The analytics in Kanbanize work per board. Click the Analytics icon on the top of each board to access the Analytics page.
The Analytics screen presents 5 categories: Cycle Time, Throughput, WIP, Flow, Forecasting, each available as a tab item on the page. Click on a tab button to view the charts for each of the respective metrics. The Throughput Run Chart belongs to the Throughput category.
Note: Before start using the analytics make sure that you have configured the Cycle time tracking for the respective board. You can choose which columns from your workflow to be included in the analytics as well as for the calculation of the card "cycle time".
To learn how to configure cycle time per board, please check the dedicated article.
** If you checkmark the "Ignore Cycle time" configuration, the system ignores the current Cycle time configuration.
Respectively, the selected Analytics module accounts and visualizes the time cards spend in each of the process stages.This allows having an in-depth analysis of both value-adding activities and“queues”, when it is necessary.
You can checkmark this option only if a single workflow is selected.
Introduction to the Throughput Run Chart
The Run Chart displays the data plotted over time and it helps find trends or patterns in your process.
The Throughput Run Chart in Kanbanize helps you visualize how much work you are able to deliver every day.
- The "x" axis represents a timeline
- The "y" axis is the actual number of the work items. This could be tasks, projects, or anything that you measure on the selected workflow.
How to set up the Throughput Run Chart?
From the left side of the panel, you can control which data you can see on the chart within a predetermined time frame.
First, you define the timeframe ("Requested After" date and "Finished Before" date).
Important: The chart will visualize only cards that have entered your flow after the "requested date" that you define. In case that the cards were in your flow before the requested date and are completed within the "finished before" date, they won't be displayed.
Then you select the workflows that you want to analyze using the Throughput Run chart.
The chart takes into consideration all cards from the selected workflows. Note that you can add single or multiple workflows.
In addition, you can apply extra filters (Add cards filter). For example, you may want to see only cards with high priority or cards that are of a certain type.
Hover on any of the blue dotes to see additional information for all completed items per day.
If you select any of the Card IDs in the corresponding box, you will get additional work item details.
Tip: Click the card ID in the second box to open the card in a new browser tab.
Important:
The analytics use one calendar day as the lowest possible time unit.
For example: The card was created 30 minutes ago and is moved to "In progress". The system shows 1 day for this card.
The card was created late yesterday at 23:00 and you take a look at the chart in the morning at 9:00 A.M. (i.e. around 10 hours after the creation). The system will show 2 days as the card has been created yesterday and is still being worked on Today.
The Calendar time unit is used for analytics due to the fact that most of the modern Kanban systems are driven by client requests. As such, clients expect exact delivery dates or ranges that are calendar-based. They do not care about holidays, working hours, man-days, cycle, and lead times.
In case that you need precise cycle and log times for internal reporting, use the Advanced search capabilities with the different charts views and widgets.
What's this chart telling us?
- This chart shows if you keep a stable work process, by looking for a consistent central tendency. This means that you have a constant flow of work and a predictable process that meets customer expectations.
- In case that you have a lot of deviations (lows and picks), it probably means that you are batching your work and you deliver it at once. This could also indicate some problematic process aspects that you have to analyze further. If the trend goes down it means that your team is struggling to deliver results.
Note: It's important to remember that variations might be caused by factors outside the process you are focused on. In this case, you need to identify these sources and resolve them, rather than change the process itself. - If you have some blanks in the Run chart i.e. "no items finished on this date", this not necessarily indicates process instability. No throughput indicates any interruptions like holidays, weekends, etc.
Controls for this chart - customize your view
You can use the controls to add some additional properties to the Throughput Run chart as well as to apply additional filters. Please, check the short video below.
- Throughput trend - show average interval to easily follow trends and patterns.
- Cursor - you can use the cursor options to display dates, daily throughput, or both of the current position of your mouse pointer.
- Time Units - set the Run chart to display the time as in: Days, Weeks, Months.
- Item Filter - allows you to further refine the data that you want to be displayed on the Heat Map.
- Workflow Stages - deselect the columns in your workflow that you do not want to be included in the chart.