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Manage and track your sprints using Cycles

A Cycle is a set period of time where your team focuses on completing specific tasks or issues, similar to sprints in Agile. Each Cycle is flexible, allowing you to prioritize and tackle backlog items at your own pace.

Using Cycles, your team stays organized, meets deadlines, and keeps moving forward efficiently. It’s all about getting things done without the overwhelm!

Turn on cycles​

By default, Cycles are automatically turned on when you create a new project. If you ever want to switch them off or back on, you can easily do that by navigating to Settings > Features in your project's ellipsis (…) menu.

Create cycles​

Caution

Two cycles cannot have overlapping dates.

To create a new Cycle, just press Q from anywhere in your project. Or, you can head to the Cycles page under your project in the sidebar and click the Add Cycle button. You’ll need to give it a name and set the start and due dates. If you want, you can also add a description—either right away or later on! Create cycle

Timezone settings

If the Project Admin sets the Timezone in Project settings, the Cycle schedules (start and end) will align with it. However, Members will view Cycles starting and stopping based on the timezone set in their profile settings.

Add work items to cycles​

  • After you create a cycle, you can start adding new work items or bringing in existing work items right in the Cycle page. Empty cycle

  • You can also link a Cycle directly as a property within any work item. Cycle property

Cycle states​

  • Active cycle
    An active cycle is the current, ongoing cycle (the current date falls within the cycle's start and due dates) in which a team is working to complete a set of tasks or user stories within a defined time period. Only one cycle can be active at a time.

  • Upcoming cycle
    A cycle with a start date in the future is considered upcoming. This allows teams to plan their next phase of work in advance, ensuring a seamless transition from the current active cycle to the next, with everything lined up and ready to go.

  • Completed cycle
    When a cycle’s due date has passed, it moves into the completed state. This reflects that the work scheduled during that cycle is finished, and the team can move on to review, wrap-up, and start planning for future cycles. Completed cycles are not editable, however you can transfer work items that are incomplete to an active or upcoming cycle.

tip

You can modify the name, description, start and due dates of active and upcoming cycles at any time.

Start and stop cycles​

Pro

While Cycles typically run for their set duration, sometimes you need more flexibility in managing your work periods. You can manually control when a Cycle begins or ends using the interface controls.

To start a Cycle, simply click the Start Cycle button next to your upcoming Cycle. This is particularly useful when you want to begin a planned Cycle earlier than its scheduled start date or if you need to start a fresh Cycle immediately.

tip

You can't start a new Cycle while another is in progress. To begin a new Cycle, you'll need to stop the currently active one first.

Start Cycle

To end a Cycle before its scheduled completion date, you can:

  1. Click the three-dot menu (⋯) on the active Cycle.

  2. Select End Cycle from the three dots menu to the right of the active cycle.

    warning

    You can't restart a Cycle after it's been manually ended.

  3. Once you end a Cycle, it will be marked as completed and move to your Completed cycle section.

End Cycle

Any unfinished work items in the ended Cycle will remain in their current state. The burn-down chart and progress metrics will be finalized based on the completion status at the time you end the Cycle.

This manual control gives you the flexibility to adapt your Cycles to your team's actual work rhythm, rather than being strictly bound to predetermined dates.

Transfer work items​

Once the due date of an active Cycle passes, it’s automatically marked as completed. After that, you can easily transfer any unfinished work items to an active or upcoming cycle, making it simple to move any leftover tasks to the next cycle.

Transfer work items

Track active cycle​

Once a cycle is active and contains work items, you can monitor its progress, assess the team's productivity, and review the breakdown of priorities in the Cycles page of the project. This section also allows you to investigate any discrepancies if the cycle is not proceeding as expected.

Track cycle progress

Cycle progress charts​

Pro

This feature provides powerful visualization tools to help you track project cycles more effectively. With real-time insights, you can see exactly how your cycle is performing against the planned progress, making it easier to stay on top of deadlines and adjust as needed.

Cycle progress charts

Cycle summary​

At the top of the cycle view, you’ll see the overall progress percentage. Hover over it to get a breakdown of completed and pending issues, along with the number of days left in the cycle.

To the left, there’s a color-coded summary that shows if the cycle is leading or trailing based on the burn-down and build-up. This gives you instant feedback about how things are going and highlights risks so you can make quick decisions and ensure nothing slips through the cracks.

The burn-down and build-up charts are straightforward ways to gauge your cycle’s momentum. You can customize them to show progress based on the count of issues or point estimates for each task, giving you the flexibility to use the metrics that work best for your team.

Scope

  • Scope
    This is the total number of issues planned for the current cycle.

  • Unstarted
    The issues that haven't begun yet

  • Backlog
    All issues in an unstarted state

The other metrics are detailed below, tailored to each chart type.

Burn-down chart​

The burn-down chart gives you a clear visual of how much work remains in your cycle. It's designed to show the ideal pace of progress compared to what’s actually happening.

  • Today's ideal pending
    This shows how many tasks should be left based on the ideal progress for today.

  • Pending
    This is the total number of unfinished tasks, calculated by subtracting completed ones from the total planned for the cycle. The chart tracks the days left, so you can see what should be done by now versus what actually is done.

  • Leading
    If your team is ahead of schedule, meaning you have fewer pending tasks than expected, the chart will show a green upward trend. The area between the ideal and pending lines is filled with light green, indicating strong progress.

  • Trailing
    If progress is behind schedule and there are more pending tasks than expected, the chart displays a red downward trend. A light red fill appears between the ideal progress and the pending lines, signaling the need to catch up.

Build-up chart​

The build-up chart helps track how much work has already been completed in the cycle.

  • Today's ideal done
    This shows how many issues should be completed by today based on the ideal pace.

  • Done
    This is the total number of tasks your team has completed so far.

  • Leading
    If you’ve completed more tasks than planned, the chart will show a green upward trend. The area between the ideal and completed lines is filled with light green, visually highlighting that you’re ahead of schedule.

  • Trailing
    If fewer tasks are completed than expected, the chart shows a red downward trend, with a light red fill between the ideal and actual lines, indicating the need to speed up progress.

Active cycles across projects​

Pro

If you have multiple projects with Cycles running at the same time, you can easily track the progress of all active cycles in the Cycles section under the Workspace section in the sidebar. This gives you a quick overview of each project’s progress and helps you spot any potential issues early on. Each cycle displays its status—whether it’s ahead of schedule or falling behind—based on the burn-down and build-up metrics. Active cycles

Archive cycles​

You can archive completed cycles, allowing you to conceal significantly older cycles from your views.

Delete cycles​

You can delete a Cycle to remove it entirely. When you do, all associated analytics and progress reports will be erased. Any work items linked to that Cycle will also be automatically unlinked.