Commonly confused
Lead Time vs Throughput
Lead time is how long a single request waits from creation to delivery — a per-item duration the customer feels. Throughput is how many items you deliver per period — a team-level rate of output. One describes the wait per request; the other describes total volume over time.
Lead Time vs Throughput, in short
- Lead time is how long a single request waits from creation to delivery — a per-item duration the customer feels. Throughput is how many items you deliver per period — a team-level rate of output. One describes the wait per request; the other describes total volume over time.
- When to use lead time: Use lead time to improve responsiveness and the experience of any single request.
- When to use throughput: Use throughput to measure and forecast how much the team ships overall.
| Aspect | Lead Time | Throughput |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Lead time is the total elapsed time from when an issue is first created or requested to when it is delivered. Unlike cycle time, it includes the waiting period in the backlog before work begins. Lead time reflects the customer's experience of how long a request actually takes end to end. | Throughput is the number of work items a team completes in a given period — issues finished per week, for example. It is the simplest flow metric: a direct count of output over time. Tracked across periods, throughput reveals a team's real delivery capacity and is the basis for probabilistic, estimate-free forecasting. |
| When to use it | Use lead time to improve responsiveness and the experience of any single request. | Use throughput to measure and forecast how much the team ships overall. |
| Full definition | Lead Time | Throughput |