Jira Automation: Is it possible to track time in status?

[Zarshah Rashid]

I would like to track the amount of time a story is in the "blocked" status on the sprint workflow.  I am going through the jira automations and am having trouble determine how to do this.  Please let me know if this is possible and how.

[Trudy Claspill · Accepted solution]

Hello @Zarshah Rashid 

Welcome to the community.

Please specify if you are using Jira Cloud or Jira Server/Data Center.

Are you trying to create a custom solution for tracking the amount of time an issue is in the blocked status, or are you open to using a third party app to get that information?

If you are building an Automation, please show us what you have built.

[Zarshah Rashid]

Hello,

I believe we use Jira Server/Data Center.  I am attempting to create an automation rule for my jira project in the "Project Automation" tab in Project Settings.  If there is a third party app, I'd be interested in learning about that as well.

[Trudy Claspill]

There are a few third party apps available to get information about the time an issue spends in a status. See this result of searching the Atlassian Marketplace:

https://marketplace.atlassian.com/search?hosting=dataCenter&product=jira&query=time%20in%20status

[Karolina Wons_SaaSJet]

Hello @Zarshah Rashid 

If you're using a server version, you can try Time between Statuses (server) to track the time spent in a particular status.

All you need is to set a status you want to track the time in as Start and Stop timers.

This add-on is developed by my SaaSJet team. Please, let me know if you have any questions.

Hope you find it helpful

[Sofia Castaneda]

Is this possible without using a marketplace plugin? Can Jira's (data center) automation feature be used instead? Or maybe Scriptrunner can do the same?

[Johnny Mon]

Hi @sctr.cee, 

There is a KB article on how to use Automation rules to track a Jira issue's time spent in a particular workflow status:

https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRAKB/How+to+use+automation+to+get+the+time+an+issue+was+in+a+status

[Trudy Claspill]

@Johnny Mon 

The article you provided says it is applicable to Jira Cloud while the user said they are using Jira Data Center.

[Johnny Mon]

Hi @Trudy Claspill,

I updated the KB article to include the Server and DC versions running with A4J version 9.0.3 or higher. 

I modified the KB article's rule to cover an edge case, where the numeric field is EMPTY.  I also included exported rules and demo videos for both Cloud and DC versions.

[Mehmet A _Bloompeak_]

Hi @Zarshah Rashid

Welcome to Atlassian Community!

As an alternative, you can try Status Time Reports app developed by our team. It mainly provides reports and gadgets based on how much time passed in each status.

Here is the online demo link, you can see it in action and try without installing the app.

• This app has a dynamic status grouping feature so that you can generate various valuable reports as time in status, time in assignee, status entry dates and status counts, cycle time and lead time, average/sum reports by any field(e.g. average in progress time by project, average cycle time by issue creation month).

• You can search issues by Project, Issue Type, Status, Assignee, Issue Creation/Resolution Date(and any other Date field) and JQL Query.
• Status durations are calculated according to the working calendar you define. Once you enter your working calendar into the app, it takes your working schedule into account too. That is, "In Progress" time of an issue opened on Friday at 5 PM and closed on Monday at 9 AM, will be a few hours rather than 3 days.
• You can set different duration formats.
• You can export reports in CSV file format and open them in MS Excel.
• You can also add this app as a gadget to your Jira dashboards and reach “Status Time” from Issue Detail page.
• You can enable/disable access to Status Time reports&gadgets and Issue Detail page per project, users, groups or project role.

If you are looking for a free solution, you can try the limited version Status Time Free.

Note: If you are interested in cycle and lead time, you can have a look at the article below.

Cycle Time and Lead Time in Jira: Productivity Measurement with Two Critical Parameters

Hope it helps.

[Emre Toptancı _OBSS_]

Hello @Zarshah Rashid,

I've got the perfect solution for you that will give more that what you asked for.

Our team at OBSS built Timepiece - Time in Status for Jira for this exact need. It can even give you times for block reasons. The app is available for Jira Server, Cloud, and Data Center.  

Time in Status mainly allows you to see how much time each issue spent on each status and on each assignee. You can use the Status Duration report to see the times for block status and other statuses.

       

In addition to these, Time in Status has two other report types that will meet your need.

First, Time in Status has Any Field Duration report type. This report type asks you to select an issue field and can display "how long that issue field had each value". For your case, you can create a custom field named "Block Reason", populate this field every time the issue is blocked, and clear this field every time the block is removed. This way, you can use the Any Field Duration report and see how long each issue was blocked for each reason.

This report type also has a sibling report: Any Field Count. This report type does the same calculation but instead of displaying the times, it shows how many times each value was used. In your case, you can use this report type to see how many times each issue was blocked for each reason.

For all numeric report types, you can calculate averages and sums of those durations grouped by the issue fields you select. For example total in-progress time per customer (organization) or average resolution time per sprint, week, month, issuetype, request type, etc. The ability to group by parts of dates (year, month, week, day, hour) or sprints is particularly useful here since it allows you to compare different time periods or see the trend.

The app calculates its reports using already existing Jira issue histories so when you install the app, you don't need to add anything to your issue workflows and you can get reports on your past issues as well. It supports both Company Managed and Team Managed projects.

Time in Status reports can be accessed through its own reporting page, dashboard gadgets, and issue view screen tabs. All these options can provide both calculated data tables and charts.

And the app has a REST API so you can get the reports from Jira UI or via REST.

  

Using Time in Status you can:

• See how much time each issue spent on each status, assignee, user group and also see dates of status transitions.
• Calculate averages and sums of those durations grouped by issue fields you select. (For example, see average InProgress time per project and per issue type.)
• Export your data as XLS, XLSX, or CSV.
• Access data via REST API. (for integrations)
• Visualize data with various chart types.
• See Time in Status reports on Jira Dashboard gadgets

Timepiece - Time in Status for Jira

EmreT

[Yaron Azar]

Hi @Emre Toptancı _OBSS_ 
Is it possible to access the status totals calculated by your app by automation?

[Emre Toptancı _OBSS_]

Hello @Yaron Azar

Currently, there is no integration between our app and Jira Automation, mainly because Atlassian doesn't have automation integration points for marketplace apps yet. We are eagerly waiting for that. 

There is a feature request made to Atlassian about this. I suggest you watch it and vote for it:

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CLOUD-10966

Beyond that, you can get Time in Status data via REST API and Automation has a "Send Web Request" action. You might get something out of those but the chance of success depends on your specific case and requires work.

Please let us know if you can build something that actually works. In the meantime we will keep working on this problem.

EmreT

[Rahul_RVS]

Hi @Zarshah Rashid 

Welcome to the community !!

If you are fine with a mktplace app, you can try out our add-on to get this data.

For DataCenter pls try out

Time in Status Reports 

The main features are as below

• Multiple Time in Status Reports. Excel Export available for all status reports.
  
  • Time in Status
  • Time with Assignee
  • Time in Status with Assignee
  • Time with Assignee per Status
  • Status/Assignee Count
  • Multiple Transition Reports
  • Avg Time in status reports
  • Status Transition Dates Report
  • Time in Status Per Time Grain
  • Time with Assignee Per Time Grain
• Status grouping
• Save your reports
• CSV Export
• Multiple chart types
• Dashboard Gadget