Where are estimates stored Advanced Roadmaps

[Lars Morten Nygaard]

We're using Advanced Roadmaps for our product planning using a top down estimation approach for the long term.

This means we start with adding rough estimates to the initiative, and break the estimation down into epics later in the process.

I'm trying to find these estimated, initiatives and epics, on the Jira issues, but there are no obvious place on the issue itself were these estimates are stored. Original Estimate would be the obvious one, but that seems to be the wrong idea.

Anyone that know where to on the Jira issue these estimates are stored?

/LarsM

[VINCENT DUPONT]

Hello Jira

could you please allow us to display and use the following columns in Advanced Roadmap:

* original estimate

* remaining Work

* time tracking

this would be more explicit for everyone

thanks

Vincent

[Jenn Sherman]

I created a custom field on the initiative to hold the estimate at that level. I can then display that field in the Advanced Roadmap.  It seems a clunky way to handle it so I'm hoping someone else has a better idea.

[Dave]

@Lars Morten Nygaard The estimate field in Advanced Roadmaps is linked to the remaining estimate in a Jira issue rather than the Original Estimate field. You can find this under "Time tracking" on the issue details view.

We use Remaining Estimate so that when you plan future sprints and review progress on an issue you are looking at the work remaining / work completed. If we just used the Original Estimate field then you would constantly be planning for the original scope of work and not what is remaining. 

Regards,

Dave

[Anthony Dietrich]

Dave, this is a flaw. though.

Roadmaps should first look at the original estimate to plan the work. The remaining estimate as the sole source of planning is like giving us a tool to use (Original Estimate in Jira issue), and then telling us not to use that tool (not even available as a selectable field in Roadmaps). This just makes no sense. At the bare minimum, make it a field we can add.

[Anthony Dietrich]

Looking into this further, the remaining estimate can serve as the datapoint we want.  That said, it would be handy, when roadmapping pipeline projects, to be able to have original estimates be a point that can be compared to actuals.

[Dave]

Thanks for those updates @Anthony Dietrich  ...

To provide a more concrete rationale... imagine that you start a piece of work in one sprint that is 40h long and you complete half of it by the end of the sprint. You need to finish it in the next sprint so when you're planning do you assume it's still going to take 40h or do you plan for the remaining 20h of work?

This is basis of why Advanced Roadmaps looks at the remaining estimate. However, it is possible to access the data from the "Progress (hours)" field, as shown in this example.

Here you can see that the remaining estimate is shown (20h) but the progress field is showing the original estimate data.

Regards,

Dave

[kris]

So my following question is how can I see the total Estimated/worked/remaining time for each group of issues (Release for example).

As Anthony said its like having a table of data where you cannot see a  key column and cant see totals. I understand your way of thinking but JIRA is great because everyone can use it and can find his own way of working with it. 

Regards,

Kris

[Dave]

Hi @kris,

Unfortunately you can't at the moment. I've seen this request come up a few times (to roll-up data to group headings) but unfortunately it's not on our roadmap to implement in the near future. That's not because it wouldn't be a useful feature but simply because our team doesn't have the bandwidth to implement all the features that we'd like to add. I'd really love to get features like these implemented but unfortunately at the present time we just don't have the capacity to do so,

Regards,

Dave

[kris]

Thanks @Dave ,

It means that we are canceling our premium subscription to save a lot of USD since Advanced JIRA roadmap is the only reason for us to be on this plan. We are switching to third party addon

Best,

Kris

[Tyler Ruff]

@kris , mind sharing the 3rd party add-on you're using? We have a similar need.

[FredrikLiljemark]

we too

[Serena di Vico]

This logic only makes sense as long as I am only using Advanced Roadmap in the review phase, but this is quickly followed by the Planning Phase.

So if I am planning activities in Advanced Roadmap and push them on Jira how does it make sense that I can not insert the Original Estimate during the planning phase? I can't insert the remaining there because the Original Estimate does not adapt (in Jira it is the Remaining Estimate that changes based on the amont of Original Estimate and Logged work done).  

Seems to me like you are forcing on us a logic in Advanced Roadmap, that is not even compatible with what happens in Jira.

[Darrel Jackson]

To provide a more concrete rationale... imagine that you start a piece of work in one sprint that is 40h long and you complete half of it by the end of the sprint. You need to finish it in the next sprint so when you're planning do you assume it's still going to take 40h or do you plan for the remaining 20h of work?

I get that rationale although I'd argue taking a 40h backlog item into a sprint isn't the best idea. The way I like to think of it is optimising for the common case.

For the average scrum team, how many times do you enter an original estimate for an issue? Once. But you do it every time.

For the average scrum team, how many times do you need to plan your sprint based on the remaining effort and not the original effort? I'm guessing no more than 25% of the time. (If you do have those stats I'd be interested to see them) The point of scrum is to finish what you start instead of carrying stuff over to the next sprint.

I view AR as a planning tool and Jira as a doing tool. Estimation is largely a planning activity. (Perhaps a controversial view? Probably somewhere in the middle if I'm honest).

So I get why there is a need for RTE as that is the logical place for non-scrum teams and scrum teams that often carry backlog over multiple sprints. But I also see the need for Original Estimate.

By not having it I can easily see the scenario where we have teams that use AR, accidentally populate RTE without OE and then that stuffs up their metrics.

[Brellison]

why can I not even see remaining estimate or progress (in hours) as an option to add to my roadmap?

Edit: I guess it's because when I created the plan we were using story points, but now we are using original estimates. Is there anyway I can access the estimate and progress fields without creating a new plan?

Additionally, I see in a new test plan I created, estimate and progress are in days, but our global time tracking unit is in hours...

Edit x2: realized you can adjust the estimation settings to hours under "scheduling" :) 

[Aurora Nguyen]

@Dave: Are you sure "The estimate field in Advanced Roadmaps is linked to the remaining estimate in a Jira issue rather than the Original Estimate field". For my advanced roadmap, the "Estimate" field is linked directly to the "Original Estimate" field in Jira issue. Please double check.

Btw, the "Remaining estimate" is "Estimate time" field and Estimate time = Original Estimate - Time Spent? Do you know how to show "Remaining estimate" and "Time Spent" fields in Issue View (tried to configurate Issue Layout, but it does not work for me). Omg, how JIRA can create many confused fields!

Thanks.