Reporting with categories

[Samuel Suther]

We need a way to show different Categories in Reporting, while a Ticket can switch between different Categories in it's livetime.

Example:

The Categories are:

• Analytics
• Concept
• Deployment
• Testing
• Live-System

Now a Ticket:

#1: Create a new Feature named "FooBar" with the following Features …

Progress:

If the Ticket is new, it should be assigned to User1, who do the analytics. After he finished, Ticket should be assigned to Concept, after this Deployment and so on.

Reporting:

Reports should be able to show how much time the Ticket takes in each Category, and how much time it takes at all.

Would be glad to got some Examples how to create this Structure in Jira & Tempo, maybe how other company doing this.

[Tobias Reibling]

In Tempo, you probably can use worklog attributes to add a kind of category when logging work (see https://tempoplugin.jira.com/wiki/display/TEMPO/Configuring+Worklog+Attributes). However, it seems that tempo is a bit limited regarding using these attributes in reports, but just check this on your own, maybe it fits your needs perfectly.

If you did not yet decide for a time tracking plugin, an alternative would be not using Tempo, but ictime (https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/de.iconcept.ictime.jira-ictime). This plugin offers "activity types" (= categories of work) for work logs that can be defined globally and/or on project level and you can report on these activity types (similar to Tempo you wouldn't get a report that exactly looks like the one you have provided, but you would get the "category" information with each work log and could work with this data).

[Viðar Svansson [Tempo]]

You can use Tempo Worklog Attribute to record this information on worklogs and they are present in the worklog reports and exports. But yes, we have yet to allow you to do reporting directly on the attributes (group by) in our reports but we are very aware of this limitation and it is on our roadmap. We are developing new generation of reports for Timesheets 8.x and this is one of the key issues we intend to solve.

[Chris Feldbacher]

This is quite an old thread but I still could not find a solution: how can I report the account category with the Tempo plugin? The only "group-by" option is by account, not by account category. And the account category also does not show up in the exported data.

Also, can I somehow show custom fields or labels in the report or even group by these?

[Agnieszka]

I can see that more people are reporting the same issue throughout past few years.

Is there any option currently, using work attributes or category type, that would allow me to log time to particular issue with some extra information (e.g. delegation, development, testing) and later on to be able to filter reports by its work attribute/type?

Is there any workaround at least? :) 

I see that I can export the report and in excel to filter tasks by work attribute but it's not the most convenient and fast way.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

That looks like a workflow to me. Your "categories" are not categories, they're status (or "where an issue is in its lifecycle")

If you create the workflow to reflect the process, you'll find you can then report on time in status, overall time, and track any logged work by users in Tempo

[Samuel Suther]

Great, thank you for your feedback. Did you have some information and recomendations to setup such an workflow.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Draw a flowchart

Consider the cases where you might want to move back through the workflow

Think of Status as an adjective describing where an issue is in its lifecylce (issue is open, issue is in progress, issue is closed)

Think of transitions as actions you do to issues (Create an issue, start progress, close issue)

Think about which users can do what and at where in the flow

ALWAYS add conditions to your workflow transitions, even if it's just "person must be in the role of user in the project"

ALWAYS consider resolution - clear it with a post-function when you move from a status that is "closed" to one that means "more needs doing", and set it with either a post-function or by putting it on the transition screen from an "open" status to a "closed" one.

And read https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRA/Configuring+Workflow

[Samuel Suther]

I still serching for a way to solve my question, but can't find the right direction.

Have now installed Redmine-Workflow and create some IssueAttributes, but find to got a report in that way I need.

Somebody knows a good, easy Howto to get this worked?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

It's not clear what you're really trying to do here.

What process have you mapped out now? What do you mean by "issue attributes"? What reporting do you need?

We can't begin to help you get somewhere unless we know where you want to go, or where you are now.

[Samuel Suther]

Try to got some report which view like the following. It's all one Ticket, but the Report show, how much time was spent in each category.

A total sum for the Ticket #14 at the Buttom would also be great, so you can see how long the Ticket are in the categories, and whats the full time spent on the Ticket.

Hope this clearify my question a bit.

I think inside of each Category (Analytics, Concept...) needs to be a own workflow, cause it may differ to each other ?!

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Mmm. How are you expecting to log this data? Remember you can't report on what you don't put in.

The only structures I can imagine in Jira without having to bodge core code:

1. Use sub tasks

2. Write a report that makes the (dubious) assumption that the time a work-log is committed is the critical point. It will have go back and look at the status of the issue at the time of each and every worklog to accumulate all of that. (You'll also need to think about the size of the data you're adding to each issue, and how you handle issues that move back through the workflow)