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Multiple award-winning CTO, researcher, and bestselling author Gene Kim hosts enterprise technology and business leaders.
In the first part of this two-part episode of The Idealcast, Gene Kim speaks with Dr. Ron Westrum, Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Eastern Michigan University.
In the first episode of Season 2 of The Idealcast, Gene Kim speaks with Admiral John Richardson, who served as Chief of Naval Operations for four years.
Exploring the impact of GenAI in our organizations & creating business impact through technology leadership.
DevOps best practices, case studies, organizational change, ways of working, and the latest thinking affecting business and technology leadership.
Just as physical jerk throws our bodies off balance, technological jerk throws our mental models and established workflows into disarray when software changes too abruptly or without proper preparation.
Leaders can help their organizations move from the danger zone to the winning zone by changing how they wire their organization’s social circuitry.
The values and philosophies that frame the processes, procedures, and practices of DevOps.
This post presents the four key metrics to measure software delivery performance.
August 1, 2024
In the world of knowledge work, such as software development and project management, two key metrics are often used to measure and improve efficiency: cycle time and lead time. Understanding the differences between these metrics and how they relate to each other is crucial for optimizing workflows and delivering value to customers effectively.
In this blog post, we will explore the definitions, comparisons, and implications of cycle time and lead time in the context of knowledge work.
Cycle time refers to the amount of time it takes to complete a single task or work item from start to finish. It focuses specifically on production time and does not include any time the task might spend waiting in a queue before work begins.
In software development, for example, cycle time could be the time taken from when a team starts working on a feature until it is ready for deployment. Mike Burrows, in his book Kanban from the Inside, provides a detailed explanation of cycle time and its significance in Lean and Kanban methodologies.
Lead time, on the other hand, measures the total time from the initial request of a task to its final delivery. It includes all stages of the workflow, from the initial idea or request, through various stages of development, testing, and deployment, including any waiting or idle time.
In knowledge work, lead time would measure the time from the moment a new feature is requested by a client to the point where it is fully integrated and deployed. Donald G. Reinertsen’s book The Principles of Product Development Flow emphasizes the importance of reducing lead times in product development.
While both cycle time and lead time are used to assess the efficiency and responsiveness of processes, they have distinct differences in scope and focus.
Reducing cycle time involves improving the speed and efficiency of the team executing the work. Reducing lead time may involve changes not just in how quickly tasks are performed but also in how they are prioritized and handled before and after the actual work.
Measuring and optimizing both cycle time and lead time is essential for improving the overall performance of knowledge work processes. By reducing cycle times, teams can increase their throughput and deliver value more frequently. By minimizing lead times, organizations can respond more quickly to customer needs and improve customer satisfaction.
To effectively measure and optimize these metrics, teams should:
In the realm of knowledge work, understanding the distinctions between cycle time and lead time is essential for driving process improvements and delivering value to customers more effectively. By focusing on reducing both cycle times and lead times, organizations can enhance their agility, responsiveness, and overall performance. Embracing a culture of continuous improvement and leveraging the power of Lean and Agile methodologies can help teams optimize these critical metrics and achieve their goals more efficiently.
Managing Editor at IT Revolution working on publishing books and guidance papers for the modern business leader. I also oversee the production of the IT Revolution blog, combining the best of responsible, human-centered content with the assistance of AI tools.
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