In
software engineering
Software engineering is a branch of both computer science and engineering focused on designing, developing, testing, and maintaining Application software, software applications. It involves applying engineering design process, engineering principl ...
, cycle time is a
software metric
In software engineering and development, a software metric is a standard of measure of a degree to which a software system or process possesses some property. Even if a metric is not a measurement (metrics are functions, while measurements are t ...
which estimates development speed in (
agile) software projects. The cycle time measures how long it takes to process a given job - whether it's a client request, an order, or a defined production process stage. The crucial aspect of measuring the cycle time is considering only the active, operating processing time and discarding any idle, waiting, or service times occurring mid-process.
According to the
PMBOK
The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) is a set of standard terminology and guidelines (a body of knowledge) for project management. The body of knowledge evolves over time and is presented in ''A Guide to the Project Management Body o ...
(7th edition) by the
Project Management Institute
The Project Management Institute (PMI, legally Project Management Institute, Inc.) is a U.S.-based not-for-profit professional organization for project management.
Overview
PMI serves more than five million professionals including over 680,0 ...
(PMI), cycle time is the "total elapsed time from the start of a particular activity or work item to its completion."
In contrast to
lead time
A lead time is the latency between the initiation and completion of a process. For example, the lead time between the placement of an order and delivery of new cars by a given manufacturer might be between 2 weeks and 6 months, depending on vari ...
, which measures the time that the customer waits for their request to be realized, cycle time only counts the time the team spends actively working on the request. The core use of cycle times is to identify the average development times for specific teams or given request types. This lets the software engineering manager predict team engagements and better schedule work.
See also
*
Software quality
In the context of software engineering, software quality refers to two related but distinct notions:
* Software's functional quality reflects how well it complies with or conforms to a given design, based on functional requirements or specificat ...
*
Statistical quality control
Statistical process control (SPC) or statistical quality control (SQC) is the application of statistical methods to monitor and control the quality of a production process. This helps to ensure that the process operates efficiently, producing mo ...
Further reading
What is waste? (Agile Alliance)Takt time - Cycle time (The Lean Thinker)Lead time versus Cycle Time – Untangling the confusion
Citations
References
*
Rates
Clock signal
Instruction processing
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