Working Time measures the total elapsed wall-clock time the team or member spent on items in active workflow states during the period. Unlike Done Active Time, it includes time on items still in progress.
What it measures
The cumulative duration of active workflow states across every item the member or team touched during the period — completed or in-flight.
How Leanmote calculates it
working_time = sum(time_in_active_states(i, period)) for items where assignee = member or team
Includes both finished and unfinished items, but counts only the time inside the period window.
Time spent in waiting states (blocked, awaiting review, awaiting deploy) is excluded.
How to interpret it
Working Time is a denominator, not a target. It's most useful when divided by Throughput or Done Active Time to derive efficiency ratios.
Steady Working Time with declining Throughput means each item is consuming more active time — investigate why.
Sharp drops can indicate a teammate on PTO or focus blocks. Use Active Days alongside this to disambiguate.
What to do about it
Don't aim to maximize this number — Working Time isn't productivity. The right work mix matters more than total hours active.
Use as input to capacity planning: "we get X items of throughput per Y working hours."
Related metrics
Done Active Time
Active Days
Invested Hours
Throughput