URGENTE - Subtask Lead Time.

[Dionei Piazza]

How can I get the lead time for sub-tasks for one of my projects on Jira Cloud?

Note: I cannot afford to purchase a plugin.

[Emre Toptancı _OBSS_ · Accepted solution]

Hello @Dionei Piazza ,

If an app is not an option, your best bet would be the Control Chart that is available as a report in Kanban Boards of Jira Software.

While using the Control Chart, you can define a "quick filter" to filter only subtasks and define a board column to group workflow statuses that correspond to your Lead Time definition. The downside is: Control Chart is targeted more towards the overall picture. It shows averages and standard deviation but it is hard to work with individual issues on it.

I know you said you can't afford an app for this but for other users visiting this question with a similar need, I would like to note that our team at OBSS built Time in Status app for this exact need. It reports how much time each issue spent on each status and gives you the option to consolidate issues to get metrics like Lead Time or Cycle Time.

Timepiece - Time in Status for Jira

[Dionei Piazza]

Hi @Emre Toptancı _OBSS_ 

I have issue types Story, Tasks and Bugs in a workflow.

Because they are very small activities, the sub-tasks I put in another workflow that contains only "ToDo | Doing | Resolved".

With this configuration, I am unable to obtain sub-tasks in Jira reports. I think it is precisely because they are in different workflows.

[Emre Toptancı _OBSS_]

Story, Task and Bug are (by default) standard issue types in Jira. That means they are not subtasks but parent tasks. The built-in Subtask issuetype is a sub-task issue type (please forgive the pun). It is just like any other issue (with its own key, summary, field values and workflow) but it is located as a subtask of another issue. You can define mutliple sub-task issuetypes on your system with different names.

While searching for issues in Jira's issue search page, you can enter a JQL query like below to filter only subtask issue types.

issuetype in issuetype in subTaskIssueTypes()

You can use the same JQL to define a Quick Filter for your Kanban Board and when working with Control Chart, you select this Quick Filter to see only the subtasks in your project.

[Jack Brickey]

What do you mean by “lead time”? I’m not familiar with that term in the context of Jira and sub-tasks.

[Dionei Piazza]

Hi @Jack Brickey 

Lead time: The time difference (day / hour) between the beginning and the end of a deliverable that passes through the Kanban board.

[Jack Brickey]

Ok, so let me first provide this disclaimer - I have not tried this and therefore cannot provide a definitive solution but I believe it could work for you.

Given you are on cloud you may be able to accomplish your goal using the built in Project Automation. Here is the concept:

• Create a custom date field that is set when an issue 'enters the Kanban board'. Now, if this is synonymous with an issue being created, i.e. an issue doesn't sit in the backlog or your actual requirement is achieved by "now() - created date" then you do not need a custom field, just use createddate.
• if your end date is resolutiondate then you can use the transition to Done and/or Resolution set to be the automation trigger
• use smart values w/in the automation to calculate the time between the two date fields. See this article for more on this - use-smart-values-to-manipulate-and-format-dates . Check the section on calculating diff between dates

If you feel this might work and try it, please report back w/ your final solution as other readers could benefit. If I get some free time I may give it a go and will do the same, likely thru an article in the Community.

[Jack Brickey]

update: my quick test proved successful. Here is the basic test i did...

Obviously, you will want to adjust the automation and use of custom fields to achieve you precise goal but it does work. I plan to write up an article on this in hopes that it will help others.

[kanagaraj S]

Hi May I know more about this implementation - i am also looking for the similar one. May be your article will be more helpful.

[Dionei Piazza]

I have issue types Story, Tasks and Bugs in a workflow.

Because they are very small activities, the sub-tasks I put in another workflow that contains only "ToDo | Doing | Resolved".

With this configuration, I am unable to obtain sub-tasks in Jira reports. I think it is precisely because they are in different workflows.

[Zoryana Bohutska _SaaSJet_]

Hi @Dionei Piazza 

Yes, Control Chart can be helpful for you if you are interested in average data and want to monitor it at the graph view.

But more details information about the lead time you can get using third-party add-on likes:

- Time in Status for Jira Cloud (by SaaSJet) - using it a status group feature.

- Time between Statuses - by setting start/pause/stop statuses for the timer.

Hope it will help you choose the right tool

[Dionei Piazza]

Hi @Zoryana Bohutska _SaaSJet_ 

Plugins are not an option. :(