Tasks in plan not using existing time estimate

[Alex Trecartin]

Hey folks, one of our engingeering managers want to get into using the plans feature to do reporting for the PMs, but it's not working exactly the way he's expecting it to. If he goes into the plan and tries to use auto-scheduling, it doesn't seem to be utilizing the time estimations that have already been put in place onto the individual work items. I haven't messed around much with this feature just yet, so I was hoping to get some guidance on it. Thanks in advance for any assistance you can provide.

[Arkadiusz Wroblewski]

Hello and welcome @Alex Trecartin 

First thing I would check is the estimation setup behind the plan.

Since you want Plans to use the existing time estimates from the work items, I’d verify the underlying board is configured to estimate by Original time and not by Story Points or Issue count.

Please check:

Board settings → Estimation

Estimation statistic

whether Time tracking is enabled

whether the issues already have values in Original Estimate

If the board is not using Original time, that would explain why auto-scheduling is not picking up the estimates the way you expect.

I wish you a nice Saturday ☀️