What is a Cycle Time?
Cycle time measures how long a work item takes from when work starts on it to when it's done. Its sibling, lead time, starts the clock earlier — at the moment of request. Lead time is what the customer feels; cycle time is what the team controls.
Both are Kanban's core metrics, and Little's law ties them to WIP: average cycle time = WIP ÷ throughput. Want faster delivery? The math says: start less, finish more.
Formula
Average cycle time = WIP ÷ throughput (Little's law)
Worked example
A support-engineering board shows tickets averaging 2 days of actual work (cycle time) but 12 days from request to resolution (lead time) — ten days of queue. The fix isn't working faster; it's cutting WIP limits so items stop marinating in "In Progress." A month later: cycle time 2 days, lead time 5.