How is it possible to better track time in Jira?

[Andrii Sidorov]

Hello guys. Need your help here.

First, I need to know how to better track time in Jira in the most precise way possible. Some tools like Clocify can help you to do that but some people can just forget to turn it on and off. I was also thinking about a special tool that would probably track the time developer spent in the branch but that idea was critisized. 

Second, all that tracked the time I needed to break down and demonstrate it in the form of a diagram that shows how much time was spent on each task type - story, bug, etc. That means that the final solution should be well integrated with Jira.  

[Karolina Wons_SaaSJet]

Hello @Andrii (PM) 

When it comes to time tracking in Jira, you can try some apps for logging time presented on the Atlassian Marketplace. 

Or, as for me, the easiest and the most convenient way to track team efficiency is to use some add-ons like Time in Status for JiraCloud. 

It shows precisely how long each issue has been spent in each status and how long each team member has been working on the issue. So you will have everything necessary in a single place). It allows exporting and sharing reports with other team members.

This add-on is developed by my team. Please, let me know if you have any questions.

I hope you find it helpful.

[Rahul_RVS]

Hi @Andrii (PM) 

If you are fine with a mktplace app, to get this data, you can try out our plugin

Agile Tools : Epic Tree, Links Tree, Time in Status & Worklogs

Through the app you can track time both at the status level, i.e. how much time the issue spent in each status and also time spent with Assignee.

Also if your team enters worklogs the app helps to pull out reports based on that too.

Do try it out.

Disclaimer : I work for the team which developed this app

[Mehmet A _Bloompeak_]

Hi @Andrii (PM)

As an alternative, you can try Status Time Reports app developed by our team. It mainly provides reports and gadgets based on how much time passed in each status.

Here is the online demo link, you can see it in action and try without installing the app.

• This app has a dynamic status grouping feature so that you can generate various valuable reports as time in status, time in assignee, status entry dates and status counts, cycle time and lead time, average/sum reports by any field(e.g. average in progress time by project, average cycle time by issue creation month).

• You can search issues by Project, Issue Type, Status, Assignee, Issue Creation/Resolution Date(and any other Date field) and JQL Query.
• Status durations are calculated according to the working calendar you define. Once you enter your working calendar into the app, it takes your working schedule into account too. That is, "In Progress" time of an issue opened on Friday at 5 PM and closed on Monday at 9 AM, will be a few hours rather than 3 days.
• You can set different duration formats.
• You can export reports in CSV file format and open them in MS Excel.
• You can also add this app as a gadget to your Jira dashboards and reach “Status Time” from Issue Detail page.
• You can enable/disable access to Status Time reports&gadgets and Issue Detail page per project, users, groups or project role.

If you are looking for a free solution, you can try the limited version Status Time Free.

Hope it helps.

[Emre Toptancı _OBSS_]

Hello @Andrii (PM) ,

When it comes to time tracking, there are two general approaches.

I should note upfront that these approaches serve different purposes and are NOT alternatives to each other. You may choose to employ either one or both. 

Work Logs

The first one is work logging.

You tell your users to manually log the time they spent on issues and create reports on those logged times. Since this approach requires your users to manually enter work logs, people tend to resist if they didn't do this before. Even so, in most cases, this data is very very valuable and definitely worth doing.

Things to note here:

(1) Automation usually fails. I saw many customers trying to make this easier for their users by using stopwatch-like things but they typically give up after some time. Because people rarely work on a single issue at any given time. They switch back and forth between tasks and stopwatches can't measure that. The most healthy (and probably most simple) way to collect this data is if the users just entered it manually.

(2) Don't EVER let people think that this data will be used for individual performance evaluation. This will only contaminate your data. If people think that their performance will be evaluated according to this data, they will start entering work logs "in the way that works best for them" and you will lose data accuracy. Don't do this. Use this data just for process improvement and make sure everybody knows this.

(3) Jira supports work logging out-of-the-box but reporting options are limited. If you want to do this, you will probably need an app like TEMPO Timesheets to manage the overall process. (I am not related to TEMPO but used that app in many customer implementations. It's a very good app.)

Workflow Times

The second option is to get reports based on issue workflows.

Since Jira already records all changes on an issue and that data can be used to produce reports showing how much time each issue spent on each status or on each assignee.

The upside of this approach is: Users don't have to enter work logs manually so it creates less user resistance.

Things to note, for this approach to work:

(1) You must make sure every task of a user is represented by a Jira issue.

(2) Your users must update their Jira issues on time. For example, when the work starts, the issue must be moved to In Progress immediately. When the task is complete, the issue must be resolved immediately. Surprisingly, if Jira issues are not a central part of their daily lives, people tend to delay updating those issues and this causes your reports to be inaccurate.

(3) Once again, don't EVER let people think that this data will be used for individual performance evaluation. If people think that their performance will be evaluated according to this data, they will start transitioning issues early or later (based on whichever one helps them look better) and once again you will lose data accuracy. Use this data just for process improvement and make sure everybody knows this.

If you choose to employ the second approach, let me recommend our app. Our team at OBSS built Timepiece - Time in Status for Jira for this exact need. It is available for Jira Server, Cloud, and Data Center.  

Time in Status mainly allows you to see how much time each issue spent on each status and on each assignee. 

       

The app has Consolidated Columns feature. This feature allows you to combine the duration for multiple statuses into a single column and exclude unwanted ones. It is the most flexible way to get any measurement you might want. Measurements like Issue Age, Cycle Time, Lead Time, Resolution Time etc.

For all numeric report types, you can calculate averages and sums of those durations grouped by the issue fields you select. For example total in-progress time per customer (organization) or average resolution time per sprint, week, month, issuetype, request type, etc. The ability to group by parts of dates (year, month, week, day, hour) or sprints is particularly useful here since it allows you to compare different time periods or see the trend.

The app calculates its reports using already existing Jira issue histories so when you install the app, you don't need to add anything to your issue workflows and you can get reports on your past issues as well. It supports both Company Managed and Team Managed projects.

Time in Status reports can be accessed through its own reporting page, dashboard gadgets, and issue view screen tabs. All these options can provide both calculated data tables and charts.

And the app has a REST API so you can get the reports from Jira UI or via REST.

  

Using Time in Status you can:

• See how much time each issue spent on each status, assignee, user group and also see dates of status transitions.
• Calculate averages and sums of those durations grouped by issue fields you select. (For example, see average InProgress time per project and per issue type.)
• Export your data as XLS, XLSX, or CSV.
• Access data via REST API. (for integrations)
• Visualize data with various chart types.
• See Time in Status reports on Jira Dashboard gadgets

Timepiece - Time in Status for Jira

EmreT

[Hamza Chundrigar]

Hi @Andrii (PM) 

I’m also interested in what some of the other community members thoughts are on the matter. I’m sure there are different ways to slice the onion here.

To kick this off:

Have you considered configuring transition screens between workflow statuses that requires or serves as a reminder by providing the option to the end user to log in their time spent on an issue?