Lighthouse collects metrics about your team, so you can inspect those numbers whenever needed and create experiment to improve your efficiency, effectiveness, and predictability.
About the Metrics
In general the metrics collected are the same (with some differences) for Teams and Projects. Lighthouse is using the respective settings of a team or project to get the information. It looks at all work items that fit your Work Item Query, takes into account the Work Item Types, and categorizes items based on the configured States.
Many metrics can only be collected on finished items. It is therefore important to make sure not to exclude done items in your query if you want to use the metrics.
Flow Metrics
The foundation of the metrics are the measures of flow as defined in the Kanban Guide:
Work in Progress (WIP): The number of work items started but not finished.
Throughput: The number of work items finished per unit of time. Note the measurement of throughput is the exact count of work items.
Work Item Age: The amount of elapsed time between when a work item started and the current time.
Cycle Time: The amount of elapsed time between when a work item started and when a work item finished.
Each widget will focus on one or more of those Flow Metrics.