Graph for time spent on issue from issue opening in dashboard

Akim Boukhelif

Hello everyone,

One of my colleagues is managing multiple projects and would like to highlight context switches between all those projects.
He created a dashboard to count number of issues but ideally he would like to display on a graph the time spent on issues from issue opening. 
Here's how it could look like:

• On the left: Number of issues
• On the right: Graph for time between specific dates in a table (or the same table). 

Could you please help with this?

Thanks,

Akim

Diogo Teles_zhgoui

Hi @Akim Boukhelif 

Jira has powerful reporting features, especially if you work within the Agile framework. It is impossible to cover all use cases, although time in status is a very popular requirement and the other answers already mentioned some brilliant add-ons for this. 

If you are looking for a solution that does not involve an increased cost, then you will likely have to go down the path of integration.

REST API gives you lots of options for this (not for the reporting itself, but you could use it to create  middleware or other tools to meet requirements). However, I'll focus on a no-code approach below.

For example, if you can work with Google Sheets, you can use the free Jira Cloud for Sheet (official) add-on by Atlassian to extract Jira Cloud data into a Google Sheet.

Alternatively, if you use Excel, you can use Jira Cloud for Excel (Official)

This add-on can be set up in a way that the data gets updated automatically. There are a few different data sources you can use. The most straightforward is a Jira filter. However, you can also write a JQL query in the add-on and use the results as data source, or use it as a function within the sheet. 

Additionally, you can extract data from fields that are not easily accessible via JQL, like transition dates and transition authors.

If you are able to adopt this type of solution, then you now have all the flexibility of a spreadsheet to create your reports. 

This will open up multiple approaches to your requirements. You can use transition dates to calculate the time in status. Alternatively, you could use a combination of automation and custom fields in your project to log milestone dates into your issues (increases admin overhead but makes data processing easier) and then use those for reporting. Or use whatever approach your creativity and spreadsheet skills lead you to.

To display your reports to stakeholders, you can create a sheet within the workbook to act as a dashboard (remove grid, place your graphs in a tidy manner etc) and then publish that sheet.

Furthermore, you can use your published link to present the dashboard (or individual reports) using an iframe on a Confluence page. This will allow you to have Confluence pages with live custom reports.

Being able to extract Jira data into a workbook gives you a world of options. As long as you can work with all the tools involved and are mindful of security when publishing the reports. For example, I had a situation where the Org was still running a version of Excel incompatible with the Addon and use of Google Workspace was not allowed. That scenario limits this option a lot.

NOTE: There was an end-of-life announcement for Jira Cloud for Sheets last year, but it was revoked shortly after. You can read about it here. 

I hope this helps. If you do find a better solution without using paid add-ons please do share, it would be most welcome!