How do I make dependencies work in a specific way in a classic project on Jira software cloud?

[Nisanth Varma]

I want to measure the efficiency of our non-engineering team, so we can work towards improving it.  Workflow to involve statuses "Cookie Jar," "To Do," "In Progress," and "Done."

The methodology we plan on using to measure efficiency is two-fold.

1. How much time was a task supposed to take vs how long it took
2. How long was the task not worked on even though there was no task blocking it.

I was thinking of calculating 1 from an estimate that is predefined and comparing it with the time the task spent in "In Progress."

I was thinking of getting 2 from the time the task spent in "To Do"

The problem is that tasks have dependencies on other tasks (belonging to the same assignee or another assignee) They cannot start working on one task before the other task is done. 

What I figured might solve this was if there was some way to add dependencies on Jira between the tasks and trigger a change in status to "To Do" in task once the Task it is dependant on is moved to "Done."

Is there some way to do this? Open to suggestions on a different way to achieve the same result. Figured Jira should have some way to work this way since Asana actively showcases the ability to add dependencies.

[Petter Gonçalves]

Hello Nisanth,

Welcome to Atlassian Community!

I believe you are basically trying to have a clear view of how much time your team has spent in an issue against the estimated time it had at the beginning, considering the time that the issues were "On hold" due to other required actions tracked elsewhere. Is it correct?

I believe that the easier way to achieve your achievements would be by using the Time Tracking fields:

- Configuring time tracking

Using the mentioned fields, you will be able to add an initial estimation for your issues, that will be tracked to its end based on the time your team logged to the issues.

About the dependencies, you could add linked issues or sub-tasks related to the issue with their estimation separately, so you will be able to sum their estimations and check how much time the task would take to be accomplished against how much time it took.

Please, let me know if this would be an option for you.