Is an hours-based velocity report really meaningful

[Jim Stewart]

I totally get why velocity is an important metric, at least with story points. But it was adjudged to instead use hours on this one and so be it. But what to make of this report? How to interpret? It was our first sprint, essentially sprint 0.  The report said "Committed 1 wk, 1 hour, Completed 4d, 3 hours.

[Earl McCutcheon · Accepted solution]

Hello @Jim Stewart ,

As covered in the document "View and understand the velocity chart" the velocity chart should become more accurate and reliable over time, as more data becomes available and the team gets better at estimating issues.  So as the team continues to estimate and log work against issues the details will become more accurate.

With time estimates set vs story point, the report is going to become dependent on the users Logging work against the issues, so something you could do is set a field required validator on the done transition making the time tracking field mandatory but overall it will be reliant on the users to enter accurate details to make the report useful, so internal policy and commitment to entering the data is necessary to get accurate output to the report in this case.

hope this helps

Regards,
Earl

[Jim Stewart]

Interesting. So does the validator record actual time spent automatically or does it somehow make them do that? 

[Earl McCutcheon]

Hi @Jim Stewart ,

The validator will not input a value but rather enforce that a value is entered.  So using this method it is important to put emphasis on the training for the end-users the importance of accurately entering the value.

Alternatively, you could look at Jira automation or a post function to set the remaining time to zero when closing an issue, this will add the time automatically but would not be as accurate as a manual time entry as it is only aligning the time entry with the estimate vs using actual time spent, See:

• https://confluence.atlassian.com/jirakb/set-remaining-estimate-to-0-on-post-function-304579031.html
• https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-Software-questions/Jira-Automation-I-have-to-update-quot-Time-Remaining-quot-to/qaq-p/1611445

You could also look into the process outlined in the following Blog post that looks at methods for automated time tracking of issues based on status using add-on apps,  this way some of the time tracking is taken away from manual input and uses a timer function to enter the value:

• Automated Work Log for Jira: keeping time so you don’t have to

Regards,
Earl