How are lifecycle states used in reporting and governance?

• A. State values are used to measure cycle time, bottlenecks, and compliance by filtering on states.
• B. States determine the user permissions only.
• C. States automatically generate contracts.
• D. States are ignored in reporting.

Answer: (A)

Lifecycle states are the markers that show where a contract sits in its process, such as Draft, In Review, Approved, Executed, or Archived. In reporting and governance, those states become key data points you can filter on to measure how work moves through the lifecycle. By looking at how long items spend in each state, you can compute cycle time and pinpoint bottlenecks where work stalls. Filtering reports by states also helps verify compliance with governance rules—for example, whether a contract passed through all required states and approvals within defined SLAs. Because state transitions reflect the actual flow of work and policy adherence, they are central to both performance insights and governance oversight.

States are not primarily about user permissions, they don't automatically generate contracts, and they are not ignored in reporting, so those statements don’t fit with how lifecycle states are used.