How can I track team's capacity before starting the sprint?

[Mona M_ Abd El-Rahman]

Hello, 

I started a new structure for JIRA where I created custom issue types on subtask's level for teams (FE, BE, QC  ... etc). 
So, we will be having the following structure:
 Epics ---> Stories ---> Subtasks (custom issues)

The team will add the original estimate on the subtask level. I want a way that helps me to calculate the capacity of each team and each team member at the start of the sprint. 

As you can see in the screenshot before: 

• The total estimates of the subtasks aren't reflected in the story.
• I can't get estimates per assignee as subtasks aren't displayed in the backlog. 

Any idea of how can I handle this?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

>The team will add the original estimate on the subtask level

I'm afraid not.  That won't work in your sprints.

In Scrum (which I assume you're using because you are trying to use sprints), you do not estimate on sub-tasks. 

A short attempt at explaining this: Your backlog is a pile of items that need doing.  A sprint is a timebox, in which you are saying "we are telling our Product Owner that we will complete these items in this sprint".  The estimate is there to help you draw in a reasonable amount that you truly believe you can deliver.

Scrum has nothing to say about sub-tasks.  You can (and often should) use them to break up items into more manageable bits, but you don't estimate them.  There's no point, when you reach the end of your sprint, each item is either done or it is not.  You said you would complete those items, not bits of them.

So, Jira software simply ignores estimates on sub-tasks.  Because they're of no use to measuring your velocity.

[Mona M_ Abd El-Rahman]

@Nic Brough -Adaptavist- Thank You 🙏

I want to tell you more about my use case. I'm using sprints. but, in our case, we don't have a timeboxed sprints. 

The product manager defines a release scope (minimum units that could be released). then, we start a workshop to estimate this release and define the sprint duration. 

I was thinking of adding tasks related to the story instead of subtasks but I chose subtasks to have the active sprint shows the stories as swimlanes that have the child subtasks below. 

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

>we don't have a timeboxed sprints. 

This is complete nonsense.  A sprint is a timebox.  It does not exist without a start and end date.

Please could you have another look at your processes and either describe your sprints poperly or explain how you are not doing scrum?