hi ​@caroline_d ! 

Great question! Let’s start with Question #2.
Yes, Flow Time will continue to calculate on the ticket as it has entered an active or wait state.  

Now for Question #1:
In Viz, the Flow States are: new, active, waiting, done, and canceled. You mention "Open" above. Is this a state in your tool? Is it modeled as a “new” state in the Artifact modeling? 

If you are focused on flow metrics within the sprint, you can certainly move the ticket back to the backlog (typically a “new” state). Doing so will remove it from Flow Load, which may better reflect the current sprint’s scope.

For those looking to improve time to customer, they typically also look beyond the sprint, especially across the entire value stream. For this reason, it’s equally acceptable to transition the ticket to a “waiting” state (e.g., “waiting on development”). This approach brings visibility to areas outside of the development team where delays or inefficiencies may occur. Interestingly, some of the most significant opportunities for improving time-to-customer can often be found before the development team even begins working on the item! This can be hidden when work is placed in a “new” state. Some customers use both views and this would be my recommendation where possible for team, customer and business benefits to visualizing and improving flow. 

If you’d like to see the impact on flow due to how often or how much work gets taken out of the sprint over time, you can consider adding “deferred” backlog state (or label). This state/label can help if needed:

1. Bring visibility to the volume of work removed from sprints or otherwise deprioritized.
2. Use Bottleneck Finder to analyze the long-term impact of deprioritization on the value stream and identify opportunities for continuous improvement.
3. If it is added as a state rather than a label, you can also see the immediate impact using Flow Item Analyzer and Flow Modeler, providing a clearer picture of how prioritization and flow decisions affect your overall delivery process.