> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://portavi.gitbook.io/portavi-docs/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://portavi.gitbook.io/portavi-docs/tracking-delivery/cadences.md).
# Cadences
*Kanban projects only.*
A Scrum team has sprints to review its work in. A Kanban board has nothing: the cards keep moving, and nobody stops to ask how the flow went. A **cadence** is the review period you give the board so someone can.
## Setting the cadence
Two settings, chosen in the project setup wizard and editable in **Edit project**:
| Setting | |
| --------------------- | ---------------------------------- |
| **Cadence length** | 1 to 12 weeks. Two is the default. |
| **Cadences start on** | a weekday. Mondays by default. |
The first cadence is the week containing the project's start date; the ones after it run back to back, with no gaps.
{% hint style="info" %}
Changing the **length** applies to cadences that have not been recorded yet. A cadence already on file keeps the length it was measured with, so an old fortnight is never re-described as a month. Changing the **weekday** stretches the running cadence to end on the new day, so the chain never breaks.
{% endhint %}
## What a cadence records
At the end of every sync, Portavi writes down each cadence that has started and measures the ones still open. A cadence that has been over for a day is **frozen**: its figures are final and are never recomputed.
Each cadence keeps the cards that completed inside it, and for each one how long it took from creation to done:
* **Average** cycle time
* **Median** cycle time
* **85th percentile** cycle time
* **Completed** count
* The board's cycle-time target as it stood at the time
The median leads wherever there is room for one number. A single card left open for months drags an average upwards and says nothing about the fifty that flowed normally.
{% hint style="info" %}
**Portavi keeps board tasks for the current cadence and the three before it.** Older completed cards are not synced, and any Portavi already held are removed. Open cards are always kept however old they are: a card open for fifteen weeks is exactly what cycle time exists to catch. Frozen cadences keep their own figures and their own card list, so nothing on this page disappears when the tasks do.
{% endhint %}
## The Cadences tab
Every recorded cadence, newest first.
Each card shows its dates and length, a status pill, and how it went:
| Pill | Means |
| ------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Current** | today falls inside it |
| **Closing** | it has ended and is waiting for the next sync to settle it |
| **Closed** | frozen |
| **On target** / **Off target** | the average cycle time against the board's target |
A closed cadence carries a fourth pill for its review state (**Reviewed**, **Skipped** or **Needs review**) and an attention dot appears on the tab while any closed cadence is unreviewed.
## Cadence detail
Select a card to open it. You get the four figures, what the review concluded if there is one, a **cycle time spread**, and the cards themselves.
The spread plots one dot per completed card: when it completed across the bottom, the days it took up the side, and a dashed line at the board's target. Green dots came in under the target and amber ones over it. It answers the question the averages cannot: whether the cadence was a steady band, a late pile-up, or one ancient ticket dragging everything up.
Below it, every card that completed, with its own cycle time. Cards over the target are marked.
**Filter by team member.** The picker at the top narrows the figures, the spread and the card list to one person's completed cards. Cadences recorded before Portavi kept assignees cannot be filtered, and say so.
## Reviewing a cadence
Select **Review** on a closed cadence. You record three things:
**Did the flow hold?** Held, Strained, or Broke down.
**What blocked the flow**: in free text.
**Decisions**: one line each for what changes, the reason the review exists. A retrospective that changes no policy changed nothing. They go into the [decisions log](/portavi-docs/governance/decisions-log.md) on Governance with this cadence as their source, show beside the verdict in the cadence's detail, and can be edited by reviewing the cadence again. Anything written in the former "what changes next cadence" field appears there as a decision.
**Lessons**: each with a title and a RAG rating. They land in the project's **Lessons** tab tagged with the cadence that taught them, and can grow into full lessons later.
The cadence's own figures sit at the top of the form, shown rather than asked. They are already recorded, and retyping them would only create a second version to disagree with.
{% hint style="info" %}
Reviewing is the project owner's, and only a **closed** cadence can be reviewed: a cadence still running has numbers that can still move.
{% endhint %}
## Skipping a review
Select **Skip** if a cadence does not warrant one. It is recorded as skipped rather than left outstanding, the attention dot clears, and the **Review** button stays; skipping silences the nag without closing the door.
## Where cadences show up elsewhere
* The **Avg cycle time** card on the project's Overview reads the current cadence
* The **Cycle Time Trend** chart draws one bar per cadence
* The **cadence report** covers one cadence at a time, picked from a dropdown, with the trend it sits in
* The project, programme and portfolio **timelines** give a Kanban project a Cadences row, one bar per cadence
* **My Focus** lists a row for every closed cadence of yours still waiting for its review
