Lead Time & Cycle Time

Visualize agile bottlenecks and forecast delivery times by applying Little's Law to your Kanban/Scrum workflows.

Current Metrics

How many items are currently being worked on simultaneously?
How many items does the team complete per specific time period (e.g. per week)?
How many new items are requested? Used to calculate projected total Lead Time.

Projected Lead Time

5.5Periods

Average Cycle Time

3 Periods

Time from Start to Finish

Queue Wait Time

2.5 Periods

Time stuck in backlog

Pipeline Flow Visualizer

Backlog
10 Items
Wait: 2.5 periods
In Progress (WIP)
12 Items
Cycle: 3.0 periods
Done
4 / period
Throughput
Total Lead Time = 5.5 periods
Documentation

How It Works

Little's Law originally developed for queueing theory in telecommunications, states that the long-term average number of items in a stationary system is equal to the long-term average effective arrival rate multiplied by the average time that a customer spends in the system.

In Agile workflow management (like Kanban or Scrum), this translates beautifully to mean that your delivery speed (Cycle Time) is mathematically dictated by how much work you try to do at once (WIP) divided by your completion rate (Throughput).

The Formula

Frequently Asked Questions
How to Use

About the Lead Time & Cycle Time Analyzer

What it calculates

This lead time & cycle time analyzer supports agile planning, prioritization, capacity forecasting, and team health tracking. Apply Little's Law to analyze lead time, cycle time, WIP limits, and throughput for Kanban teams.

When to use it

Use when planning sprints, estimating delivery dates, or improving team workflows.

Example

Adjust the inputs above to model your specific scenario with the Lead Time & Cycle Time Analyzer.

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