Can i track progress using story points

[Marcus A Nicholson]

I have estimation statistics set to story points. I want to track actual delivered points v original estimate. I know the options for Time Tracking are 'none' or 'remaining estimate / time spent', but can this be set to story points?

E.g. We are doing big effort estimate on large stories. we deliver smaller stories & tasks as actual points. I need a method to track the delta

any help greatly appreciated 

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Time estimates are not story points, they're time.  Whilst it is absolutely fine to use both of them at the same time (estimate and burn down in Story Points, log time worked in the time-tracking is a pattern recommended by Atlassian), they are not the same thing.

You can set your sprint estimation statistic to any numeric field you want, (including time-tracking if you wish to work with time estimates), but do not confuse the sprint estimates with time estimates - they are only the same thing when do choose to use time as the sprint estimate.

So, for me, I think I'd want to look a bit more at your delta reporting.  The velocity charts for a sprint for example - they show estimate vs delivery for that sprint - is that the sort of thing you are looking for?

[Marcus A Nicholson]

I want to estimate in points and track in points. I am not interested in time. The delta of interest is that between original estimate of points and actual delivered points. I do use the velocity chart which shows committed v delivered points for an entire sprint. I think i need something equivalent but at a story level

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Ok, that's fine, easiest thing to do here is just ignore the time fields completely and look only at the Story Points.

Your velocity chart does show you estimate vs actual story points although it's not the primary intention of the chart.

I'm a bit lost on "the equivalent but at a story level", because story points and velocity are only done at a story level already, so I'm not sure what you're looking for.

[Vidya Bhat]

Above question ,same i repeat here.

Question: I want to estimate in points and track in points. I am not interested in time. The delta of interest is that between original estimate of points and actual delivered points. I do use the velocity chart which shows committed v delivered points for an entire sprint. I think i need something equivalent but at a story level.

In Jira we have only one story points field,so when we estimate planned story points we will enter,but while closing actual spent sometimes it may change based on the Resolution of Jira's.

EX: We may plan 5 o 8 story points, but we realise we will not use in case of Invalid,Won't fix/Rejected,Duplicate.

So in that scenario we may need to reduce.So if we edit story points field itself we may loose initial planned story points for that item.

So how we can track estimated(planned) Vs Actual story points in Jira itself.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Ok, there's a couple of things that feel wrong here.

"omething equivalent but at a story level." - that is already where you should be using story points, as Stories are what you estimate, plan and execute against.  Slightly concerned that you're not doing that already.

>when we estimate planned story points we will enter,

Great, there's your estimates done.

>but while closing actual spent sometimes it may change

Why?  That's scope change.  It's valid sometimes, when scope really does change, but but you shouldn't be changing estimates after you start working on something.   If you want to cancel/reject something, you don't change the story points on it, you close it as done (whatever the resolution) and move on.  You estimated X and you delivered.   

The point of story points is not measuring what you do, it's measuring what you commit to and achieve, by allowing you to "size" things going into a sprint relative to each other.

[Vidya Bhat]

Thanks.

It is like once story points planned for any Jira, we cannot change we will deliver with what planned story points. But next time when we do planning we should plan it better and there is no separate term of planned and Actual story points .Planned itself will be considered actual also and we should not change the planned story points of any Jira's once we start working.

Is this what you are trying to convey?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Yes, that's exactly what story points are for - helping you to estimate what you'll actually achieve in a sprint, but also improving your estimation and delivery from a sprint, by allowing you to draw in the right amount of work.

[Vidya Bhat]

Thank you so much