Improve performance with Jira’s time-in-status feature
Time is often used to measure progress and success, making it a manager’s most precious commodity. Tasks that take too long to complete impact productivity and profitability. Conversely, compressed timelines can cause burnout, increasing the risk of costly mistakes and compromised customer satisfaction.
Whether you’re a project administrator or leader of an IT service management (ITSM) team, you need a tool that measures time spent on various tasks so you can identify bottlenecks and improve team members’ workflows. Jira’s time-in-status feature does just that. The function lets managers track lead and cycle time for project tasks or ITSM tickets according to their workflow status.
What is time in status in Jira?
Time-in-status reports are available in Atlassian’s Jira Cloud, Server, and Data Center applications. The feature tracks time spent on an issue or ticket according to the assignee, team, project, or workflow status and displays the result in your dashboard.
The Jira time-in-status report lets you monitor the following metrics:
Completion time for specific tasks
The average time a ticket remains in one status before it transitions to the next
How long team members require to resolve an issue
Delays caused by roadblocks and bottlenecks
Cycle and lead times for specific issues
Benefits of tracking time in status
Leveraging time-in-status reports helps managers
Increase efficiency: Measuring time in status identifies areas of a workflow that are causing delays. With these insights, managers can boost productivity by streamlining the process and reallocating resources.
Track performance: Time-based metrics generate actionable insights into the team’s performance and productivity, making it easier to optimize workflow.
Identify trends: Monitoring time spent on an ongoing basis reveals patterns and recurring delays so leaders can address issues that negatively impact outcomes and customer satisfaction.
Improve transparency: Task progress and productivity are visible to all, encouraging team members to take accountability for their work.
How to display time in status in Jira
To display the time in status on your dashboard, you must request functionality access from the Jira administrator. Once you receive approval, activate the “Days in column” option to view time spent within each workflow status. The number and color of the dots denotes the number of days spent under that status. This visual format allows teams to quickly identify stagnant issues and prioritize tasks based on their workflow status.
Note that this option tracks every day in status, including weekends and holidays—not just working days. The functionality also doesn’t track hours, meaning this feature isn’t suitable for short-term workflows.
Another option is to create custom fields, automation rules, or Control Charts for statuses for every story or issue number. However, setting up these functions can be labor-intensive and time-consuming.
Alternative methods to calculate time in status
The Atlassian Marketplace provides Jira add-ons that automatically gather, analyze, and deliver time-in-status reports to the user and . Depending on the add-on you choose, these third-party integrations can provide insight into the following factors:
Time average
Assignee time
Entrance date
Time in status per date
Status count
Transition count
Cycle and lead time
How to leverage time in status
If you wish to enable Jira’s native time in status reports
Select the gear icon to access “Settings”
Click “Issues” > “Custom Fields”
Input “Time in status” into the “Name this field” variable
Configure settings as needed
Manually update the for each transition between time in statuses
Monitor time in status with Custom Charts for Jira and Confluence
If you prefer a third-party solution to create time-in-status reports, Tempo’s Custom Charts application integrates easily with Atlassian Jira and Confluence. Here’s what it can do for you:
Leveraging existing statuses: Custom Charts will track issues using the three primary statuses: To do, In progress, and Review.
Time assessment: The time spent feature allows managers to assess a team’s performance and efficiency based on how long an issue spends in each status. If something takes too long, analysis can identify obstacles in the workflow.
Workflow streamlining: Time-in-status analysis delivers insights into workflow efficiency and identifies bottlenecks and delays. With this data, management can find ways to improve productivity and profitability.
Report generation: With data on time in status, users can draft other reports, including burnup and burndown charts. They can combine this with additional information from other time-tracking applications, like Tempo’s .
Streamlining the tech stack: Instead of using multiple time tracking and reporting apps to track individual metrics, Custom Charts for Jira allows users to monitor various criteria, including issue history, sprint progress, sprint velocity, and project health.
Benchmarking: Custom Charts allows users to compare time in status and other metrics between sprints, epics, and assignees. The application assists managers in identifying complicated sprints, underprioritized epics, or overloaded team members.
Time in status use cases
Here are some ways the time-in-status metric streamlines workflows and improves efficiency:
Improve cycle times
Jira’s time-in-status reports help managers understand how issues progress through the workflow. With these insights, they can eliminate inefficiencies or roadblocks and develop improvements that boost productivity.
Track lead time
Time-in-status reports show how long the team takes to resolve issues or tickets. By plotting the evolution of issue status over time, members can track and analyze task duration and identify areas that require additional support.
Performance evaluation
on various tasks per assignee to determine how long it takes them to complete each job. This data identifies individual strengths and areas for improvement.
Leverage time-in-status info with Tempo
Tempo’s application helps you identify impactful workflow improvements, whether you’re using Atlassian’s Jira Cloud, Server, or Data Center. It enables you to track valuable performance metrics like average time in status, cumulative spend, and sprint progress. Users can create personalized charts and dashboards to analyze crucial KPIs and identify potential roadblocks before they impact productivity.
Take control of your team’s workflows with insights from time-in-status reports and watch your team’s effectiveness soar.
