Laneboard Board Statistics

What it is for

A kanban board shows where every card is today, but not how fast work moves. This tool reads a board file — a Laneboard project or board, a Laneboard share snapshot or a Trello JSON export — and replays the history of every card to answer the usual questions: how long do cards take, how many get finished, how much is in progress, which lists are over their WIP limit and what is overdue.

It is useful for a sprint review, a retrospective or a weekly check of a personal board. The Laneboard app shows the same report under Statistics; both use the same code, so the numbers match.

It cannot measure work it has no history for: cards moved before they were recorded only count from their first known step, and estimates or story points are not part of a board.

Worked example

The first example uses the Sprint board template, counted on 2026-11-24. The defaults are used: work starts in the second list (Ready), finished means the last list (Done), and due soon means 7 days. The tool returns:

Sprint 14 has 14 open cards: 6 in progress, 1 overdue, and a median cycle time of 5.1 days.

Five cards are finished. The lead time table shows a median of 6.2 days and an 85th percentile of 12.2 days; the cycle time a median of 5.1 days and an 85th percentile of 7.1 days. In progress holds 2 cards against a WIP limit of 3, Review 2 against 2 — neither is over. The overdue table lists Password reset e-mail lands in spam, one day late, and the oldest work in progress is Team calendar view at 9.6 days.

How to read the result

• Open cards / In progress / Finished — open cards are all cards that are not archived; in progress means between the start list and the done list.
• Lead time — from creating a card to it entering the done list. Cycle time — from first reaching the start list to the same moment. Use the median for “a typical card” and the 85th percentile for promises (“85 % of cards are done within …”).
• Finished in the last 30 days — throughput.
• Lists and WIP limits — Over the limit says “yes” when a list holds more cards than allowed.
• Oldest work in progress — the cards most worth talking about.
• Download every card as CSV — one row per card, ready for a spreadsheet.

Tips and common mistakes

• Set As of to a fixed day when you compare runs; otherwise “today” moves and overdue counts change.
• Choose the start list that marks real work. Starting in the backlog makes cycle time equal lead time.
• A card that goes back from Done and returns counts with its last arrival in the done list.
• With only a few finished cards, percentiles jump around; three cards are no forecast.
• For Trello exports, remember the 1000-action limit: older moves are missing, so times can look shorter.
• A board with several boards in one project: give the board name or its number (1 = first).

FAQ

What is the difference between lead time and cycle time?

Lead time includes the waiting time from the moment a card was created; cycle time starts when work begins. The gap between the two is time spent waiting in the backlog.

Why the 85th percentile and not the average?

Work times are skewed — a few cards take much longer. The average is pulled up by them; the 85th percentile gives a realistic “almost always done by” value.

Does it count archived cards?

Archived cards are not open, but a card that reached the done list before it was archived still counts as finished for the times and throughput.

Can I use a Trello board directly?

Yes. Upload or paste the Trello JSON export; it is converted the same way as in the import tool before counting.