Documentation for GreenHopper 6.1.x. Documentation for other versions of JIRA Agile is available too.
GreenHopper is now called JIRA Agile. Learn more.

(info) Note that this page only applies if you are using the Classic Boards (which are no longer being actively developed; read more).
If you are using the new board, please see Viewing the Cumulative Flow Chart.

A Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFD) is an area chart that shows work-in-progress for a product or version. The horizontal x-axis in a CFD indicates time, and the vertical y-axis indicates cards (issues). Each coloured area of the chart equates to a workflow status (i.e. a column on your board).

A CFD can be useful for identifying bottlenecks. If your chart contains an area that is widening vertically over time, the column that equates to the widening area will generally be a bottleneck.

(info) Note that this page only applies if you are using the Classic Boards (which are no longer being actively developed; read more).
If you are using the new board please see Viewing the Cumulative Flow Chart.

To view the cumulative flow chart for your project version,

  1. Log into JIRA.
  2. Select Agile > Classic in the top navigation bar. Then select Classic Chart Board from the drop-down below the project name.
  3. Select your project from the project dropdown (top left of the Chart Board above the 'Chart Board' dropdown), if it is not already selected. The Chart Board will refresh with information for your project.
  4. Using the Chart Board Navigation Bar, select the version whose chart you wish to view in the Version dropdown, then select Cumulative Flow from the dropdown menu next to it. The cumulative flow diagram for the version will be displayed (see screenshot below).
    • The 'View Version' dropdown only includes versions which contain issues that belong to at least one unreleased Fix Version (and belong to a project that is enabled for GreenHopper).
    • The chart's 'Start Date' and 'End Date' are the Fix Version's dates defined on your Planning Board. If not defined on your Planning Board, the 'End Date' is the 'Release Date' defined in the JIRA version (see Managing Versions); or today's date, if not defined in JIRA.
    • You can toggle items in the chart on and off, by selecting or clearing their check boxes in the legend under the chart.
    • You can also print the chart by clicking the version's Actions menu in the Statistics Column and selecting 'Print Chart' from its dropdown. Please refer to the Chart Board - Statistics Column section for details.
  5. The cumulative flow diagram is based upon the column configuration, as defined in your Task Board Mapping.

(tick) Tip: If you set up a version to be the parent version of a number of child versions, you will be able to view the cumulative flow diagrams for the parent and child versions merged into one. This can be useful for providing a visual overview of a release with multiple iterations.


Screenshot: Cumulative Flow

 

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