T-shirt sizing and velocity

[diana.georgieva]

Hello, 

Can you please assist with the below questions?

1. Is there a field in Jira in which I can add/input T-shirt sizing estimation?
2. If yes, does Jira calculate velocity based on these estimates?

Thank you.

[Gustav L'Estrade · Accepted solution]

Hello @diana.georgieva,

1. Jira has the possibility to create Custom fields with a wide variety of options (radiobuttons, checkbuttons, lists etc). Through this functionality one can absolutely set up a field for t-shirt estimation. 

2. No, the custom field has no built in functionality like velocity-reporting. 

My opinion and suggested solution: I would use the built in story point system (that has velocity reports etc built in from the start). The ideal use of story point is to limit the possible values according to Fibonacci sequence (1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13) to make it easier to manage. This system is the exact same as t-shirt sizing, but with numbers. If your team find it easier to talk about t-shirt sizes, then talk about tshirts during estimation and estimate in that way, but relate each t-shirt size with a story point number in Jira.

Hope this helps!

[Gustav L'Estrade]

The t-shirt to story point mapping then could look something like:

Story point: 1    2    3    5    8     13

T-shirt size: XS  S   M    L    XL    XXL

[diana.georgieva]

Hi Gustav,

That was my understanding as well. 
Thank you fir confirming!

[Matthew Limber]

I agree with Gustav's suggestion, and would emphasize that going with a custom field works against the grain in JIRA. It's extra work and fewer features to go with a custom field.

I'd also argue that XS-XXL gives too many options. I'd narrow that down to S, M, L, and XL, where XL really means it needs to be broken down. Fewer buckets leads to less bickering.