What does the first row 'Points Planned' on the Program Allocation Report represent?

[Jay Michael]

When I look at the first row 'Points Planned' on the Program Allocation Report I see a line of colored fields that have data similar to the second line 'Points Accepted'. This second line corresponds to the accepted data in my Jira velocity chart. 

Where does the first line come from?  Where can I find out more about it? 

Also: Can I add a third row of 'points committed'? Can I manually change any of this data somewhere?

Also: The pics I see of the program allocation report show 'Loaded"  and 'Actual'. How do I get to that report?

[Tom O'Connor]

@Jay Michael 

From the help https://help.jiraalign.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005071008-10X-Program-Allocation

How are report values calculated?

Points Planned row color and calculations:

Hover over a cell to view the Sprint Load.

Sprint Load % = ((Points Planned) / (Average Team Velocity)) * 100

• White = 0-1% 
• Yellow = 2-89% 
• Olive = 90-99% or 101-104% 
• Green = 100% 
• Red = 105% or more

Points Accepted rows do not change color.

That said - if you override the team velocity, unfortunately the report does not take that into consideration.  Average Team Velocity changes over reach sprint, but does not take into account if the team overrides the velocity.  

The report is not editable to add the third row. 

For you last question about loaded versus actual.  Check out the Story Backlog -> Kanban -> Sprint View as a possible view of what you are looking for. 

Hope this helps.  Let us know if you have more questions. 

[Jay Michael]

Thanks @Tom O_Connor Tom. I guess my question was not about how the  calculations were made but more to where the data for points planned came from. 

Sprint Load % = ((Points Planned) / (Average Team Velocity)) * 100

The above formula assumed the we have the points planned. Where did that come from? Am I inputting that somewhere?

[Tina Behers]

@Jay Michael The planned points is derived by Jira Align based on the total number of story points (on stories) in the current sprint on Day 1 of the sprint. 

The input of the story points is either done in Jira Align, or Jira.

Hope that answers your question! 

Tina 

[Jay Michael]

@Tina Behers  I was afraid of that. One of my teams keeps committing 47 story points which is their avg. velocity and they keep getting asked to pull in stories during the sprint. So while they remove stories during the sprint its not an even in and out. I was hoping Jira align would give them the visibility to how many story points they are adding on avg. so that they can start adjusting the inputs appropriately. 

Doing this in the program allocation chart will give that visibility at the program level.

[Tina Behers]

@Jay Michael The scope change report will provide that detail. 

However.. yes the human coach in me is coming out now... ;) 

If this is a common practice for the team to have to pull, drop shift during sprints, consider raising their buffer. 

For example: 

Known average velocity is 47 points.  Nearly every agile framework and method out there tells us to reserve 10% of average velocity. In this team's case, based on your description, I would recommend that they reserve 8 points, plan only 39.  Then they have velocity IF something gets added, and IF it does not, they can always pull the next 8 points work of stories from the prioritized backlog. 

This method will serve a few dragons 

1) the team will feel less "here we go again" defeated as they have to replan their sprints all the time 

2) it provides the mechanisms to truly commit the delivery 

3) it sets expectations with the stakeholders and hopefully will get them to a better planning state (happens more than you think) 

[Jay Michael]

@Tina Behers  Thank you. That's what I am hoping to go for. The challenge is that when they do their PI planning, all the top brass are there and the PO makes all sorts of commitments and the top brass don't understand what's going on in the team. 

If I can show them that in the past 6 sprints they planned something, committed something else and took in a completely different number, it will be visible to everyone and their mother-in-law the way things come down at the team level. That's what I was hoping Jira align can help highlight on the program allocation report.

Will check out the scope change report. Thanks for taking the time to walk me through this.