how do I track burn down using sub-tasks where the top level is a user story

[John Lay]

First time using JIRA in this style, but a consulting firm organized the project in a way that User Stories are both a Confulence Page and a JIRA Story item. All the developer work and testing is occurring as tasks and sub-tasks related to the story.

Stories go from ToDo - Approved - In Progress - Complete - Accepted - Done

But Tasks (and subtasks) go ToDo - In Progress - Complete - Done

How do I get a burn down report on tasks and subtasks? Or do I have to force stories to done?

[Jack Brickey · Accepted solution]

You simply need to do your estimation, time logging and remaining estimate updates on the sub-tasks. Have the stories sum up from sub-tasks. Stories should be defined such that they can be completed w/in a single sprint ideally. Stories and Tasks should be placed into a sprint which will result in your burn-down being calculated correctly.

A couple of other thoughts based upon the info you provided:

• Stories should remain in backlog until they are in Approved status.
• Approved stories would be allocated to the left most column on your scrum board.
• IMO, tasks = stories but your requirements may drive the different workflow.

[John Lay]

What you say makes sense... but how do I have stories sum up from tasks and subtasks?

To be clear we have

Stories

---Tasks

------sub tasks

all the time is tracked at tasks and sub tasks.

I agree with your thoughts and yes, stories are written to be completed in one sprint.

At this moment, the burn down is not showing anything but a flat line, except when something is added to the sprint (new bug)

[Jack Brickey]

You enable sum up on the specific story itself. There is a check box in the view issue screen where time tracking is located. However, if you are not seeing any burn down this is not the source of your problem. Here are some things to check:

• in the Board settings under the Estimation view please ensure you have Remaining Estimate and Time spent checked.
• make sure that there is an Original Estimate for every task, ideally prior to starting the sprint.
• make sure that time logging is actually occurring on an active sprint.

Note in your last response it seems you are indicating that Tasks are a child of Stories and sub-tasks a child of tasks. While you can link a task to a Story it isn't really a child like a sub-task is. Regardless, this fact doesn't effect the burn down, any issue in a sprint that has an OE, time spent and remaining estimate will count to the burn down as designed.

[John Lay]

Thank you. this makes sense. The consulting team is wanting to avoid this, but it seems the best solution.

So as for tasks and stores... yes I get what you are saying. Tasks are linked 

[JX]

Hi @Jack Brickey, would you be able to elaborate a little more or share a screenshot on where I can get this checkbox enabled?

You enable sum up on the specific story itself. There is a check box in the view issue screen where time tracking is located

[Jack Brickey]

the box will show up if you have estimated time for the task otherwise Time Tracking fields are not displayed.

[Sathish Anbanantham]

Could you also please help pointing out where the below setting is located with a screenshot?

• in the Board settings under the Estimation view please ensure you have Remaining Estimate and Time spent checked

I am using JIRA cloud. 

[Jack Brickey]

Hi @Sathish Anbanantham ,

it depends on your project type and board type. Those settings exist in CMP SW full featured scrum boards. If you see Board settings when you click on the ellipses in the top right of your board then go to Estimation screen.