Average Calculation
All app gadgets, except the Multi-Metric combined and trend gadgets, as well as the Scatter & Bubble, and Change History gadgets, allow users to switch from the default sum-based to average-based metric calculation. This option can be found on the gadget configuration screen, under the Measure section, below the metric.
Default Average
By default, average is calculated as Total value of the selected metric divided by Number of issues
The total value is the sum of the selected metric (e.g., Time in Status, Time Between, Work log time, Cycles, etc.) for all issues that meet the data source criteria.
The Number of issues is the count of issues that meet the data source criteria.
Issue | Type | Time in status: In Progress |
|---|---|---|
A1 | Story | 29 h |
A2 | Story | 8 h |
A3 | Task | 8 h |
Total A1+A2+A3 | denominator - 3 issues | 45 h |
Average by Number of issues (A1+A2+A3)/3 | denominator - 3 issues | 15 h |
The above configuration uses a time series on the x-axis (a date-type field Resolved, specified by day).
When the chart is displayed by a categorical field, such as Issue Type, it shows one bar per value (e.g., Story, Task):
In this configuration, the value above each bar represents the average Time in Status: In Progress for issues of that category.
The legend on the lower right, shows the dataset-wide average (total time/total number of issues), independent of the bars.
In our example:
Story = 18h 30m (average of the two Stories)
Task = 8h (single Task issue)
Legend = 15h (total 45h/3 issues)
Key takeaway:
The average is calculated by dividing the selected metric value by the Number of issues (by default) that meet the data source filtering criteria.
The “Stack by” option in the app’s configuration screen is disabled for Average calculations to ensure accurate reporting. Stacking averages can lead to incorrect interpretations of the data.
Average by Another Field (unique category count denominator)
This approach is useful when you want to calculate averages across different dimensions. You can choose a field (e.g., Assignee, Issue Type, or any other), and the calculation divides the total metric value by the number of unique values in the selected field.