Don't update Time remaining when logging hours

Question

Currently when using time tracking in JIRA, it automatically calculates the Time remaining when entering a value in the the 'Time spent' when logging hours on a subtask.

This is not something we want. When creating tasks the 'original estimate' is a guess, it will never be 100% accurate (expect for maybe some really small tasks), hence the word estimate.

The 'time remaining' is not simply a calculation of the time spent, but is an estimation on how long you think remains for the tasks. If the original estimate is 16hours, and after I spent 4h I think it will be only 1h of work left, I don't want the remaining to be automatically calculated. Or the other way around, I could find out after 4 hours of work that it will take more than 16 hours. People should always think about this when updating the remaining hours. "What do I estimate the time remaining will be".

In our current setup we update the hours during our daily meeting. This way the whole team knows how much time is remaining and can sometimes help with an estimate (like asking questions if the one updating the remaining if they thought about something).

Is there a way to disable the 'time remaining' to be automatically calculated? I understand some teams may want to use this and I know you can manually enter a different value, but it should not be forced. Is there a setting you can disable this calculation?

willemjan92 · Answer

I understand what that you can and should use the actual time spent to improve setting the original estimation.. But that can only be done when the tasks are done and you retrospect on what tasks took longer and what took less time. I am not talking about the time spent, in the context of this question I don't even care about the time spent. I'm talking about the remaining estimate being automatically updated

When a task is done, you should have 2 numbers. A calculation of all logged hours and the original estimate. These 2 numbers can be used to improve your estimations in the future.

During the work, you should always actively think about what you think the current remaining hours should be. It can never be a simple calculation, it should always be manually thought about to give the most accurate estimation.

Edit because I just thought about this;

In an older version of JIRA (from a couple years ago), this was already the case. You update your logged hours, and every other time was left alone and should be manually updated

Marc -Devoteam- · Answer

Hi @willemjan92

Welcome to the community.

No this calculation can't be disabled.

Your Original Estimate is indeed a possible guess or set time frame.

The logged time should provide the indication on the actual time spent, this should give information to improve on setting the original estimation.