Fields required for epic/burndown/velocity/control etc. reports

[Kim Killen]

Morning. 

What fields are necessary to get great reporting when using company-managed, scrum projects? I've been tasked with creating a new issue type for my company and cannot find hard, fast documentation that details which fields inform epic, burndown, velocity, control, etc. reports. 

Ultimately, we'd like to see how a project is progressing over time and, based on how fast we completed previous work, how likely we are to complete the remaining effort within the given timeframe. 

Do I need Start and Finish dates? Estimated start and estimated finish? Both? Logged work? Time Tracking? Story Point estimate? I also read up on the Fibonacci scale - do I need to implement using it for estimating? 

Help me!

Thanks. 

[Walter Buggenhout · Accepted solution]

Hi @Kim Killen,

Basically, the short answer is none.

Burndown and velocity charts - which are available by default on a scrum board - look at the columns of the board and consider an issue as done when it reaches the rightmost column of the board. This results in the value the issue reports (in story points or issue count) being considered as done and a visual indication of that value burning down on the charts.

Time tracking is the odd one out for e.g. a sprint burndown chart. The original estimate will display how much work was initially expected, but when your team starts logging work (time spent) agains issues, that reflects on the chart regardless of the issue status / board columns.

The control chart uses system dates that are logged when an issue's status is updated and - based on simple diff between the first and last transition dates displays the elapsed time.

Hope this helps! 

[Kim Killen]

Thanks, @Walter Buggenhout

A few more clarifying questions for you...if you don't mind. 

1. Are Log Work and Time Tracking the same thing? 
2. Aside from the descriptive and/or qualitative fields, the only quantitative fields I need, to ensure accurate, relevant reporting are Log Work, Sprint, and Story Point Estimate? 
3. Are Original Estimate and Story Point estimate the same? 
4. I don't need an Estimated Start and Estimated Finish to compare to actual start/finish dates? 

[Walter Buggenhout]

Good follow-up, @Kim Killen.

1. Log work is the action you perform to fill out the time spent field. In Jira, this is part of the timetracking field when you want to add it to screens.
2. As I more or less mentioned in the previous question: log work is not a field. It is an action. Original estimate is the field you use to enter the estimated amount of time you think a task will take, time spent is the number of hours/days actually worked on it and remaining estimate is - usually - the difference between the two. Sprints are a field too, but this is usually filled out by adding issues into a sprint from the backlog view of a scrum board during sprint planning. For story points - an agile concept to estimate the complexity of work rather than using a time based estimate - you can use Story Points in company managed projects or Story Point Estimate in team managed projects.
3. No. Original estimate is used for time based estimates and story points / story point estimates express complexity.
4. No. These are used to represent your schedule on a time line. 

[Danut M _StonikByte_]

Hi @Kim Killen,

Try also our Great Gadgets app; it offers all you need for tracking your agile projects easily and efficiently via Jira dashboards.

It offers all the necessary charts that you are looking for: velocity, sprint burndown/burnup, release burndown/burnup with forecast /ETA, any many more. It has full support for team-managed projects, can also include sub-tasks in the calculations.

Take a look over these articles:

• https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-Software-articles/Building-a-powerful-Kanban-dashboard-in-Jira-with-Great-Gadgets/ba-p/1664331 
• https://community.atlassian.com/t5/App-Central/8-gadgets-for-a-powerful-Scrum-dashboard-in-Jira/ba-p/1683063
• https://community.atlassian.com/t5/App-Central/How-to-track-scaled-agile-SAFe-projects-in-Jira-with-Great/ba-p/1929694

You could start with a free 1-month trial. Hope this helps. 

If you have any questions or need help with the configuration, feel free to contact us at  support@stonikbyte.com.

Danut.