Can I put a story point estimation on a task when I have my estimation statistic as "Story points" ?

Question

Hey Agile Enthusiasts,

I am using Story points as my Estimation Statistic and enabled time tracking to track the progress in sub tasks that contain hourly estimates. Now if PO creates a Task instead of a Story, I will not be enter the Story points to that as the estimate field is not available for Task issue types. So in order to enter storypoint estimation for a Task should I use the custom field - 'Story Points' ?

But isn't this weird as I have already configured my board to use Story Points as estimation and the Estimate field is actually the story points field in the issue detail view.

My questions are:

1) Is it logically correct for me to put a story point estimation on a task when I have defined my estimation statistic as "Story points" ? I mean I may have to treat both the stories and tasks on the same hierarchial level.

2) My concern is would JIRA consider the story points in the "Estimate" field for "Stories" and the custom field "Story points" for "Tasks" issue types while calculating velocity ?

Your repsonse is appreciated !

Thanks in advance !

Karthiga

Karthiga Sethuraj · Answer

Thanks very much for your quick response.

I am trying to avoid estimating the tasks with story points and rather use hourly estimates.

Just to make sure what I understood is correct: Though I use the "Estimate" field to estimate stories and I need to use only the Custom field "Story Points" to put a story point estimation on Tasks. And there is no other way to put a SP estimation on Tasks.

Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Answer

The technical answer is a simple "yes".  JIRA doesn't actually care what the issue type is, so you can put Story points on issues, features, bugs, tasks, penguins, etc.  As long as the issue type is at the same level as "Stories", it's fine.  (Don't put them on sub-tasks, that way lies madness)

The real world answer is pretty much the same - if you would benefit from sizing, planning and tracking with story points on Tasks, go for it.

You should just need to extend the Story Point field context to encompass the other issue types.