Product Delivery Playbook >> Insights >> FACT

In the world of software development, cycle time is a crucial metric that measures the total time it takes for a team to deliver a change to customers. It’s the period from the moment work begins on a feature to the instant it’s successfully released. This metric provides a clear, objective measure of a team's efficiency and responsiveness. A short cycle time indicates that a team is highly agile, able to quickly respond to market demands and customer feedback. Conversely, a long cycle time can signal bottlenecks, inefficient processes, or technical debt that slow down development.

Understanding Feature Average Cycle Time (FACT)

While cycle time can be measured for any single task, a more powerful and practical metric is the Feature Average Cycle Time (FACT).

As the name suggests, FACT is the average cycle time for all features delivered over a fixed cadence. This cadence is usually a planning increment (PI), which typically spans a quarter, or another predefined period.

The formula for FACT is:

FACT = ( Σ Cycle Time of all Features ) / ( Total Number of Features )

Where:

• Σ Cycle Time of all Features is the sum of the cycle times for every feature completed within the defined cadence.

• Total Number of Features is the total count of features completed within that same cadence.

Further reading;

• Manage variables

• Burndown Charts

• A Guide to DORA Metrics and Their Role in End-to-End Delivery

• Cycle time

• FACT