Automatically set time tracking

[Rolf Abildgaard-Roope]

Hello

I've been asked by a product owner in one of our projects if it's possible to automatically set the time tracking (time spend) based on the original estimate of the issue, e.g. an issue with a 5h estimate will have logged 5h in the time tracking.

[Trudy Claspill]

Yes, this could be done with an Automation Rule, but why would you want to do this?

Logged Work should represent the actual time taken to get the work done, and be logged by the person that actually did the work.

What problem is being solved by setting the Logged Work to match the Original Estimate?

[Rolf Abildgaard-Roope]

Hi Trudy

Thanks for your answer.

I totally agreed that the logged word should represent the actual time sped, but one of our Product owners / Scrum Masters can't get his team to fill out the time they spend, and by setting logged time automatically he at least get some time logged.x

Do you by any chance know how to set up the Automation Rule?

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @Rolf Abildgaard-Roope 

When is the Original Estimate set? Is it set when the issue is created? Do you allow it to be modified after issue creation?

The basics of the rule for setting the Time Spent when the issue is created would be

Trigger: Issue Created

Action: Log Work

 - Time Spent: use smart value for Original Estimate

However, when Original Estimate is stored in the database it is converted from what you enter in the UI (i.e. 8h) to seconds (8h = 28800). And Time spent is stored in minutes. So, you would need to include in the rule a conversion of the Original Estimate converted value from seconds to minutes.

You might want to add conditions to constrain this rule to running for only certain types of issues.

If you allow the Original Estimate to be changed after the issue is created, you would need a separate rule to trigger on the value being changed. And you might need different conditions and actions in your rule. For example the Log Work action makes another time entry. If the Original Estimate is changed then you would end up with two time entries, not one time entry for just the current value of Original Estimate.

More information about Automation Rules can be found here:

https://support.atlassian.com/cloud-automation/docs/jira-cloud-automation/