify process impediments.
Look for patterns emerging in your data. Trends such as gaps, high variability, clusters of dots or a progressively growing triangle shape are warning signs that indicate bottlenecks on your workflow.