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Dwell Free

Dwell User Guide

Dwell answers “how long has this issue spent in each status?” and “what is our cycle and lead time?” — questions Jira can't answer natively without adding up the changelog by hand. It runs entirely inside your Atlassian cloud; no data leaves Atlassian.

Issue panel

Per-status time breakdown and lead time for one issue, computed live.

Any issue → Apps → Time in Status

Project report

Cycle & lead time (median / p85), flow efficiency, time between any two statuses, blocked time, weekly trend, aging WIP, histogram, group-by, CSV export.

Project → Apps → Time in Status

Dashboard gadget

Cycle-time histogram for a saved JQL.

Any dashboard → Add gadget

Issue panel — free on every issue

Open any issue, then click the Apps button in the issue view and choose Time in Status. The panel shows a row per status with the total time the issue has spent there, plus its lead time (created → done). It is computed live from the issue's history, so it is always current. Nothing to configure.

You only do this once per issue. Jira's newer issue view keeps app panels behind the Apps button until you pick them; after that the panel stays put. If you open an issue and don't see Time in Status, that's where it is — the app isn't broken and nothing needs configuring.

Project report

Open your project → Apps → Time in Status.

Every duration on this page is wall-clock, not working hours. A ticket that sits in review over a weekend counts the weekend. There is no business-hours calendar in this version — if you compare these numbers against a tool that subtracts nights and weekends they will not agree, and neither is wrong. Pick one and be consistent.

  • Quick filters (default) — Pick a date range, issue types, statuses and assignees, then the report runs. Or switch to Advanced (JQL) to paste any JQL.
  • First run indexes the project — Indexing happens in the background so large projects stay fast. If numbers look empty at first, wait a few seconds and re-run.
  • Changing the report does not re-index — Each issue’s changelog is replayed once, at index time, and the per-status durations are stored. Switching the group-by, editing the JQL or changing the date range reads those stored numbers back — it does not recompute history. That is why a second report is fast even when the first one was not.
  • Metric cards — Average, median and p85 for lead and cycle time. Open issues count their live time so far in these cards.
  • Aging WIP — Open issues flagged “At risk” once they pass the p85 cycle time of the issues that actually finished in scope — i.e. slower than 85% of your completed work. The table names the exact threshold it used.
  • Trend — Weekly median and p85 cycle time, bucketed by the week each issue completed.
  • Histogram — Distribution of cycle times across the scope.
  • Flow efficiency — Of the time issues spent in the workflow, how much was actively worked on (In Progress statuses) versus waiting in a queue (To Do statuses), shown as X% active. Done time is excluded. A low number means work is mostly sitting in queues.
  • Time between statuses — Pick a From and a To status; Dwell measures the elapsed time from the first entry into one to the first entry into the other — Backlog → In Progress “reaction time”, or In Review → Done — with median, p85 and a distribution. Only issues that reached both statuses, in order, are counted.
  • Blocked time — How long issues sat Flagged, with median and p85 across flagged issues and a list of the ones stuck longest. Only issues that have been Flagged appear.
  • Group by — Break the numbers down by assignee, priority, issue type, status or project.
  • CSV — Copy the report out; it opens cleanly in Excel and Google Sheets.

What is p85? The 85th percentile — 85% of issues finished at or below this time. It is a more honest “typical worst case” than the average, which a few outliers can distort.

Dashboard gadget

On any dashboard → Add gadget → Time in Status → edit it and enter a JQL. The gadget shows a cycle-time histogram plus median and p85 for that scope.

Free vs paid

Free forever

The per-issue panel, on every issue, any team size.

Paid — free up to 10 users

The project report, dashboard gadget and the background index. Above 10 users these need an active license; an admin can start a free trial under Jira Settings → Marketplace apps → Manage apps.

Troubleshooting

  • Report is empty or still loading — The first open triggers a one-time index; give it a moment and re-run. A very narrow date range or JQL can also legitimately return nothing — the report says so explicitly and shows the scope it ran.
  • “Project reports are a paid feature” — You're above the free tier without an active license. Start a trial as above; the issue panel keeps working.
  • A status was renamed — Jira tracks status changes by name, so a rename starts a new series for that status. This is a known edge case.
  • Blocked time is empty after an update — The blocked-time metric needs the project re-indexed on the current version; existing projects fill it in automatically as issues change. Only issues that have ever been Flagged appear.
  • Flow efficiency or Time between looks off — Flow efficiency relies on Jira's status categories (To Do / In Progress / Done); custom statuses in unexpected categories may need interpreting. “Time between” only counts issues that reached both chosen statuses.

Data & privacy

Dwell Runs on Atlassian — no external servers, no egress. It reads your issues on your behalf and stores a derived index inside Forge storage in your tenant. Reports resolve using your own permissions, so you only see issues you are already allowed to see.

Support: [email protected]