Track Time Value in Jira Insights

Question

What is the recommended practice for tracking a time value in Jira Insights?  There is a DateTime field but no Time field.  The DateTime field requires a Date.  I want to track a time like 8:00 AM.

Also, what about tracking a duration?  I have fields that represent time durations like 1h 5m for 1 hour and 5 minutes.

More Detail...

I am importing multiple objects into Jira Insights that contain time values (like 8AM) that are not date specific.  For example, a list of batch jobs with their planned start times.

I also have objects with duration values (like 1:05 to represent 1 hour and 5 minutes). For example the Expected Duration of a nightly Batch Job.

I am looking for a way to store these values in Insights so I can present them in a user-friendly format (like 8AM or 1h 5m) but also run queries using their values (like finding all jobs scheduled between 1AM and 3AM that are longer than 1 hour).

So far I have gone with storing time values as text strings in military time:  2:30PM = "1430".  For duration values I think I will have to store an integer of minutes (this however will not present a user-friendly value:  4h will be 240m).

I would like anyone to share how they have stored these types of values in Jira Insights and what they found to be the pro's and con's of using their approach.

Stew Armbrecht · Answer

Thanks Walter!  This is an excellent overview of options for managing time in JSM.  However, I am looking for guidance on how to track time and duration values in Jira Insights.

If there were an Insights forum I would have posted this question there.  However, since Insights is a part of JSM, I am posting the question here.

I am importing multiple objects into Jira Insights that contain time values (like 8AM) that are not date specific.  For example, a list of batch jobs with their planned start times.

I also have objects with duration values (like 1:05 to represent 1 hour and 5 minutes). For example the Expected Duration of a nightly Batch Job.

I am looking for a way to store these values in Insights so I can present them in a user-friendly format (like 8AM or 1h 5m) but also run queries using their values (like finding all jobs scheduled between 1AM and 3AM that are longer than 1 hour).

So far I have gone with storing time values as text strings in military time:  2:30PM = "1430".  For duration values I think I will have to store an integer of minutes (this however will not present a user-friendly value:  4h will be 240m).

I would like anyone to share how they have stored these types of values in Jira Insights and what they found to be the pro's and con's of using their approach.

Walter Buggenhout · Answer

Hi @Stew Armbrecht,

I am not sure what you have in mind when you say you want to build a schedule in Insight. Being a tool to define and track assets (in the broadest sense), I could only imagine you may be trying to define the availability of your team or other resources?

Jira is not very great at handling time without dates. A time field (without) date is not really available.This older community article may give you a few creative ideas of how people try to work around that limitation.

It may also be worth noting that nowadays JSM has some scheduling capabilities built in for specific scenarios:

* If you are trying to schedule changes, you could consider using the change calendar. It allows you to schedule changes with start and end dates and times and visually display them on a calendar view.
* If you are trying to schedule your on call teams, the built in OpsGenie features allow you to set up on call schedules. You can learn more about configuring them in this support article .
* And finally, the SLA settings in a JSM project come with SLA calendars. These allow you to specify working hours (without dates, just times) during which SLA timers are running. Outside the schedule, the timers are paused.

So, if you are also bringing duration into the story, SLA's may come close to what you are trying to achieve, since they use an underlying schedule and measure duration dynamically.

Hope this helps!