Cycles

This page shows you how to run a project in cycles: fixed-length stretches of work that By Dawn schedules for you. By the end you’ll know how to set a cadence, plan tickets into a cycle, read a cycle’s progress, and what happens to unfinished work when a cycle ends.

A cycle is a numbered, dated block of time, two weeks by default, that belongs to one project. By Dawn keeps the current cycle and a few upcoming ones created ahead, each starting at midnight on the same weekday in the project’s timezone. A ticket sits in at most one cycle at a time. When a cycle ends, By Dawn freezes a report of how it went and, if you let it, moves the unfinished tickets into the next cycle. That way the team always knows what it’s working on this cycle, and how much it usually gets through.

Cycles are optional and off for a new project. Workers don’t need them, but people planning review time or a release often do.

Turn on cycles

Only project admins and org admins can change a project’s cycle settings, because the cadence applies to everyone on the project.

1. Open Settings›, then This project›, then Cycles and switch on Use cycles. By Dawn starts with your browser’s timezone, and the first cycle is the one running today: it opens on the most recent start day.

2. Under Cadence, set:

   • Duration: how long each cycle runs, from 1 to 8 weeks.
   • Starts on: the weekday every cycle begins.
   • Cooldown between cycles: a gap between one cycle’s end and the next one’s start, None or up to 4 weeks.
   • Upcoming cycles kept ahead: how many future cycles By Dawn keeps created, so you can plan further out.
   • Timezone: where midnight is for the start day. Use my timezone fills in yours.

3. Check Next 3 cycles, which shows where the cycles would fall with your settings before anything is saved. Then choose Save changes.

A cadence change applies to upcoming cycles only. The running cycle keeps its dates, so a change never moves work that’s already under way.

Turning cycles off asks first. Nothing is deleted: your cycles, their reports and every ticket’s cycle stay, and By Dawn stops scheduling new ones. With cycles off, the cycle controls disappear from the app until you turn them on again.

Automations

The same card has four switches that decide what joins or leaves a cycle without anyone planning it:

Switch	What it does
Roll over unfinished tickets	When a cycle ends, its unfinished tickets move into the next cycle. Off leaves them in no cycle. On by default.
Add started tickets to the active cycle	A ticket with no cycle that moves into a started column joins the running cycle.
Add completed tickets to the active cycle	A ticket with no cycle that is completed joins the running cycle, so unplanned work still counts.
Allow Run cycle	Adds Run cycle to the running cycle’s page (see Run a cycle).

A ticket that already has a cycle is never moved by these.

The Cycles page

With cycles on, the project’s sidebar row reads Cycles & Releases, and ⌘5 opens the Cycles tab. It sits beside Releases and Changelog (see Releases).

The page lists cycles under Current, Upcoming and Past. Each row shows the cycle’s dates, where it stands against the clock (“4 days left”, “Starts in 3 days”), how much is done, and the release it ships in, if any. The header shows the cadence and, once a cycle has completed, the project’s velocity.

Velocity is the average amount completed over the last three completed cycles. On a project with estimates it’s counted in points, otherwise in tickets (see Estimates). Once there’s a velocity, every running or upcoming cycle shows a capacity bar: what’s planned into it against that velocity. The bar turns to a warning colour once the plan runs past a typical cycle’s delivery, which is your cue to move work out before the cycle starts rather than roll it over after.

Add tickets to a cycle

There are several ways in, depending on where you are:

• On a ticket, the cycle sits in the header. Choose it (it reads Add to cycle when the ticket has none) and pick from Current, Next and Upcoming, or No cycle. ⌘⇧C opens it from the keyboard in the desktop app, and ⌘⌥⇧C in a browser.
• When you create a ticket, set Cycle in the composer or in quick add.
• On the board, select several cards and use Move to cycle. You can also filter or group the board by Cycle.
• In the cycle planner, which is built for planning a whole cycle at once.

A card in a running or upcoming cycle shows a small chip with the cycle number, such as C13. If the ticket has been carried over from earlier cycles, the chip adds ↻×2 (or however many cycles running), so work that keeps slipping stands out.

Tickets can’t be added to or taken out of a completed cycle, because its record is history.

Plan a cycle

The planner puts the project’s backlog beside one cycle, so you can fill the cycle and watch its capacity as you go. Open it with Plan next cycle on the Cycles page (or Plan current cycle when nothing is scheduled), or with Plan on a cycle’s own page. The cycle menu at the top switches to another running or upcoming cycle.

1. Narrow the Backlog with the search box and the epic, assignee and other filters. The backlog holds every open ticket that isn’t in a cycle, most urgent first. A ticket waiting on another shows Blocked.

2. Select tickets by clicking their rows. Shift-click selects a range, and Select all takes everything the filters show.

3. Choose Add to Cycle N, or drag the selection onto the cycle’s side. To take tickets back out, select them on the cycle’s side and choose Remove, or drag them back to the backlog.

