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Time-to-Market

Average Approval Time

Time taken to get approvals for moving forward in the development process. The KPI creates a shared view of features, releases, defects, work items, and development effort when its population, event rules, and reporting window are documented.

Business context

Why Average Approval Time matters

Trend Average Approval Time with its numerator, denominator, or contributing inputs so that a shift in scale is not mistaken for an efficiency change.

Business question
Where does Average Approval Time differ most across comparable teams, products, channels, or periods?
Teams that use it
Product, engineering, design, quality, finance, and delivery teams.
Decisions it supports
Roadmap trade-offs, release planning, quality improvement, staffing, and development investment.
Calculation

Average Approval Time formula

Total Approval Time ÷ Number of Approvals

Formula components

Approval Time
Elapsed time measured with one start event, end event, unit, and treatment of incomplete records.
Approvals
The consistently counted approvals included in the metric’s documented population and period.
Reporting period
The consistent day, week, month, quarter, or year covered by every input.

How to calculate Average Approval Time

  1. Define the business scope, reporting period, and the event or status that qualifies for Average Approval Time.
  2. Remove duplicates and exclusions according to the documented rule, while retaining a reconciliation count.
  3. Collect each input in the workbook formula from systems that use the same cut-off and unit.
  4. Apply Total Approval Time ÷ Number of Approvals and label the result with its period, unit, and relevant segment.
Worked example

Average Approval Time example

A fictional team brings together the inputs for Average Approval Time over one consistent month.

  1. Approval Time = 728.
  2. Approvals = 52.
  3. Average Approval Time = 728 ÷ 52 = 14 days.

Average Approval Time is 14 days.

This is the average or ratio for the defined population; individual records can sit well above or below it.

How to interpret the result

Compare Average Approval Time over a consistent cadence and break it down only by segments large enough to support a decision. Review the formula inputs beside the result so teams can distinguish a real operating shift from a denominator or mix effect.

There is no single target that fits every organisation. Interpretation depends on product maturity, technical complexity, team shape, release scope, quality policy, and measurement period. Document the comparison group before labelling a result strong or weak.

Common mistakes and limitations

Inconsistent scope
Changing the included business units, products, channels, or populations makes the trend look different even when underlying performance is unchanged.
Mismatched periods
Formula inputs from different cut-off dates or time windows do not describe one coherent result.
Averages hiding the distribution
A small number of extreme records can move the mean; review the median, range, and meaningful segment cuts when they add context.
Assuming one universal target
A useful comparison depends on product maturity, technical complexity, team shape, release scope, quality policy, and measurement period; use like-for-like internal trends and clearly documented peer groups.
Time-to-Testing Average time taken to initiate and complete product testing phases. Time-to-Prototyping Average time it takes to create the first prototype. Iteration Time per Product Average time spent on iterations during the development cycle. Average Time-to-Market Average time it takes to bring a product from concept to market.

Turn metric definitions into answers your team can use.

Vizma helps teams understand and track business metrics using their data. Bring your Average Approval Time definition, underlying data, and reporting questions to a Vizma demo.

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