Time Estimation and Time Tracking Questions

[atarab]

Hi all,

My company has asked me to set up a Jira Scrum project a certain way, and I wanted to hear how you would suggest the best way to do it is.

This is what they want:

- Estimation (in time units) to be given to Sub-Tasks.

- That Estimation should roll up to User Stories, and from User Stories to Epics. They ideally want Epic estimations to roll up to components.

- All process bars (Epics, user stories by subtasks etc.) should be based on time remaining/time completed. At the moment we do not need real time tracking, so time remaining = the original estimate of all open child issues, and time completed = original estimate of closed child issues. 

What is the best way to implement the above?

What we have so far are multiple automations that do the work.

One makes the original estimate of a story = sum of original estimate of all it's subtasks every time a child issue is updated (by using the smart value {{#=}}{{issue.subtasks.original estimate.sum}}/60{{/}} on the parent). We have not found a way to make this work for Epics. 

The other automation adds a work log with the original estimate as time spent when an issue is completed, and then sets the remaining estimate to be 0. 

Overall, this works. 

The issue is, it can't possibly be right to use Jira this way. For example, the complexity of everything means things fail often, every time things happen a bit differently than we expected. 

One more comment - I am aware, and have made the administration aware that the reason this is not simple is that this is not the best practice according to Jira (time estimating on Sub-Tasks instead of stories, and even time estimating instead of using story points). They are aware of this, but still think that for our company at this point in time it is the best way to do things. They expect such a high-functioning software like Jira to be able to accommodate this not-so-crazy way of working. 

I would love to hear any suggestions to make this work in a better, more efficient way. 

Thank you!

[Rhys Diab _Rogue Wombat Software_]

Hi @atarab 

So the issue is you want to log time against sub-tasks and roll up those estimates to parent Stories, then to Epics and report progress in terms of time spent / remaining estimate?

We put together a plugin called Agile Docs which does exactly this.

It rolls up time estimates from Sub-tasks all the way up to User Stories, Epics and even entire projects or filters.

The progress bar for "Time Progress" is based on Time Spent / Time Remaining.

In addition it makes these rolled up estimate fields available for use inside issues, so you don't need to set up any automations.

Let me know if this is what you're looking for.

Cheers,

Rhys

[Emre Toptancı _OBSS_]

Hello @atarab

I suggest you take a look at Atlassian's Advanced Roadmaps.

It is built exactly for such use cases. It allows you to take a sum of estimations from sub-task level to stories, epics, and further (it even allows you to define levels above Epics.)

And about turning original estimation into worklogs via automation ... I wouldn't recommend that. It doesn't produce new information. It just moves the existing data from estimate to worklog.

And estimations rarely match reality. That is why the most accurate way of cost tracking is your people entering manual worklogs. If you can't force that, the next best thing would be track status times of issues but in that case, you have to make sure that people update their issues on time.

EmreT

[Rahul_RVS]

Hi @atarab 

As an alternative, you can also try out our plugin, The app provides 5 important features, for roll ups of time estimates and stpry points, along with time tracking of issues and users.

Agile Tools : Epic Tree & Time in Status 

1) Worklogs & Time tracking Report :- Track time spent by resources with multiple filters / category / grouping features

2) Timesheet :- View/Enter your time spent for multiple days

3) Links Hierarchy :- View/Manage roll up for hierarchy (up to 10 levels), based on your Issue Links parent child relationship.

4) Epic Hierarchy :- View/Manage roll up for standard Jira hierarchy. Epic -> User Story -> Subtask

5) Time in Status :- More than 7 types of Time in Status reports to track your issues.

[Fabian Lim]

@Rahul_RVS

Thanks for sharing. Does this tool allow you create custom columns?

[Rahul_RVS]

Hi @Fabian Lim 

Thanks for your response. If I understand your query correctly, the tool does allows to view/add custom columns on the hierarchy report. The column ordering can be changed as per the need.

Also it shows roll up of custom number fields as well.

Please do let me know if that is what you were looking for.

Thanks

Rahul

[Fabian Lim]

Hi @atarab

You can refer to this post to sum up estimations all the way to the epic level: https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Automation-discussions/Jira-Automation-Complete-Video-Guides-on-how-to-Sum-Up-Story/m-p/1741948

Instead of story points use the time estimation customfields.

The other option is to use reporting tools such as eazybi where it will do the roll up calculations for you instead of having to use automation. If you go to their forums you will find different ways of creating time estimation reports.

[Lauma Cīrule]

Hi @Fabian Lim and @atarab !

Thanks for suggesting eazyBI! If you wish to look at what eazyBI can do regarding time tracking, here are some example reports https://eazybi.com/accounts/1000/dashboards/27385-time-tracking.

Also, an example Epic Gantt chart where you can see how Hours spent roll up in the Issue hierarchy: https://eazybi.com/accounts/1000/cubes/Issues/reports/78204-issue-epic-gantt-chart

Should you decide to go further and need any assistance with your particular report, please do not hesitate to contact support@eazybi.com.

Lauma / support@eazybi.com

[Fabian Lim]

For the folks who don't know, eazybi provides the best support for any questions and issues.  This is why I love to promote the app.