Remaining Estimate

Ricard Bertran March 16, 2016

I recently adopted Jira as SCRUM ágile development tool.

 

This is my scenario:

  • Scrum board
  • Estimation Statistic: Original Time Estimate
  • Time Tracking: Remaining Estimate and Time Spent

 

  1. Our Product Owner populates BackLog with  “User Story” issues
  2. Our team estimates each “User Story” so we fill “Original Estimate” field in the “User Story”
  3. Once all  “User Stories” are dropped to current sprint, we start sprint.
    At this point, only “User Story” issues exist in current sprint.
  4. Then, the development team starts working. 
    So, a team member takes first user story issue and breaks it down into several subtasks (depending on user story complexity).
    At this point, both "User Stories" and "Subtasks" issues exist in current sprint
  5. Once sub task is completed, team member logs work into sub task “Time Spent” field.

 

What we expect?

We expect, “Remaining time” in “User Story time tracking” is updated by the following formula:

 

[Remaining Estimate] = [Original Estimate] – ( Sum([ work log ]) )

 

Where Sum([ work log ]) is the sum of “all work log in all sub tasks” plus “work log in user story”

 

What we got

Remaining is ONLY updated with “work log in user story” even when “Include sub-tasks” is checked

 

Example:

  1. Create User Story Issue “User Story 1” and estimate it (Original Estimate): 1 week
  2. Create subtask “Subtask 1”
  3. Create subtask “Subtask 2”
  4. Log work in Subtask 1: 1 day
  5. Log work un Subtask 2: 1 day
  6. Refresh “User Story 1” issue time traking

 

Time Traking

Remainig : 1 week

When actually team has worked 2 days! and "Remaining" should be: 3 days.

1 week (5 working days) - 2 days = 3 days

 

Is there any way or workaround to use Jira to fit our needs?

Thanks

2 answers

1 vote
stratejos [stratejos.ai] March 21, 2016

It might be easiest to change your process to something like:

When the developer picks up the Parent User Story:

  1. Break it into sub tasks 
  2. Set the remaining/original estimate of the Parent User Story to 0
  3. Then put original estimates on the subtasks they have created and work from the subtasks from then on.

The reason why this might be best is that JIRA treats each ticket individually when it comes to estimates. There is a great comment here [https://answers.atlassian.com/questions/127989/answers/4048694] that describes it well.

 

Sistemas March 31, 2016

I’m afraid your workaround is not valid to us.

How should the developer split the original estimate in the user story task into their subtasks?

What happen if a new subtask is needed after original estimate is splited?

Eventualy the estimate depends on one person instead of the team. It breaks the SCRUM estimation methodology.

 

I don’t understand why Jira doesn’t take this issue into account. There’re a lot of Jira users waiting for Jira to solve it.

stratejos [stratejos.ai] April 1, 2016

How should the developer split the original estimate in the user story task into their subtasks?

The developer would re-estimate when breaking down the original estimate. As you break down the user story you will begin to understand it in more detail so the estimate may go up or down.

What happen if a new subtask is needed after original estimate is splited?

If a new subtask is needed then it is just added.

0 votes
Ricard Bertran March 31, 2016

Even more confused

  • Create a main task, don’t estimate it. Check “include sub tasks” check-box in time tracking panel.
  • Create sub task 1. Estimate it: 2 days
  • Create sub task 2. Estimate It: 2 days.
  • Log work in subtask 1: 3 days.
    At this point, You’d expect remaining estimate in main task would be  (2d + 2d) – 3d = 1d. But you get 2 days remaining estimate left)
  • Log work in sub task 2: 1 day.
  • How much work you have in all sub tasks? 4 days
  • How much remaining estimate appears in main task? 1 day! subtask2.pngsubtask1.pngMainTask.png
stratejos [stratejos.ai] April 1, 2016

The result JIRA is providing makes sense.

You've ran over one one task (Subtask 1) but made no progress on the other (Subtask 2). Just because you've managed to complete and overrun on one task doesn't mean the other task has had any work done. JIRA cannot know this and infact, the tasks should not overlap. 

 

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