Why is there an abnormal spike in Cycle Time?

Occasionally, you may observe a spike in cycle time due to specific events or practices. Here are some common causes:

  1. Merging of a Complex Task: A challenging or intricate task that took longer than usual to complete may have been merged, extending the cycle time.

  2. Cleanup of Long-Standing PRs: Older pull requests (PRs) merged as part of cleanup activities can inflate cycle time temporarily.

  3. CI/CD Merges for Production: Certain CI/CD practices involve bundling all sprint commits into a single production merge, leading to a large PR with timestamps from the entire sprint, increasing the cycle time.

In these situations, it’s best to exclude such large or unique PRs from your cycle time calculations. Doing so provides a clearer, more representative view of day-to-day cycle times, making the data more actionable and relevant.

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