Control Chart - how does it calculate time based on statuses? [Example case]

[Kasia Urbaniak]

I am using control chart to track data in regards to teams' delivery. 

Recently I'm spotting many issues that I find out are outside the scope of my query yet Jira has included them into the calculation. 

Could you help me understand how does it really work? 

I want to understand how much time "on rolling average" the team has committed from where the issue has been selected for development (TODO) till when it's released (DONE) in a given time frame. 

Even I have only specifically asked for issues from TODO to DONE. There are still issues that are included in a calculation with the status DRAFT (before they were selected for development). See attachments. 

Why this happens? How is Jira calculating the statuses? 

As to my understanding the status has been changed from DRAFT to TODO on 5th Jan and was ultimately drove to DONE on 17th Jan which gives us at most 9 days. The issue is displayed as taken 14w 3d 18h 33m (see attachments). 

[Rahul_RVS_Support]

Hi @Kasia Urbaniak 

Welcome to the community !!

If you are fine with a marketplace app, you can try out our add-on to get this data

Time in Status Reports 

The main features of the app are as below

• Multiple Time in Status Reports. Excel Export available for all status reports.
  
  • Time in Status
  • Time with Assignee
  • Time in Status with Assignee
  • Time with Assignee per Status
  • Status/Assignee Count
  • Multiple Transition Reports
  • Avg Time in status reports
  • Status Transition Dates Report
  • Time in Status Per Time Grain
  • Time with Assignee Per Time Grain
• Status grouping
• Save your reports
• CSV Export
• Multiple chart types
• Dashboard Gadget

Disclaimer: I work for RVS, the vendor for this app, and I am one of the developers of the app.

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @Kasia Urbaniak -- Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

What does your board's column mapping for status values look like?  If "Draft" status is in your "To Do" column this could explain what you are seeing. 

Based upon the other status transitions shown in your issue history, you appear to have multiple status values mapped per column, and Atlassian's interpretation of a control chart shows this data based on columns, not status.

Please look here for more information on that report: https://support.atlassian.com/jira-software-cloud/docs/view-and-understand-the-control-chart/

Kind regards,
Bill

[Emre Toptancı _OBSS_]

Hello @Kasia Urbaniak ,

As you probably realized, Control Chart doesn't allow you to select statuses but it allows the selection of board columns. I don't know the configuration of your boards but it looks like the report considers the DRAFT status as part of the TODO column so the DRAFT time is included in the chart.

Unfortunately, the Control Chart is not very transparent about its inner workings. It is also not very flexible. I recommend you use a marketplace app for better transparency and flexibility.

If you are OK with using a marketplace app, our team at OBSS built Time in Status app for this exact need. It is available for Jira Server, Cloud, and Data Center.  

Time in Status mainly allows you to see how much time each issue spent on each status and on each assignee.

       

The app has Consolidated Columns feature. This feature allows you to combine the duration for multiple statuses into a single column and exclude unwanted ones. It is the most flexible way to get any measurement you might want. Measurements like Issue Age, Cycle Time, Lead Time, Resolution Time etc.

For all numeric report types, you can calculate averages and sums of those durations grouped by the issue fields you select. For example total in-progress time per customer (organization) or average resolution time per week, month, issuetype, request type, etc. The ability to group by parts of dates (year, month, week, day, hour) is particularly useful here since it allows you to compare different time periods or see the trend.

The app calculates its reports using already existing Jira issue histories so when you install the app, you don't need to add anything to your issue workflows and you can get reports on your past issues as well. It supports both Company Managed and Team Managed projects.

Time in Status reports can be accessed through its own reporting page, dashboard gadgets, and issue view screen tabs. All these options can provide both calculated data tables and charts.

And the app has a REST API so you can get the reports from Jira UI or via REST.

  

Using Time in Status you can:

• See how much time each issue spent on each status, assignee, user group and also see dates of status transitions.
• Calculate averages and sums of those durations grouped by issue fields you select. (For example, see average InProgress time per project and per issue type.)
• Export your data as XLS, XLSX, or CSV.
• Access data via REST API. (for integrations)
• Visualize data with various chart types.
• See Time in Status reports on Jira Dashboard gadgets

https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1211756/

EmreT