Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFD) Gadget
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Overview
This gadget displays the cumulative flow diagram (CFD) for the issues in an agile board or filter. It is a stacked area chart that shows the number of tasks in each column of the board or in each status category over time. When you view the data for a particular day, you will know how many work items were present in each column at the end of that day. You can choose to display the chart by Issue Count, Story Points, Original Time Estimate, or any other numerical custom field.
The cumulative flow diagram is one of the most advanced analytics in Agile project management. Use this gadget to determine how stable your flow is and to understand where you need to focus on making your process more predictable. It gives you quantitative and qualitative insight into past and existing problems.
Depending on how it was configured, the chart displays multiple series (or "bands"):
Done - The total number of done issues. Depending on the gadget settings, "done" means all the issues with status category "done" (the green-colored statuses from Jira) or the issues in the last column of the selected board.
In Progress - The total number of "In progress" issues. Depending on the gadget settings, "in progress" means all the issues with the status category "in progress" (the blue-colored statuses from Jira) or the issues in the middle column(s) of the selected board.
To Do - The total number of issues in "to do". Depending on the gadget settings, "To Do" means all the issues with the status category "To Do" (the gray-colored statuses from Jira) or the issues in the first column of the selected board.
Also, if so configured, the gadget can display bands that correspond to the columns of a selected agile board. In this case, the series names will be the same as the column names.
Configuration
The settings of this gadget are divided in 2 tabs:
Data tab - contains the required settings of the gadget, such as title or data source
More Settings tab - contains the optional settings, such as card colors
Colors tab - lets you customize the color of the lines displayed in the chart
Data tab
On this tab you can configure the required settings of the gadget.
Setting | Description |
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Gadget title | Choose what to display in the title bar of the gadget. |
Data source | Select the type of Data source used by the gadget:
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Calculate by | Specify on which criteria the calculation is to be performed. You can choose between:
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Include the sub-tasks | Check this option if you want the sub-tasks from the selected board or filter to be included in the calculation. |
Time interval | Represents the time interval displayed by the gadget. You can choose from multiple options: Custom dates - choose this option if you want to manually enter a Start date and an End date. A number of days back - By choosing this option, the gadget will use a rolling time interval with a number of days back to the current day. Dates of a project release - Choose this option if you want the gadget to use the start and end dates of an existing project release (added on the Releases page of a Jira project). Make sure the selected release has a Start date and End date set. Any subsequent changes to the release dates made on the project's Releases page will be automatically reflected in the gadget, without the need to reconfigure it. Be aware that you can also check the Continue to display data after end date option in the More Settings tab if you want the chart to still display data even if the end date has passed. |
Intervals of | Indicates the length of the intervals displayed on the horizontal axis. |
Chart bands are based on | Specify by which criteria the bands displayed in the chart are determined. You can choose between:
The issue statuses - when using this option, each workflow status that is mapped on the columns of the selected board has a corresponding band in the chart. If a filter is selected, the chart displays a band for each of the workflow statuses reached by the issues from the filter. The columns of the selected board - when using this option, each column of the board has a corresponding band in the chart, displaying the number of issues in that column.
The issue types - when using this option, each issue type has a corresponding band in the chart, displaying the number of issues with that type. The values of this field - when using this option, each value of the specified has a corresponding band in the chart, displaying the number of issues having that value. |
More Settings tab
On this tab you can configure the optional settings of the gadget.
Setting | Description |
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Show legend | Check this if you want the chart legend to be displayed. |
Enable scroll zoom | Check this if you want to be able to zoom-in while scrolling with the mouse wheel over the chart. |
Continue to display data after end date | Check this option if you want the chart to still display data even if the end date passed. |
Hide weekends | Check this option if you want the chart not to show weekend days (Saturday and Sunday). |
Display horizontal gridlines | Check this option if you want the chart to display gridlines for the vertical axis. |
Refresh cached data at next display | This gadget uses data caching for faster display, which means that some data resulted after processing are saved and reused next time the gadget is loaded. If you check it, the cache of the gadget will be deleted and recreated at the next reload. This setting is not persistent. |
Colors tab
On this tab you can customize the color of the lines displayed in the chart.
Setting | Description |
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Automatically assign colors | Check this if you want the chart to automatically assign colors for the series. |
Custom colors | Select any custom color you want the series to be displayed on by either entering the color's hexadecimal code or picking a color. By default, only the common series are listed, but you can use the Add (+) button to add additional series to the table. You can also use the Copy and Import buttons to copy and import the color configuration to gadgets of the same type. |
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Related blog articles
The following blog articles provide more information on how to use this gadget.