Cycle time and lead time are metrics that come from Lean and Kanban and are used to measure the time needed to realize a change. Cycle time is the amount of time between starting work on a feature and users being able to use that feature in production. The lower cycle time, the quicker you can react to changing requirements or insights. Lead time is the amount of time between requesting a feature and realizing that feature. It is the time between adding work to the backlog and the start of implementation.

When you add cycle time and lead time together, you are calculating another metric, the time to market. This last one is often an important business metric when developing software. Minimizing both cycle time and lead time will hence have a business impact.