Flow time
Also known as End-to-end flow time, Workflow elapsed time
Definition
Flow time is the elapsed interval between a work item's entry into a measured workflow and its completion. It includes active processing and waiting inside the selected boundaries.
The full elapsed interval
Flow time emphasizes the experience of work moving through a system. It can include time spent implementing, reviewing, testing, waiting for a dependency, and preparing a release. The term is useful only when the entry and completion boundaries are stated.
A concrete example
An illustrative change enters the team's ready-to-deliver workflow Monday morning and reaches production Thursday afternoon. Its flow time is the full elapsed interval between those events, even if active editing took only part of it.
Find the waits
Break flow time into stages and compare its distribution rather than relying on one average. If review consumes the long tail, a review policy may matter more than implementation speed. If deployment waits dominate, inspect release capacity and controls.
Limitations
Flow time can be confused with lead time or cycle time, which teams may define differently. Abandoned and reopened items also require an explicit policy. Never compare labels without comparing boundaries.
How this relates to Weave
Weave can help teams inspect elapsed delivery time across change and review events. Before using that evidence, define the workflow entry and finish events and verify whether the view includes work outside repositories.
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