Getting Started with Flow Metrics
Flusss Flow Metrics apps run as board views in monday.com. Setting up these apps (Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFD), Lead and Cycle Time Histogram, and Aging WIP) is simple. All three share the same basic setup, which you can see in the video below.
The video below shows how to configure and use the Flow Metrics apps step by step, including the Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFD), Lead & Cycle Time Histogram, and Aging WIP views on a monday.com board.
Important considerations
Board stability and app functionality
The Flow Metrics apps read the Activity Logs of your monday.com board to rebuild how items moved through your workflow over time. Because they depend on this history, the structure of your board, especially the main status column and key workflow states, should stay fairly stable. Big restructures, heavy renaming or deleting important statuses can break the continuity of the data and make the charts less reliable.
- If your board has changed many times or been heavily restructured, older data may not be reliable for flow analysis.
- It is often better to start with a fresh board and move the current items there to keep the history clean.
- When you move items, add a simple automation to set the initial status or dates. The apps do not rebuild old status changes, so this gives a clear starting point.
- Avoid deleting or heavily changing core statuses after setup, such as renaming the main status column or removing key values.
- The apps are limited by monday.com to the most recent 10,000 Activity Log entries. If you expect your boards to reach that volume, reduce the date range you analyse so the apps stay within that limit.
Define the work items clearly
In all Flow Metrics apps, each item on the board should represent a clear unit of work for the people reading the charts. The clearer the item definition, the easier it is to understand the CFD, the histogram and the Aging WIP views.
Typical examples by domain include:
- Software development: features, user stories, bugs, tasks
- Manufacturing: production orders, quality checks, maintenance tasks
- Marketing: campaigns, content pieces, design tasks
- Construction: building phases, material orders, inspections
- Healthcare: patient appointments, procedures, lab tests
Avoid mixing very different types of work in the same board if you plan to read the metrics together. This can make the charts harder to interpret and reduce the value of the insights you get from your Flow Metrics apps.