Reopen Rate Momentum Indicator(4.3.8)

Reopen rate describes rework that has already happened: an issue that was delivered and then moved back out of its delivered status. The two moving averages smooth the weekly rate over four and eight weeks so its recent direction can be read without week-to-week noise; they describe that direction and do not predict the coming weeks. A reopen here moves an issue back out of a terminal status classified as delivered; reviving work closed as abandoned or duplicate is backlog re-triage, not rework, and is not counted.

What you can conclude

• 4-week MA higher than 8-week MA: the last four weeks carried a larger share of reopens than the last eight; lower: a smaller share. Near the floor of ten transitions one reopen is ten points, so a crossing of the two averages is ordinary movement unless the transition counts behind it are large.
• A falling rate after a change in process is consistent with the change having reduced rework; it does not by itself show that it did.
• A flat rate at a high level is a steady share of rework, which the averages never flag as a change; read the level, not only the direction.
• A gap in a line is a statement about volume, not about quality. It marks a week with fewer than ten status transitions, and reading it as a quiet, healthy week is the one misreading this chart invites.

How this chart works

Line chart showing weekly reopen rate per project with 4-week and 8-week moving averages. Each week's rate is the number of reopens divided by the number of status transitions recorded that week, so a week in which every status change was a reopen reads 100 percent; edits to other fields neither raise nor dilute it. The relationship between the two moving averages shows whether the recent share of reopens sits above or below the longer run; it describes the last eight weeks and projects nothing. The averages are drawn when one project is selected, and only once that project has eight complete weeks of history: over fewer weeks the eight-week average spans less than its name says, and under four weeks the two averages are the same line. Until then the panel shows how many weeks are in place so far instead of the chart.

A week is rated only if it recorded at least ten status transitions. Below ten the arithmetic still runs and stops meaning much: one transition can only produce 0 or 100 percent, two only 0, 50 or 100, and even at nine a single reopen moves the line by eleven points—further than a genuine change in behavior would. Those weeks plot as a gap and are left out of both moving averages, which is why an average can cover fewer weeks than its window. Each week publishes its status transitions, its reopens and its revivals whether or not it is rated, so the volume behind a point — or behind a gap — is always visible.

The week in progress is shown at its raw count so far. Because the week is not yet complete, it carries no week-over-week change and does not enter the moving average. On the chart it is drawn with a hollow point and its axis label says it is in progress.