Sprint burn down and reports not reflecting rejected issues/stories meaningfully

Question

Hi

We use the status "Rejected" for tickets and during a sprint and item might be transitioned into this status. These are not being reflected meaningfully in the sprint burn down and sprint reports.

Board settings:

1) Place the "Rejected" status into the Done, far right column, on a scrum board.  Complete print. The ticket appears as completed and its value is added to the completed tasks story points, which falsely increases the story point value done.

2) Place "Rejected" on the board in its own "Rejected column" or another existing column. Complete sprint. The Rejected ticket gets handled with all other incomplete tickets and will be sent to the backlog of my choice and remain active, which is also not desired.

Any ideas how to handle these rejected tickets?

BTW, resolution is set to "Declined"

Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Answer

Yes, it's less than ideal when you have uncontrolled inputs (another team blocking or cancelling your work after you've committed to it), but it is at least accurate in showing what happened.

Norma Barr · Answer

Nic, that's a good point. In our case we cannot yet isolate our work from changes in other teams which then lead to the rejection. But this is really the same problem you point out but on another level.

Also, what you drew my attention to is that the effort used on it is still work done, even if it is waste in the end.

Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Answer

Actually, point 1 is correct.

If you take something into a sprint, you are saying you are committing to doing all the effort required to complete that piece of work.  If you reject it during the sprint, you have done all the work needed to complete it, so the reporting is correct.

What I suspect is wrong is your estimation and backlog grooming.  If you were checking issues in full as you're supposed to before adding them to a sprint, then you would be rejecting them before they make any difference (or, for a poorer solution, you'd be estimating them at 0 SP)