Time to merge is the average time in hours between when pull requests are created and when they are merged, rounded to the nearest tenth of an hour.
Note: If you set Pull request tracking to First commented, the pull request creation time is the time of the first comment. Change this setting on the configurations page.
Which reports use Time to merge?
See Time to merge in reports like Team health insights, Check-in, and PR resolution.
What does Time to merge measure?
Time to merge tells you how long pull requests are in review. This is a key health metric for flow efficiency.
Note: Time to merge is calculated using the creation date of the PR and includes any time the PR spent in draft status. If your organization regularly uses draft PRs as part of your process, your Time to merge will likely be longer than others.
It’s an objective view of the time it takes to vet and improve your team's development work.
Long-running pull requests are costly to your business. Paying attention to Time to merge means fewer delayed releases.
There are a few variables that affect how you think about this metric for your team:
- Do your team members share similar time zones?
- Do your PRs need reviews across multiple teams?
- How many reviews do you need before you merge a PR?
- Are your projects open source?
If your PRs are internal to a single team, and you have good communication, your Time to merge will typically be lower. If your PRs contain changes that span multiple teams, shared components, shared databases, or open source projects, your Time to merge may be higher.
How is Time to merge calculated?
Time to merge is calculated as the sum of all Times to merge for all merged pull requests created by included individuals, divided by the total number of merged pull requests created by included individuals.
This average is rounded to the nearest tenth of an hour.
This calculation is the same whether calculating Time to merge for an individual, a team, or an organization.
PRs count toward a team’s Time to merge if someone on the team either authors the PR or reviews the PR.
What data is included in Time to merge?
A pull request is counted toward Time to merge if it is merged. It doesn't matter whether it’s merged from one feature branch to another or is merged into the main branch.
Pull requests aren't counted toward Time to merge if they're:
- created by a user who is excluded from reports
- created by a hidden user
- an excluded pull request
- from a deleted repository
Note: User view rights and permissions also impact how specific users will see Time to merge.