Defined
The number of times a conversation on a pull request goes back and forth between people. Calculation Each time a contributor comments after another contributor, the Discussion Cycle count increases by one. This represents how many conversations are happening on PRs.
Examples:
Person A comments, Person B comments, Person A comments = 2 cycles
Person A comments, Person B comments, Person B comments, Person A comments, Person A comments = 2 cycles
Person A comments, Person B comments, Person A comments, Person B comments = 3 cycles
Why it matters
High numbers of discussion cycles can indicate potential confusion about the scope of work for the PR. Ideally, most questions would be answered before an engineer picks up an issue leaving PR discussions for smaller implementation feedback.
How to use it
Velocity allows you to set risk alert thresholds on discussion cycle count, giving you better visibility into PRs that may be going sideways. It’s helpful to review at the end of a spring which PRs had high discussion cycles to determine if there are any team learnings that can be obtained from them.