Avg Age of Work in Progress is the team-level version of WIP Age: across every item currently in an active state, how long has it been in progress on average? It's the cleanest leading indicator that work is getting stuck.
What it measures
For all items currently in an active workflow state belonging to the team, the average elapsed time since each entered an active state.
How Leanmote calculates it
wip_age(i) = now - in_progress_at(i)
avg_age_of_wip = avg(wip_age(i)) for items where status in active_states and team = team
Computed live — the value drifts upward every day items remain open.
Excludes completed and cancelled items.
How to interpret it
Rising Avg Age of WIP with flat Throughput — the team is starting more than it can complete. Cap WIP and finish before starting.
Avg Age much larger than Cycle Time — current open items are taking unusually long versus past completions. Investigate the slow ones.
Spikes after a planning cycle — recently started items naturally lower the average; look at trend across a full sprint.
What to do about it
Run a weekly stuck-item sweep targeting the highest-age items in the team's WIP.
Set explicit WIP limits per stage so age can't compound.
If specific items have been open for many cycle-time multiples, re-plan or split them.
Related metrics
Work in Progress (WIP)
Avg Member WIP Age
Cycle Time
Bottleneck Insights dashboard