Should all custom number fields be available for estimation

[Dave F]

I see the value in having custom number fields available for use as estimates in the event the organisation wants to use something other than Story Points or  the Original Estimates fields that are available by default

However I humbly suggest that not all number fields are suitable for estimating, and to that end it would be nice if admins had the option to allow a custom number field to be available for use as an estimation field, like setting the search option for new custom fields. 

What do other Jira admins, project admins and project owners think?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

I can see those fields probably aren't of any use for estimation, but that's because I understand what the fields are for from their names

The computers have no understanding - the field is a place that holds a number on an issue, and has a string for a name.

Custom fields don't have an implementation of any form of property storage that might then be used to tell the board estimation selection config not to make them an option.  

You'd need to rewrite the custom field functionality to do this (adding functions, not changing them) and then modify the board estimate selection code (it's hard-coded to "make list of all numeric fields, and add the original estimate", and add a "and not if this flag is set on the numeric field" - I'd prefer an exclude over an include, being able to set a flag to say "this is not estimatable"). 

This would not be particularly hard to do, but I don't know how it would fare in Atlassian's prioritisation.

I couldn't find anything over at https://jira.atlassian.com/issues/?jql=text%20~%20estimation%20and%20text%20~%20statistic%20and%20text%20~%20board so maybe you should raise it there as an improvement?