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The measurement of the duration of high energy transients has historically been difficult. Duration measurements vary between different instruments and are often subjective. This has particularly been a problem in the case of gamma-ray bursts (grbs), where data have been collected with a multitude of spacecraft. The parameters $T_{90}$ and $T_{50}$ have been recently introduced by the BATSE team as measures of the duration of GRBs. $T_{90}$ is defined as the time interval over which 90\% of the total background-subtracted counts are observed, with the interval starting when 5\% of the total counts have been observed. $T_{50}$ is similarly defined, with the interval starting when 25\% of the total counts have been observed. We present here a description of the method of measuring $T_{90}$ and $T_{50}$. We use simulated, as well as observed, time profiles to address some of the possible systematic effects affecting individual $T_{90}$ ($T_{50}$) measurements. We will briefly discuss the impact of systematic effects on the $T_{90}$ ($T_{50}$) distributions for the grbs observed with BATSE.
