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This question is about list of skills.
Lead Time vs. Cycle Time
The difference between lead time and cycle time is important for businesses, especially when planning projects and timelines of those projects. Both lead time and cycle time focus on the projected time to complete a project, but they focus on different parts of the whole process.
Lead time is the amount of time that passes from the time a new project is requested up until the project is completed. Cycle time is the amount of time a team or a person actually spends on a project up until it is ready. Both provide different indications for a company and its productivity.
Key Takeaways:
| Lead Time | Cycle Time |
|---|---|
| Lead Time begins right when a team member has committed to a new work request. It ends once the project is completed, and includes all time between. | Cycle time only begins once someone actively begins working on the project, as this focuses on active time, and not idle time. |
| Lead time measures the whole process from its inception to the end. This is a much broader representation of work. | Cycle time analyzes areas of process where the team is actively adding value to a project, so it is much more focused. |
| Lead time gives an overall idea of how long a process takes in terms of the overall time. It helps to measure how much time, on average, it takes to fully complete a project. You could see that a project takes you three months to complete, even if you aren't actively working on that project the entire time. | Cycle time represents how much time is specifically used in completing tasks for a project. Rather than saying it takes three months to complete a project, you can break it down to it taking 150 hours of work, over that three-month period. |
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