Read a board's pulse

See how many cards a board finishes each week and how long they take once work starts.

In short

The pulse reads a board from where its cards have been. It shows throughput (cards finished per week), cycle time (how long work takes once started), aging and the cards at risk. Each has a sentence that says what the numbers add up to. It covers the last 12 weeks.

Before you start

Who: anyone who can open the board reads the pulse. Changing where the clock starts needs "Create and manage boards".
Plan: every plan. There is nothing to set up.
First: the pulse needs finished cards. With fewer than five measured, it says it is too early.

Steps

Open the board, open its … menu, choose "Insights" and open the "Pulse" tab.
Use the filters to read the pulse of some cards only: one card type, one person, a priority or a search. The pulse says when it is filtered.
Choose a card's name in any list to open it (the sheet closes), or "Show these cards" to filter the board to them.
To see the cards behind a bar, pick a week under the throughput chart ("Show the cards finished in") or a span under the cycle-time chart ("Show the cards that took"). The cards are listed, latest first.

Result: four panels - throughput, cycle time, aging and at risk. An old link or saved view that used the Pulse layout opens Insights on this tab.

Throughput

Throughput is how many cards reached a done column each week; the figure is the weekly rate of the last four weeks. A card counts once, in the week it last reached a done column. A column you add yourself counts as done only after you choose "Mark as finished here" in its menu under Board settings › "Columns".

Cycle time

Cycle time is how long a card took from the column where work starts until it reached a done column. The figure says within how long 85% of cards finished, and the note within how long half did. Cards that went straight from waiting to done have no cycle. With fewer than five measured, the pulse says it is too early to tell.

Open the Pulse and, under Cycle time, pick the column in "Clock starts in". Only open columns are offered; columns before it count as waiting.

Good to know

Each time a card changes column, the board remembers when it entered and left; the pulse is measured again whenever something on the board changes.
Each layout already sets where work starts, such as In Progress on a simple board. Only people who manage the board can change it, with "Make work start here" in a column's menu under Board settings › "Columns".
The pulse counts only the cards your filters leave, while the board report counts every card, so their numbers differ.
Aging and at risk are explained in /help/boards/aging-and-at-risk.

If something goes wrong

"Too few to see a trend" or too early to tell: the board has not finished enough cards yet.
Throughput stays at 0 although cards reach the last column: that column is not marked "Finished here". Open its menu under Board settings › "Columns" and choose "Mark as finished here".
"Work can only start in an open column of this grouping.": pick a column that is not done.

/help/boards/board-insights
/help/boards/aging-and-at-risk
/help/boards/when-will-it-be-done
/help/boards/board-flow