WBS Gantt-chart - Epic's Start Date, Duration and Percent Done reduces based on child issues

[Luis Silva]

Hi all,

I'm setting up a project with the following hierarchy:

• Epic A
  • Story A
    • Sub-task 01
    • Sub-task 02
    • Sub-task 03
  • Story B
    • Sub-task 04
    • Sub-task 05
  • Story C
    
    • Sub-task 06

Epic A's status is In Progress.

Story issues are linked through dependencies: Story C depends on Story B which depends on Story A.

Sub-tasks under each Story are also linked through the same dependency structure. They are not linked across stories.

The entire WBS Gantt chart is pulling information from an issue filter that searches for all open issues in one project as follows:

issue not in templateRelatedTickets() AND project = PROJECT AND resolution = Unresolved ORDER BY key ASC

Problem:

1. When the epic and child issues are setup everything is ok:
   • Start Date is the same on Epic A and Story A;
   • End Date is the same on Epic A and Story C
   • Epic A Duration is the sum of all Story issues' Duration
   • Epic A Percent Done is e.g. 10% when there's some work on Sub-task 01 & 02; Story A's Percent Done is e.g. 50%.
2. When Story A and all sub-tasks are 100% done and set as Closed:
   • Epic A's Start Date changes to Story B's start date
   • Epic A's Duration reduces to the sum of Story B and Story C
   • Epic A's Percent Done goes back to 0%

In this screenshot, I have the last Story (with sub-tasks) of the process and Epic is adjusting for those values.

This is what I see from the Project's Gantt chart:

Goal:

• Epic A's Start Date should always show the first issue's Start Date in the hierarchy (Sub-task 01, in this case), even if that issue is set to Closed and 100% done
• Epic A's End Date should always show the last issue's End Date in the hierarchy (Sub-task 06, in this case), even if that issue is set to Closed and 100% done
• Epic A's Duration should show the sum of days/weeks/months the project was worked on
• Epic A's Percent done should remain consistent and independent of the child issues' status.

This behavior also happens if the source issue filter is set for any resolution and in the Project's WBS Gantt chart with all issues (open or closed).

[Hoài Nguyễn]

Hi Luis, I hope that you had figured it out so could you please show me the solution

[Mizuho Kinay]

Hi @Hoài Nguyễn 

Since the Gantt auto calculates start/finish date and percent done from what's displayed.

It won't consider issues which are not on the screen.

For example, I created a filter like Luis;

project = PROJECT AND resolution = Unresolved

Then created a Gantt from the filter.

The Gantt only displays unresolved issue.

So as I resolve issues, less issues under Epic are considered to determine Epic's start/finish date.

After I closed StoryA, EpicA's start/finish date and percent done will be calculated based on StoryB and StoryC.

After I closed StoryB, EpicA's start/finish date and percent done will be calculated based on StoryC.

If you would like to Keep StoryA and StoryB's start/finish date and percent done, please modify your filter to display those issues.

Luis mentioned at the end;

"This behavior also happens if the source issue filter is set for any resolution and in the Project's WBS Gantt chart with all issues (open or closed)."

Is this the same for you @Hoài Nguyễn ? If so, it might not be an expected behaviour, please provide your Gantt and user preference configuration screenshot for further investigation.

Thank you for your help! :)

[Hanna]

Hi @Luis Silva ,

It would be better to enable Auto calculate Percent Done in your case.

https://docs.ricksoft-inc.com/wbs-gantt-chart-for-jira-data-center-and-server-0914/changing-settings

https://docs.ricksoft-inc.com/wbs-gantt-chart-for-jira-data-center-and-server-0914/updating-and-calculating-the-progress-rate-percent

The function can consider Epic (parent issues) 's percent done with child tickets' percent done.

[Luis Silva]

Hi @Hanna

That's already enabled.

[Hanna]

@Luis Silvasan,

I'm sorry that I didn't look your Gantt screenshot carefully.

It seems that you set values in Units field, if you set the values as PercentDone field in the case of your second screenshot's Gantt, you can see Epic's percent done with automatic calculation.

[Luis Silva]

Hello @Hanna

The values for Percent Done are set (see the first screenshot). The second screenshot is to illustrate the project's Gantt chart (same issue on Board and on Project).

My main goal is to get the start date and duration of Epic correct and not to slide across time.

• Epic A's Start Date should always show the first issue's Start Date in the hierarchy (Sub-task 01, in this case), even if that issue is set to Closed and 100% done
• Epic A's End Date should always show the last issue's End Date in the hierarchy (Sub-task 06, in this case), even if that issue is set to Closed and 100% done
• Epic A's Duration should show the sum of days/weeks/months the project was worked on
• Epic A's Percent done should remain consistent and independent of the child issues' status.

[Hanna]

Dear Luis,

Thank you for your information.

> Epic A's End Date should always show the last issue's End Date in the hierarchy (Sub-task 06, in this case), even if that issue is set to Closed and 100% done

As for your requirement above, WBS Gantt-Chart can't meet. The last End date of the bottom layer (in you case subtasks) in the hierarchy is applied to End date of parent (in you case Epic) as Gantt bars...
If you strongly would like to improve the specification, it would be better to contact with the support.

https://ricksoft-support.atlassian.net/servicedesk/customer/portals