Epic Estimation from Backlog

[Rob Hall]

We use story points. In the epic panel from a scrum backlog, I would like to know what data drives the Epic "Estimate". I don't think it's just a straight sum of all of the points in stories that are pointed. If it's not, what is it?

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @Rob Hall 

Are you working with a Company Managed project board or a Team Managed project board?

For a Company Managed project board the Estimate value you see in the Epics pane will be based on the sum of the issues in the Epic for the field you specify in the Board Settings > Estimation > Estimation Statistic.

If that is not what you are observing, please provide more information about what you see and the values within the child issues and we'll try to help you figure out what you're getting.

[Rob Hall]

Hey Trudy! I don't know 100% the answer to that. Our company uses Jira for about 30 or so scrum teams. Each team has a board that is within a group "project". When I go into our board settings, I am one of the administrators. When I click on "estimation" in the board settings, it's set to "story points". I at first thought that the estimate from the epic panel on the backlog was a sum of all of the story points of child issues within an epic, but I noticed them being off sometimes - For instance, we have an epic where if you sum the actual points of all of the child issues, it comes out to 16 points, but if you look at the estimation, it's 20. Wondering if it's based on the fact that there are a couple of unpointed child issues?

[Trudy Claspill]

If you are using multiple boards and a single Project then it is very likely that project is a Company Managed project. 

I have not been able replicate your scenario where the Epic Panel Estimation for Story Points is greater than the sum of Story Points for all the issues in the Epic.

I have seen a scenario where the Epic Panel Estimation for Story Points is less than the sum of the Story Points for all issue in the Epic. This can occur when the filter for the board does not include all issues in the Epic. The Epic Panel will show count only the issues that in the Epic and within the scope of the board's filter.

One thing I have not explored is how the Epic Panel sums are impacted if Issue Security Levels are implemented. I don't know if it would include in those sums issues that are in the Epic and in scope of the board but not visible to you because of security levels. If Issue Security is hiding issue from you, then you might not be seeing all the issues in the Epic when you are trying to manually sum up the story points from the individual issues.