Weekly Cycle Time Trend

A stable median cycle time can hide a dangerous trend: the P90 — the slowest 10% of issues — getting progressively slower. This visual tracks both lines over time so you can see not just average delivery speed, but whether tail risk is building up.

A rising P90 with a stable median is one of the clearest early warning signs of SLA drift. It means the team is still delivering most work at a normal pace, but a growing subset of issues is taking disproportionately long — and will eventually surface as missed commitments or compliance failures.

What you can conclude

• A rising P90 alongside a stable median signals tail risk accumulation — identify and address the outlier issues before they compound.
• Both lines declining together indicates genuine delivery improvement across the board.
• A spike in both lines in a specific week often correlates with a sprint disruption, a team change, or a particularly complex batch of issues.

How this chart works

Dual time-series line chart showing weekly median cycle time (solid blue line) and P90 cycle time (dashed amber line). A secondary bar shows the number of issues completed each week for context on sample reliability. Use the project and date filters to track specific teams.