# Cycle time: define the start and finish clock

Illustrative planning brief; no automatic product import.

Synthetic example: An item is created at 08:00, started at 10:00 and accepted at 18:00 on the same UTC day. A report currently subtracts creation time.

## Decision

Publish eight elapsed hours under an active-start-to-acceptance rule; keep ten hours as a separately named creation-to-acceptance duration.

## Owned work

- Agree the boundary
  - Owner role: Delivery lead
  - Acceptance evidence: The rule identifies active start, accepted finish, UTC timestamps and included waits.
- Reconcile the event pair
  - Owner role: Task owner
  - Acceptance evidence: The original record contains 10:00 and 18:00, with no guessed start.
- Review the reported duration
  - Owner role: Acceptance reviewer
  - Acceptance evidence: The report shows eight elapsed hours and names its clock policy.

## Workflow

1. Write event meanings before subtracting timestamps.
2. Check ordering and timezone, then calculate elapsed time under one rule.
3. Version a changed clock rule rather than silently rewriting prior comparisons.

## Judgment

Elapsed time is not effort or an individual productivity score. Missing or reversed events need investigation, not a zero duration.


## Worked reporting note

Report: 8 elapsed hours from active start to accepted finish. Preserve the separate 10-hour creation-to-acceptance observation.


## Working artifact

- Observed / Two ordered same-day timestamps / Supports an eight-hour elapsed duration.
- Unknown / Hands-on effort during those hours / Do not label eight hours as engineering effort.
- Next check / Audit the next record against the written events / Investigate missing starts before comparing durations.


## Workflow questions

### Does task creation start this clock?

No. This worked policy starts at active work. A creation-based clock is useful only when separately labelled.

### Do waits disappear from cycle time?

Not under this elapsed policy. If you also report active effort, maintain a separate measure and its evidence.

### What if acceptance happens the next day?

Use complete timestamps in one timezone. The same-day hours sandbox cannot model a date rollover.

## Product connection

Use this manual measurement rule as context when planning or reviewing owned work in TeamBoostAI. Confirm the fields and reports available in your account; the worksheet is not imported automatically.

Confirm account availability before adopting this manual outline.


## Worked measurement study

All example records are synthetic; manual worksheet, no automatic import.

### Inspect the invented records

Event | Observed time | Treatment
--- | --- | ---
Created | 08:00 UTC | Not this clock’s start
Active start | 10:00 UTC | Included boundary
Accepted finish | 18:00 UTC | Included boundary

### Derivation

Same-day elapsed hours = finish hour − start hour = 18 − 10 = 8. Creation-to-acceptance = 18 − 8 = 10; these answer different questions.

Report: 8 elapsed hours from active start to accepted finish. Preserve the separate 10-hour creation-to-acceptance observation.

Calculator inputs and convention: {"mode": "gap", "labels": ["Start hour (same UTC day)", "Finish hour (same UTC day)"], "values": [10, 18], "unit": "elapsed hours", "integer": false, "max": 24}

### Event sequence

08:00 / Created / Outside the selected clock
10:00 / Started / Clock begins
18:00 / Accepted / Clock ends

### Evidence boundary

Observed / Two ordered same-day timestamps / Supports an eight-hour elapsed duration.
Unknown / Hands-on effort during those hours / Do not label eight hours as engineering effort.
Next check / Audit the next record against the written events / Investigate missing starts before comparing durations.

### Method references

The Kanban Guide, May 2025: https://kanbanguides.org/the-kanban-guide/2025.5/ — Clock and work-item definitions; examples and local rules are our own.