Every move is saved as you make it, and the capacity bar above the cycle updates at once. Until the project has completed a cycle there’s no velocity to measure against, so the planner shows only how much is planned.

On a phone the planner shows one side at a time, with a switch between Backlog and the cycle, and you move tickets by selecting them rather than dragging.

Follow a cycle

A cycle’s page opens from its row on the Cycles page. The header shows the dates, the time left, and three counts: Scope (everything in the cycle), Started and Completed, in points when the project uses estimates. Below it are the tabs:

Tab	What it shows
Issues	The cycle’s tickets as a board.
Burn-up	Scope and completed work day by day, with the ideal pace as a dashed line. The first point appears at the end of the cycle’s first day.
Breakdown	Progress split by Assignee, Epic, Label or Priority. Choosing a row shows the Issues tab narrowed to it.
Release	The release this cycle ships in, with its progress and readiness. It appears only when the cycle is linked to one.
Tests	The cycle’s test plan, with its pass rate and each item’s status, or Draft a test plan when it has none. See Plan testing for a release or cycle.
Report	A completed cycle’s frozen report (see When a cycle ends).

Insights opens the project’s insights for exactly this cycle’s window. On a running or upcoming cycle, Edit changes its name, description and dates. A cycle’s days can’t overlap another cycle’s, so By Dawn refuses dates that would.

Run a cycle

When Allow Run cycle is on, the running cycle’s page has Run cycle. It starts a worker on each ticket in the cycle that is ready: not started yet, and not waiting on a blocker. The confirmation lists the tickets first. Each one moves to Building, and a machine that’s busy queues its share. One run starts at most 20 workers, so for a larger cycle you run it again for the rest. To start one ticket at a time instead, see Missions and templates.

When a cycle ends

A cycle completes on its own at the end of its last day. To end it early, open the running cycle and choose Complete now. Either way:

• Unfinished tickets move to the next cycle when Roll over unfinished tickets is on, and to no cycle when it’s off. A ticket counts as unfinished until it’s in a completed column, and archived tickets don’t count.
• The report is frozen. The Report tab keeps the numbers the cycle closed with: scope, completed, rolled over, and how many tickets were added after it started or removed before it ended. It also has the burn-up, a row per assignee, and the tickets behind every count. Moving a ticket later doesn’t rewrite it, which is why velocity reads from reports.
• The next upcoming cycle still starts on its own schedule. Completing early doesn’t pull it forward.

For a cycle that isn’t linked to a release, Complete now asks once and says where the unfinished tickets will go. Choose Complete cycle to confirm.

Completing a cycle that feeds a release

When the cycle ships in a release that’s still open, Complete now walks you through up to three steps, because the unfinished tickets are in that release too:

1. Review says what’s done and what isn’t.
2. Unfinished work asks what happens to the unfinished tickets’ place in the release. They can move on with the cycle to the next cycle and its release (marked recommended), hold the release for them, or leave the release. A list under What moves shows, ticket by ticket, which releases each one leaves or joins.
3. Release offers to ship the release now, with its readiness checks. Choose Complete, don’t ship or Complete & ship.

A step that has nothing to decide is skipped. The default for step 2, and whether step 3 is offered at all, are release settings (see Releases). After the close you can undo the release changes for 10 minutes from the same browser. The cycle itself stays completed.

Cycles and releases

A cycle can feed one or more releases. When it does, its tickets join the release and follow the cycle, so you plan the cycle and the release fills itself. The cycle’s header shows a Ships in chip for each release.

When a running or upcoming cycle isn’t linked to anything, its page may suggest the open release dated in or soonest after its window. Choose Link to accept, or Not now to hide that suggestion. You can also link cycles from the release’s side, and unlink them from either side. Releases covers both.

Do and don’t

• Do set the timezone to where the team works. Cycles start at midnight there, so a zone hours away makes the first and last days feel shifted.
• Do plan against the capacity bar once you have a velocity. Planning far past it mostly produces carry-over.
• Don’t use a completed cycle to track late work. Its membership is frozen, so a ticket you finish afterwards belongs in the current cycle.

FAQ

Can a ticket be in two cycles?

No. A ticket sits in one cycle at a time, or in none. Moving it to another cycle takes it out of the first.

I changed the cycle length. Why didn't the current cycle change?

Cadence changes apply to upcoming cycles only, so work already under way keeps its dates. To change the running cycle’s dates, open it and choose Edit.

Why doesn't the capacity bar show?

Capacity needs a velocity, and velocity needs at least one completed cycle. Until then the planner shows how much is planned without a bar.

What happens to my cycles if I turn them off?

Nothing is deleted. Cycles, reports and every ticket’s cycle stay, and By Dawn stops scheduling new ones. Turning cycles back on picks up the same rhythm: the next cycle falls where the original cadence puts it, rather than restarting from today.

Next

• Estimates: measure cycles in points rather than tickets.
• Releases and the project changelog: ship what your cycles finish.
• Running a cycle with agents: a cycle from planning to close, worked through.