How we reduced MR review time with Value Stream Management

This post details how a GitLab team customized Value Stream Analytics (VSA) to specifically track Merge Request (MR) review time. A new custom stage, 'Review Time to Merge', was created with start and end events defined as 'MR first reviewer assigned' and 'MR merged' respectively. This allowed the team to visualize MR review time on the Total Time Chart and drill down into specific MRs to identify bottlenecks such as delays in reviewer assignment, slow review start times, multiple feedback loops, and idle time post-approval. The post also announces a future VSA enhancement: 'Merge request last approved at' event.