A guide to control charts

Control charts serve as essential tools in product management, helping teams visualize process deviations over time and estimate delivery timelines with greater accuracy. They display how long tasks take to complete, using the Y-axis for elapsed time and the X-axis for completion dates, with visual markers indicating the average time for task completion. By revealing patterns and fluctuations, control charts enable teams to assess the predictability of their processes and identify areas for improvement, such as scope creep or inconsistent task sizes. These charts aid in providing reliable estimates to stakeholders, fostering trust and facilitating coordination across different teams, such as engineering and marketing. Many product management tools, including Jira and Trello, offer control chart functionalities or similar visualizations like Cycle Time Scatterplots, which help teams enhance delivery predictability and streamline workflows.