Log Work should only ask for estimation and not for the time spent within GreenHopper

Question

JIRA and GreenHopper requires to set the 'Time spent' and 'Remaining Estimate' during a 'Log Work'. The prefered agile way in Scrum is to only track the remaining estimate and do not waste time in thinking about the question how much time should I log for ISSUE-4711. I was not able to find a way to shift this and only track the remaining estimate.

Is there any way to do this?

I also know that I will lose informations if we do not track the 'Time Spent' but this is okay for us.

Radu Dumitriu · Answer

Ok, 2 cents about: "only track the remaining estimate". This is totally bogus (I know, I know, scrum teams do not want to actually disclose how much wasted time there's in a project, and I understand why). This is where agile looses in front of traditional methods (well, I also have to say that actually I never saw a self-organizing team - some people are just born leaders and that's immediately seen in any team). Please split the theoretical scrum from the practical one.

That being said "how much time should I log" is a question about team discipline. It is good & important info. Keep track of it. It's just sane ;)

boardtc · Answer

The remaining estimate can be tracked via the hours burndown chart. For this to be accurate the remaining time should be cleared to zero when an issues is closed. Alternatively a post function can be added which does this automatically and this will be reflected in the burndown.