Can you update the start time for an issue?

[Randy O_Neal]

On a Kanban board, we track how long an issue has been "in progress" via the WIP Aging Chart:

If you notice the highlighted story, it shows that it's been active for more than 87 days.  In reality, that's very wrong.  The story was mistakenly moved to In Progress back last October 24th, then subsequently moved back to Ready on the 26th, after it was realized the story was moved to In Progress by mistake.  It was recently re-started in late January, so in reality it's been active for ~15 days.  However, Jira is convinced the story has been In Progress since it first was started back in October.

Is there any possible way to override that original start date?  I'm an org admin for our instance, so if there's any possible way to do it, I would think I'd have the permissions to do so.  I think I recall this just can't be changed... but does anyone know for certain?

[Bill Sheboy · Accepted solution]

Hi @Randy O_Neal 

Is that the StonikByte version of that chart?  If so, I recommend contacting them to ask about how to handle outliers like this: https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1216564/great-gadgets-for-jira-cloud-agile-charts-reports-kpis?hosting=cloud&tab=overview

Kind regards,
Bill

[Randy O_Neal]

Yes, @Bill Sheboy , this is StonikByte's gadget.  I'll reach out to them... thanks.

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @Danut M _StonikByte_ 

Did you see this question?  Thanks!

[Danut M _StonikByte_]

Hi @Bill Sheboy,

Yes. Thanks for tagging me!

This is a pretty complex gadget, especially when configured to calculate age as "The time since the first occurrence in the category of its current status or board column" as it was the case here...

Randy contacted our support team and we requested some additional data for analysis. Once we reach a conclusion, I'll provide an answer here as well.

Danut

[Ayça Erdem_OBSS_ · Accepted solution]

Hello @Randy O_Neal 

There is no built-in solution in Jira that allows you to override the original start date for a status transition. Jira tracks status durations based on historical issue transitions, and unfortunately, it does not provide an option to modify these timestamps.

However, to get an accurate view of how long an issue has truly been in progress, I recommend using a marketplace app. Timepiece - Time in Status for Jira, developed by our team at OBSS, provides detailed reports that can help you track actual time spent in each status without being affected by past misclassifications.

The Status Duration Report (see the screenshot above) allows you to see how much time each issue has spent in each status. This report ensures that only relevant status transitions are considered, helping you get an accurate measure of cycle time, issue age, or any other time-based metric you need.

The app calculates its reports using Jira issue histories, so when you install it, you don't need to add anything to your issue workflows. You can also get reports on your past issues.

Timepiece reports can be accessed through its reporting page, dashboard gadgets, and issue view screen tabs. All these options can provide both calculated data tables and charts. The app has a REST API so you can get the reports from Jira UI or via REST. Also, you can export the reports into various formats easily.

If you’d like to explore this solution further, you can check out Timepiece on the Atlassian Marketplace or schedule a demo with us to see the app’s features in action.

Hope this helps!

Ayça

[Joe Pitt · Accepted solution]

Those dates are set by Jira when you create an issue or transition it. 

[Randy O_Neal]

Yes, understood.  I'm asking if there's any possible way to manipulate those dates, since in this case, we mistakenly "started" the story prematurely by more than 3 months.

[Joe Pitt]

Not in the cloud. If on the server version you could manipulate the database (bad idea).  I'm not familiar with the WIP aging widget/plugin, but I would look to them or find another widget/plugin. 

[Randy O_Neal]

Thanks, all, for the feedback.  After reviewing the feedback above, and after discussions with my good friend Danut from StonikByte, my conclusion is I just need to live with this.  If I attempt to adjust settings in the gadget in order to mitigate the data for this one point, it has a profound ripple effect on everything else in the chart.  It also begs the question whether or not you also need to adjust the Cycle Time gadget we also use, as well as the Control Chart which we also use.

The bottom line here is the data cannot be changed.  Attempts to change the interpretation of the data have unacceptable domino effects which make all such attempts impractical.  Hence, the only viable conclusion is we live with this anomaly, which we basically did to ourselves.

Thanks everyone!

[Valeriia_Havrylenko_SaaSJet]

Hi @Randy O_Neal 👋

You're right that Jira doesn’t allow direct edits to the historical start time for an issue’s status transitions. However, if you're open to using an add-on, Time Metrics Tracker | Time Between Statuses can help by calculating time spent in each status based on actual transitions, rather than Jira’s default tracking.

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Also, you might want to check out Time in Status. 

You can visualize the aging of tickets according to the no. Issue Age Data available by Table view, Chart view and Dashboards. 

Since you have org admin permissions, you can test it out and see if it better fits your needs. Let me know if you’d like more details!

Hope this helps!