Remaining Estimate Time Tracking and Stories. How to Apply Time to Subtasks during Planning

[David Wilson]

We've adopted a more traditional Agile approch using the Scrum methodology.

We're now using JIRA Agile more closely to its original design (yeay!) but I can't figure out how to apply Subtask Tracking Time during sprint planning.

Our Agile Coach taught us:

Product Backlog Grooming... Apply story points as estimates.

Sprint Planning... break storing into tasks and apply Time Estimates (tracking), and use the Time vs Capacity to load a Sprint. Ultimately our Velocity will provide a better figure for predictive Sprint assignment, but we still plan a sprint using TIME on the tasks, not Story Points like we do during Backlog Grooming.

Great... I get it.

I set the board to Story Point Estimating, and Time Tracking. So far so good. Product Backlog Estimation is working.

During Sprint Planning we're creating subtasks, but in PLAN mode I can't assign the Time to the sub tasks? I can assign Remaining Time at the story level ("Parent"), but not at the subtask level... at least until I start the sprint and go into Work Mode.

This would make sense to me, except when I later add remaining time to the sub tasks, the expectation is that they would then ignore the Parent task (which was simply a starting point for sprint planning). Instead they are ADDING to the Parent amount... so my expectation of its behavior is not correct.

So maybe I'm missing something? Is there access to the SubTask Remaining Time field in the Plan Mode? What about the Edit Screen (I couldn't find it, and can't figure out which field I need to add to the screen)?

What am I missing? Is there a way to add time to sub tasks, or is there a behavior that I'm not grasping?

How am I supposed to do Sprint Planning, if I can't do Time Tracking Estimates as a starting point for my burndown?

[David Wilson · Accepted solution]

Hi Harry, We did in fact figure it out. When you enable Time Tracking in your JIRA instance, you can then add the "Original Estimate" and "Remaining Estimate" fields to the Edit Screen for subtasks. While the solution is not as easy to execute in the Backlog view as it is for the Story itself - because the story shows in the right preview pane, and that field is editable, whereas subtasks must be "edited" and you can't modify them directly from the preview pane - it still is "easy enough", and you eventually will become comfortable with the process.

Thus, during Sprint Planning, the userflow is like this (after you've added the above fields to your edit screen scheme):

* Click on story in Backlog.

* Discuss breakout

* Click "Add subtask" button on right preview pane.

* Add your estimation to both the Original Estimate and Remaining Estimate fields that appear in the Create/Edit subtask modal window.

* Click Save.

The "KEY" to the solution was realizing that I could add those two fields to the Edit Screen scheme. I didn't realize that before, and it resolved my problem. Also, with this, you NEVER add time directly to a story, but rather to its subtasks. You do, however, still add your Story Points during backlog grooming directly to the story.

EDIT:  Also note - When designing the Edit Screen scheme; I believe those two fields are actually referred to as "Time Tracking", collectively.  Thus, by simply adding this one "field", you're actually adding BOTH the Original Estimate and Remaining Estimate fields.  That was the main reason we overlooked it to begin with...  it's named differently that you expect because they grouped them.

[Harry Stevenson]

Wow, thanks for this! After all my searching with no result, I presumed it was just a missing feature. I actually spent the last few hours implementing a workaround using ScriptRunner Script Listeners - I guess I can scrap that then :) Thanks again (and thumbs up for the speedy response!)

[DavidW999]

Hi,

This has been a big help as we are currently trying to estimate in story points and estimate sub tasks in time and load the sprint with a time estimate. I am struggling with getting the original estimate field (I can get remaining estimate).  Please can you explain in a little bit more detail how I can get the original estimate field to appear. 

Thanks 

[Carlos Medina Rubio]

Hi.

I would like to know if it is possible that the Task that be estimate in time and are linked to some stories can register the time, doesnt matter how many task are, i mean, i want that the story that have some task in automatic register the time of the task that are linked with the stories.

Example:

Story 1: Creation of current balance screen

• Task 1 Design the program xklkj43. Estimate time: 3h
• Task 2 Design the program rkjhsk3. Estimate time: 3h
• Task 3 Design the program rfddsk1. Estimate time: 3h
• Task 4 Design the program hiuutd4. Estimate time: 3h

In my undestanding the story should have 12h in estimation time, but i want this can be in automatic, and not necessarially need to put manually in the strory.

[Harry Stevenson]

I realise this post is pretty out of date, but it is the only post I can find through google that accurately represents what I'm trying to do now.

In our team, we define stories up front, and estimate them in story points.  Then when it comes to sprint planning, we want to be able to add subtasks to the stories, and add remaining time to each subtask so that when we start the sprint, we know how many hours of work we are expecting to have.  

Ultimately, I want the Hours Remaining field of our stories to be a sum of the hours remaining in its subtasks.  As far as I can work out for this workflow, I'm going to have to create the story, create the subtasks, start the sprint, then add hours to the tasks afterwards in the Work mode.

Did you guys (or anyone reading this) manage to find anyway to achieve a workflow like this?

Thanks,

[Benito Picarelli]

Hello David,

I believe the following answer can help you out:

https://answers.atlassian.com/questions/212677/estimated-hours-for-subtask-not-getting-reflected-in-greenhopper-board-but-is-made-available-in-jira-s-time-tracking-section

This is an ongoing discussion and, as pointed in the link above, the product manager has released a blog post about this time estimation on the sub-task level and his thoughts about it:

http://blogs.atlassian.com/2012/09/agile-qa-greenhopper-time-estimates-with-sub-tasks/

I hope this can clear up your questions and help you out.

[Benito Picarelli]

Hello David,

I believe the following answer can help you out:

https://answers.atlassian.com/questions/212677/estimated-hours-for-subtask-not-getting-reflected-in-greenhopper-board-but-is-made-available-in-jira-s-time-tracking-section

This is an ongoing discussion and, as pointed in the link above, the product manager has released a blog post about this time estimation on the sub-task level and his thoughts about it:

http://blogs.atlassian.com/2012/09/agile-qa-greenhopper-time-estimates-with-sub-tasks/

I hope this can clear up your questions and help you out.