How does the sprint health gadget calculate scope change %?

[Colleen Bordieri]

I'm trying to determine how scope change % is calculated in the Sprint Health Gadget in Jira. On one of sprints, my team started with 120 points and added two 5 point & and one 3 point stories and it says the scope change is 125%...this has to be incorrect.

I confirmed in my board configuration I'm using Story Points and not issue count for the estimation method.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated!

[Bill Sheboy · Accepted solution]

Hi @Colleen Bordieri  -- Welcome to the Atlassian community!

Have you reviewed this documentation for the gadget?  It essentially uses the estimation method for your board and calculates using the add/removed items since the sprint started.

  https://confluence.atlassian.com/agile064/jira-agile-user-s-guide/using-the-jira-agile-gadgets/using-the-sprint-health-gadget

Best regards,

Bill

[rateodoros]

Bill, I read the documentation, the explanation is pretty simple "if you started a sprint with 50 story points and add an issue with 5 story points, the Sprint Health gadget would show a 10% scope change".

But, really, that doesn't match. It doesn't look that simple, I actually replied the same situation described in documentation.

Estimation in board is in Story Points.

[Colleen Bordieri]

Thanks @Bill Sheboy , I did take a look at the documentation and to @rateodoros's point, it's not behaving as the documentation suggests. Trying to figure out if I'm missing something or if there is a bug in how this is calculated. Thank you both for the replies! 

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @Colleen Bordieri 

I just tried your scenario with a classic project in Cloud version, and it worked correctly for me: start with 120 pts in sprint, add 2x5 pts and 1x3pts = rounded up to 11% scope change.  So, perhaps there is a different server version issue.

I found two open defects for server that seemed related you this symptom...both of which are about 4 years old.

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JSWSERVER-15130

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JSWSERVER-14757

I suggest submitting a support ticket and then please post back here what Atlassian finds.  Thank you!

https://support.atlassian.com/contact/#/

[Colleen Bordieri]

@Bill Sheboy @rateodoros I figured out the issue I was seeing! It had to do with the start date and time of the sprint. In the sprint that showed 125% scope change, the start date and time logged in Jira was earlier than when we actually clicked start for the sprint. 

The original start time of the sprint is noted as 10AM in the screenshot. In reality, the Scrum Master didn't start the sprint until 11:30AM. Because of that difference, Jira calculated everything in the sprint as scope change.

Once we adjusted the time to reflect 11:30AM on 7/15, scope change % dropped back down to where it actually should have been.

[Bill Sheboy]

Good catch!  I completely forgot about that issue as the teams I help with scrum normally plan on a physical board and then move to JIRA.  That helps confirm the start date/time matches reality.

Please consider marking this question as answered so others can find this and learn from what you resolved.  Thanks!

[Alana A_]

Where did you find the actual time that the sprint started? I need to do this as well and need to know which time to change my sprint to. Thank you 

[Anna Adent]

You can find your Sprint's actual start time by viewing the detailed section of the Burndown Chart for that sprint. 

Project > Reports > Burndown Chart > Scroll down past the chart:

[Moreno Gonçalves]

Hi @Bill Sheboy, please do you know why the Scope Change will not be shown when using Time Tracking? I mean, If I add/remove issues from a sprint after it has started,  shouldn´t that be considered as escope change regardless the time tracking settings?

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @Moreno Gonçalves 

I would expect that to be shown.  When you look at the Sprint Report, what do you see for scope change?

Kind regards,
Bill

[Moreno Gonçalves]

Hi @Bill Sheboy , here is my Sprint Report and the sprint health gadget. I added 2 new ISSUES (SERTST2-97, SERTST2-132) after the sprint has started, but the scope change remains 0%. 

[Bill Sheboy]

I just tried this for Jira Cloud and it worked for me.

For your dashboard gadget, have you checked if it is updating?  For example, edit the dashboard and gadget and check the data is refreshing.

[Moreno Gonçalves]

@Bill Sheboy yes, the gadget is uptading fine, except for the scope change that always remains 0%. 

Have you tried with Time Tracking on? The documentation itself says that when using Time Tracking, Scope Change will not be shown:

I just don´t understant why!

[Bill Sheboy]

No, I did not.  And when I did, I got the same results as you did.  I found this suggestion to change that behavior here: https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JSWCLOUD-25786

Without any specific information from the Atlassian team, I suspect the reason is stability in explanation and calculation:

When there is a single value for Original Estimate for the issue, that burns down all at once for an issue when it is completed (as do Story Points).  And so scope change is clearly explainable. 

But when estimates for time tracking are added / removed / changed at an individual item level throughout the day, the "scope" would need to be relative to the total Original Estimate at the time the sprint start and the current point-in-time roll-up of the issues...Or, it could be relative to the current total Original Estimate for items and the remaining, Or...perhaps some other way to measure.

Sorry I do not have a better answer for you on this one.  You could also try reaching out to Atlassian Support to learn what they say: https://support.atlassian.com/contact/#/