How does time estimating suppose to work?

[Stefan Norinder]

I don't understand the relation between the different estimates in sub-tasks and parent tasks.

Look at the images I pasted below. I've created a story and added two sub-task of 4 hours each. Then the remaining value is set to 1 day in both the parent task (the story) and the sprint, but the "Estimate" value in both are empty.

!Dump1.jpg!

To get a value there I have to set the parent estimate to 8 hours and remove 8 hours from the "Remaining" value (otherwise this will show 16 hours).

!Dump2.jpg!

I'm sure I'm missing something. Help is apprecierad.

Edit: The images in my question don't show. Working on solving the problem.

Edit 2: Don't know is you can see the images. Maybe a moderator can assist me.

[sclowes · Accepted solution]

The "Estimate" for an issue is based on whatever Estimate value you have configured in your board, in your case it sounds like you have configured "Original Time Estimate" in to this field. The Estimate value is a high level number and does not include sub-tasks.

If you have configured "Time Tracking", you will also see the "Remaining" time field, this will include the time of the sub tasks.

The basic process is:

• During high level planning you apply an Original Time Estimate on the Story (setting the original time will also set the remaining time)
• Later on, during sprint planning you break the story in to tasks and apply hour estimates to the sub-tasks, at this point you probably want to clear the remaining estimate on the parent if it's accounted for completely by the sub tasks

Some more discussion around estimation and tracking is in this answers post.

Thanks,
Shaun

[Stefan Norinder]

Great answer. Thanks.

[Stefan Norinder]

One more question: if I put all estimates in sub-task I get the sum of the sub-tasks in the "Remaining" estimate on the parent.

This is fine, but I have to click on the story to see it. If you look in the backlog list the lite square on the right of each story is empty. This is only populated with the "original" estimate value, which I think is unfortunate.

[sclowes]

Hi Albert,

Yes, that's true. As you've read in that other post I've pointed you to it's important to get the team to commit based on the original estimate, not the remaining, in order to get a reliable velocity.

You will still see the sum of the remaining estimate in the sprint footer.

Cheers,
shaun