Tracking different times on issues.

Question

I'm looking for an easy way to track time of devs in a project, specifically split into

Time Spent on developing

Code reviews

Release

I would ideally like this to be 3 separate time tracking on each issue but cant figure out how to track the time,

currently we have a "distractions" ticket for devs to just log blocks of time against for reviews and other stuff.

Is there a better way of tracking this?

Gracjan Wesołowski _HeroCoders_ · Answer

Hi @Dale Hughes 
Welcome to the community!

I understand you would like to know how much time on a ticket is spent on a specific task.

Using statuses to track that and then pulling time in status with an app is one approach, pretty common and there's nothing wrong with it.

I'd like to offer you a different approach with a solution developed by our team, the HeroCoders. If you're looking for an easy way to track time as well as discern what was done, you might be interested in our app, Clockwork Pro.

It allows you to add custom attributes - tags if you will - to worklogs and then display timesheets that show time spent broken down by those tags. You can also make these fields mandatory. This is what it looks like while adding the worklog:

Those data can be in a simple way shown in Clockwork Timesheet, or reports, please find below an example using your use case:

If you have any additional questions, related to that topic, let me know.

Cheers!

Gracjan

Emre Toptancı [OBSS] · Answer

Hello @Dale Hughes

Jira's own time-tracking system doesn't differentiate between work log entries. It doesn't provide a way to mark any work log as different from the others. All work logs are accumulated at the issue level.

Alternatively, you can configure your workflow so each of the times you want to measure is represented b a different status. In that case, you can use one of the marketplace apps to measure how much time each issue spent on those statuses. If you choose to implement this option, you need to make sure that users keep issue statuses updated (which might be a challenge).

If you are OK with using a marketplace app for this, 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 or 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 Vertical 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 for Jira Cloud.

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.

Timepiece - Time in Status for Jira

EmreT

Dániel Ballabás - catworkx · Answer

Hi Dale,

you can use tags to differentiate the different types of time spent working on an issue. We've introduced this feature recently to our Timetracker app (note: I'm part of the team at EverIT, the developer).

You can customize the name of the tags however you like, and you will be able to filter them on our app's reporting view quickly.

As with all marketplace apps, Timetracker also comes with a free trial period of a minimum of 30 days.

You can check the app out here.

If you have any questions, just book a free demo, and we'll happily answer them!

Daniel