What is the best way to convert time estimates on a Jira MS Excel exported file

Question

So I have been using Jira for now 7 months and simply loving the software. I need to start creating reports so share with the management on estimations and actuals so we can get better in forecasting on projects. But when a export a Jira file as MS Excel it changes the numbers in the time columns. So I am trying to figure out what those numbers mean and I am sure someone must have already looked into this so as newbie am reaching out to the community for help.

Thanking you in advance :)

p.s if it helps our time estimates are in hours and days and they convert in an Excel it become a long 4 or 5 figure number

Hannes Obweger - JXL for Jira · Accepted Answer

Hi @Ayesha Ibrahim

I believe what is happening is that Jira converts your estimate value into minutes (or maybe seconds?) when you do the export. Mind checking if this makes sense? Unfortunately I'm not personally aware of a workaround directly in Jira (perhaps someone else can lean in?) but you should be able to re-convert the data in Excel.

Hope this helps,

Best,

Hannes

Marc -Devoteam- · Accepted Answer

Hi @Ayesha Ibrahim

On exporting Jira issues to CSV timings are displayed in seconds.

So in your report you need to convert from seconds to minutes or hours

You can follow JRACLOUD-8898 where configuration is asked.

Danut M _StonikByte_ · Accepted Answer

Hi @Ayesha Ibrahim,

Jira stores the time estimate fields in seconds. So you will have to divide by 3600 to transform in hours.

But why struggle with Excel reports when you can easily create complete dashboards in Jira or reports Confluence with data in real time, which could be easily shared with your management!?

Take a look over these articles on how such dashboards or reports could be created by using by our Great Gadgets app, which offers great support for time estimates:

* https://community.atlassian.com/t5/App-Central/Tracking-an-agile-project-that-uses-time-estimates-with-Great/ba-p/1699994
* https://community.atlassian.com/t5/App-Central/8-gadgets-for-a-powerful-Scrum-dashboard-in-Jira/ba-p/1683063
* https://community.atlassian.com/t5/App-Central/How-to-track-scaled-agile-SAFe-projects-in-Jira-with-Great/ba-p/1929694

Hope this helps.

Danut.

Kyriakos Tsourapas · Accepted Answer

Hi @Ayesha Ibrahim

As @Danut M _StonikByte_ mentioned, time is in seconds.

But may I also suggest that instead of exporting to files, you can use the Jira Cloud Excel plugin that easily syncs data from Jira to Excel, without needing files.

Check out this article.

May I also suggest that you take a look at my Udemy course on how to use Excel to forecast Hybrid Agile projects, if it suits your case.

Best,
Kyriakos