Progress field

[sledzinski]

How can I add a progress field to tasks?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Depends on how you're defining "progress"?

[sledzinski]

I want to set and show progress in percentage, for example 10%, 20% etc. Best option for me it would be if it's possible to show progress in graphic version, as a progress bar.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Sorry, I wasn't clear.

What is "progress"? How are you measuring it? Lets say you want your progress to say "20%" - 20% of what?

[sledzinski]

I give tasks to my developers, and they describe task progress in percentage, for example task is in 20% complete

[sledzinski]

I know, but I'm still looking for some plug-in or sth like that which has a graphic version like progress bar...

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Hmm, that seems a little painful, and over-simple. It is very very easy though - add a custom field (you'll need to weigh up the choice between plain text, numbers or a select list) - see https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRA/Adding+a+Custom+Field

However, you would probably get a lot more from estimates and worklogs. If you use estimates, you put in an estimated amount of time to do the work. Your developers log how much work they do. You'll be able to see progress as Jira will calculate it automatically, but also if the estimates are wrong, changes to the estimates, and there's quite a lot of reporting on estimates available too, so you won't be scrabbling around having to build even simple estimate/progress reports from fields that aren't really designed for it.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

I think you need to be a bit more clear on exactly what you're trying to track, why, and how your users are going to use it. Think through what you really want the reporting to track (again, that "20% of what" is important - 20% bricks? 20% of the hours estimated? 20% of the Story points? 20% of the subtasks? 20% of arbitrary-work-units?). Once you have a clear definition of progress, you can then define how you want to report on it, which then determines how you're going to enter and update it.

The estimate field does do a lot of this for you, and gives you progress bars. It might not be right for you, but you do need to think carefully about what you are measuring before you can start looking for solutions.

[sledzinski]

It's an percentage estimation of completing task

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

<sigh> That's a pretty useless metric. 20% is a proportion of <something>, but it's useless without the measurement unit. Are you estimating time? Effort? Subtasks? Number of lego bricks?

Without a unit to tell what you're measuring, your field is pretty much useless. There's also no "arbitrary percentage telling us nothing" field in Jira, so however you implement it would probably be a bodge or a non-calculable compromise which you can't really usefully report on.

On the human side, your users are unlikely to use it correctly - they'll forget, or put random numbers in, mostly because they'll be thinking in different units - I measure progress by how much time I've estimated it will take vs useful time spent on the task. At one site. At the next one, we work in Story points.

[Raffaele Gambelli]

I am completely agree with Pawel, I come from Redmine where such a simple widget exists and it is very useful.

Nic you are complicating the issue, what Pawel is asking is nothing more than a graphic progress-bar widget, exactly as Redmine, it was asked here too but the answer is not an answer since it is not what was asked

It is not necessary for Jira to provide some logic to that progress, it is just a progress and the progress and what is it are being decided by developer, stop.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

I think you're missing the point.

I'm not complicating anything, I'm simply pointing out that there is no definition of "progress" here, so we can't answer the question.
What are you measuring?  Time spent vs estimate?  Story points?  How many lego bricks you've added to the model?Without knowing what you are measuring, saying "it's 80% done" is utterly useless.

[Raffaele Gambelli]

How do you can state that it is useless?
Users asking features decide what is useful for them, I don't know if you represent Jira or not sorry, anyway imho Jira should only evaluate request without entering to much deep since the logic is often user-side, so why so many questions, why Redmine did it many years ago and users want it, imaybe is it really useful?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Ok, let me put it another way.  It is useless because it tells us nothing.

"Progress" is a "suitcase word".  It has a generally understandable concept (suitcase = a box full of things I carry), but tells you nothing about the actual meaning.

"This is 80% complete".  As a user, looking at an issue with that on it, what does it actually tell us? 

[Raffaele Gambelli]

What do you mean for "us" ? If "us" are my coworkers, my boss, setting progress issue to 80% tells them at least two things:
- I've started the issue
- I've done the most part of it

When me, my coworkers, my boss, my project-manager etc... open whatever issues list, they immediately could see the progress, the progress which the issue owner think surely, it will be his responsability inside his company declare something helpful and meaningful, am I wrong?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

That's a circular answer that does not answer the question. 

80% progress means I've done 80% of it.

What does 80% done mean?

What is it measuring?  I've already explained that "progress" is meaningless because you aren't measuring anything.

What is the 80% actually OF?  A percentage without knowing what it is a proportion of is meaningless.

[Raffaele Gambelli]

No hope with you I'm sorry, you are asking the same question, the thread starter has already answered and I think I gave you much more elements to better interpret request.

Goodbye

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

No, you're just failing to answer the question, the same way the thread starter did.

80% of WHAT?

Money?  Time?  Bricks?  Cake? 

Let me put it this way:  You say "80% complete".

Do you mean you've spent 80% of the money?  When will it be done?   Is 80% of my house physically built?  What?

[Algirdas Kepežinskas]

So, Nic,

instead of arrogantly repeating your invalid statements over and over again, you should actually listen to what is being said.

First of all, percentage, by definition is a unitless measure. I'm not one to teach basics of calculus, but CAKE divided by CAKE does not result to % OF CAKE, it results to %.

And now, to the problem at hand, it can be % of whatever user needs. It's up to the defined process to decide what the % mean to them. It can be % of time taken, scope done, money invoiced or resurses used, DOES NOT MATTER. Progress is progress.

So yea, it does have a real use, even if it's counting cakes.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

>It can be % of time taken, scope done, money invoiced or resurses used

That is exactly my point.  I think you've misunderstood what the others are saying, and have understood what I've been saying.  The percentage is utterly usless unless you know what it is measuring.  A percentage without knowing what it is a proportion of is meaningless.

[Algirdas Kepežinskas]

Why would you assume they don't know? It's up to them to decide what it's supposed to mean, and letters "€", "h" or "SP" near the field is not required for it to be useful.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Because that's what the posters above explicitly stated - they wanted a percentage complete without defining what it meant.  Which is useless.  You don't have to put a unit on it on-screen, the point is that 80% of <i don't know> is useless.

[Algirdas Kepežinskas]

No, that's not what they stated. 

You want them to define what it means to them, but they do not have to.

It's up to them to agree how they define the progress. It can be absolutely subjective gut feeling for all it matters. They just want a tool to be able save it, and display it. 

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Yes that is what they have said.  They want a unit-less progress bar.  There is a refusal to provide a useful definition of "progress", which is, as you yourself point out, utterly useless