Issue Creation

The rate of new issues created can show you trends in the amount of work coming in and indicate if you are planning too much work for your dev team.

Overview

The rate of new issue creation can provide valuable insights into trends in workload and project challenges. Tracking the volume of issues being reported helps gauge whether the team is taking on too much work or if new problems are emerging unexpectedly, signaling areas that may require more attention or resources.

Description

Issue creation refers to the frequency and pattern of new issues being logged throughout a project. These issues can range from bugs to feature requests, and tracking their creation over time helps identify trends in project challenges. Monitoring these trends enables proactive planning, resource allocation, and issue management, helping teams stay on top of emerging problems before they become bottlenecks.

How is it calculated?

Issue creation is typically calculated by tracking the number of new issues reported within defined time intervals—such as daily, weekly, or monthly. Project management or issue tracking tools are used to record the issue creation date and categorize the data. The cumulative number of issues created during each period is then analyzed to identify trends and patterns.

How It's Generated?

We capture all issues created across all connected tools that provide issue management and log those by issue types.

Questions You Can Answer with This Data

Are there any notable spikes or patterns in issue creation over time?
Identifying periods of high issue creation can help pinpoint when problems arise, such as after releases or sprint handoffs. This insight allows you to anticipate challenges and allocate resources accordingly.
How does issue creation correlate with project milestones or sprints?
Linking issue creation to project activities helps uncover whether specific milestones (e.g., releases or handoffs) tend to generate more issues, indicating areas for improvement in planning or execution.
Which types of issues are most frequently reported?
By categorizing issue types, you can identify whether bugs, feature requests, or other concerns dominate. This helps prioritize work and ensures your team is focused on the most pressing needs.
What is the trend in issue creation—are issues increasing, decreasing, or remaining steady?
Tracking trends in issue creation reveals if your project is on track. An increase may signal problems with quality or planning, while a decrease could indicate successful process improvements.

Key Takeaways from Issue Creation Data

Trend Analysis: Tracking issue creation trends allows teams to understand whether issue volume is rising, falling, or staying constant. This insight helps project managers anticipate and plan for challenges, allocate resources effectively, and adjust timelines if necessary.
Seasonality and Patterns: By analyzing issue creation over time, project teams can uncover seasonal patterns—such as surges in issues during certain project phases, after releases, or due to resource limitations. Recognizing these cycles helps with better planning and resource management during peak times.
Issue Hotspots: Certain areas or phases of the project may consistently generate a higher number of issues. Identifying these "hotspots" enables teams to focus on improving specific processes, whether it's better requirements gathering, more comprehensive testing, or additional training.
Impact of Mitigation Efforts: Comparing issue creation data before and after implementing mitigation strategies helps evaluate their effectiveness. If issues decrease post-intervention, teams can confidently refine their processes or corrective actions for continued improvement.

General Filters

Use these filters to narrow down the information you want to see. After making any updates, make sure you click ‘update’ to have the changes reflect on the chart below.

Issues Created Between: For Issue Creation, we recommend using monthly or greater.

Descendants of: Limit the data by JIRA or ADO projects. You can also filter by projects or repo. In this metric specifically, it is recommended to narrow down your data based off the specific milestone (i.e. Jira project, area path, etc) related to your team.

Issues Assigned to: For issue creation, we recommend not filtering by tags or individuals. This is because you’ll want to select ‘include disabled team members’ in chart settings and by filtering by tags or individuals will override who pulls into this metric.

Advanced Filters: Filter your data using fields and properties located in your project management tool (e.g. JIRA, ADO). Reminder to remove ‘Inactive’ or ‘Removed’ issue states:

TIP: Make sure to apply the changes you made to General Filters by clicking ‘Update’.

Chart Settings

You can use chart settings to format how the chart displays your data. This is powerful when it comes to creating data visualizations to support the story you’re trying to tell.

For Issue Creation, you’ll almost always want to select ‘Include Disabled Team Members’.

This filter option ignores team roster set up, including users that are disabled. This is to ensure you include cards where the card creator may not be the current assignee or someone on your team.

Commonly Asked Question regarding Issue Creation

Q: Issue Creation metric is missing data. I’m not seeing everything I’m expecting to see?

A: You’ll want to make sure you remove any tag selections under ‘General Filters > Issues Created By’ and select ‘include disabled team members’ under Chart Settings.

Conclusion

Tracking issue creation is crucial for understanding the evolving challenges of a project. By identifying trends, hotspots, and the impact of mitigation strategies, teams can proactively address issues, optimize resource allocation, and improve project outcomes. Monitoring issue creation helps ensure that workload is balanced and that the team is prepared for potential challenges, ultimately contributing to more efficient project management and timely delivery.