Overview

The Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFD) plots the count of issues in each workflow stage on every day of your chosen date range. Each stage is a colored band stacked on the others, so the total height of the chart always equals your total issue count. Watching how bands grow and shrink tells you whether work is flowing smoothly or piling up.

Overview

How to Read a CFD

• Band width (vertical height at any date) = number of issues currently in that stage
• Narrow bands = work moves through quickly (good)
• Wide bands = work is accumulating (potential bottleneck)
• Flat top line = no new work is being added (stable scope)
• Rising top line = new issues are being added (scope growth)
• Steepening right edge = accelerating completion (delivery speed increasing)

Data Sources

Band Modes

The Chart bands are based on setting controls how workflow stages are defined in the chart:

Field by

Choose what unit of work is counted in each band:

Using Story Points instead of issue count gives a more accurate picture of work volume when your team sizes work unevenly.

Using Board Integration (Board columns)

When you select Board Columns and connect a Jira Software board, the CFD uses the board's column definitions instead of raw statuses. This means:

• Multiple statuses mapped to the same board column appear as a single band
• The band names match what your team sees on their board
• Column order matches the board left-to-right

To connect a board:

1. In the data source panel, select Board and search for your board by name
2. Set Chart bands are based on to Board columns - this option stays greyed out until the source is a Board
3. The gadget loads the board's column configuration automatically

Date Range Options

Sprint Scoping

When connected to a board, you can scope the CFD to specific sprints:

1. Set Date range to Dates of a sprint
2. Select a specific sprint - or choose Latest sprint (auto) to always show the currently active sprint without reconfiguring
3. The chart automatically uses the sprint start and end dates as the time window

Tip: Use "Latest sprint auto" on a permanent team dashboard so the CFD always shows the current sprint without anyone needing to update it after each sprint transition.

Release / Version Scoping

To scope the CFD to a release:

1. Set Date range to Project release dates
2. Select a fix version from the project's version list
3. The chart spans the version's start date to release date

Display Options

Intervals of (1 day, 1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month (approx.)) and Include sub-tasks are in the CFD Settings tab.

Band Configuration

After the chart loads, you can customize individual bands:

• Exclude bands: Turn on Exclude bands and type band names, comma-separated (e.g. Done, Closed) - they are removed from both the chart and the count
• Custom band order: Turn on Custom band order and type band names, comma-separated, in the order you want (bottom of chart = first stage)
• Custom colors: In the Colors tab, choose Use these custom colors, then set each band's color

Tip: Order bands so the earliest workflow stage (e.g., "To Do") is at the bottom and the final stage (e.g., "Done") is at the top. This matches the standard CFD convention where completion accumulates upward.

Band Options

Export

Interpreting Common CFD Patterns

Healthy Flow

All bands are roughly proportional and the total height grows steadily. Done band widens progressively. No single band dominates.

Bottleneck

One band (e.g., "In Review") grows consistently wider over time while later bands stay flat. Work is entering the stage faster than it is leaving. Address the bottleneck stage's capacity.

Scope Creep

The top of the chart keeps rising even as the Done band grows. New work is being added faster than it is being completed.

Stalled Sprint

The chart goes flat across all bands for multiple days. Work is not moving - investigate blockers, dependencies, or team availability.