Documentation for GreenHopper 5.9.x. Documentation for other versions of JIRA Agile is available too.
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Many Scrum teams separate estimation from tracking and use different units for each. A common approach is to estimate tasks in Story Points, then track tasks using hours. GreenHopper therefore gives you the flexibility to set your estimation and tracking statistics differently, depending on what best suits your team.

In GreenHopper, you can choose which type of units (e.g. Story Points, Issue Count) will be used for estimating and tracking issues on a Rapid Board. You do this by choosing an Estimation Statistic, then choosing to either use the same units for your Tracking Statistic or to use time-tracking. Each Rapid Board can have a different type of Estimation Statistic and Tracking Statistic.

  • The type of Estimation Statistic you select affects which units are used by the 'Estimate' field, which appears at the top of each issue on the Rapid Board. (Note that the 'Estimate' field is editable when an issue is in Plan mode, but not editable once the issue moves into the Work mode.)
  • The type of Tracking Statistic you select affects which units are used by the 'Remaining' field, which appears at the top of each issue on the Rapid Board.

The Sprint Burndown Chart is based on the Tracking Statistic. If you are using Story Points as your Tracking Statistic, then the Burndown Chart shows the Story Points per story (ie. stories burning down the Estimate Statistic are only burnt down on the graph as they are completed); whereas if you choose the Time-tracking option you are shown partial burndown (ie. the number of hours currently used and remaining each day).

On this page:

Related pages:

Setting the Estimation Statistic

To set the Estimation Statistic for a Rapid Board:

  1. Click Agile > Manage Rapid Boards in the top navigation bar, then click the Configure link corresponding to the Rapid Board of interest.
  2. Click the Estimation tab.

  3. In the Estimation Statistic field, choose one of the following options:

    Estimation Statistic:

    Explanation:

    Story Points

    Estimation will be based on the number of Story Points per issue. This is the most commonly used option.

    ((info) Note that, by default, the Story Points field is only available to issues of type 'Story' or 'Epic' — you can change this as described in GreenHopper Custom Fields and Database Changes.)

    Business Value

    Estimation will be based on the Business Value of each issue.

    Original Estimate

    Estimation will be based on the JIRA 'Original Estimate' field (for details see the JIRA documentation Logging Work on an Issue). By default this is specified in minutes, but it can be hours/days/weeks depending on your JIRA system configuration (for details see the JIRA Time Tracking documentation).

    Issue CountEstimation will be based on the number of issues in the sprint. The 'Estimate' field will not be editable.

    (info) Alternatively, you can choose any numeric custom field on your JIRA system.


Screenshot: the 'Estimation' tab (click to enlarge)

 

Enabling Time Tracking

To set the Tracking Statistic for a Rapid Board:

  1. Click Agile > Manage Rapid Boards in the top navigation bar, then click the Configure link corresponding to the Rapid Board of interest.
  2. Click the Estimation tab.

  3. In the Time Tracking field, choose one of the following options:

    Tracking Statistic:

    Explanation:

    None

    Tracking will be based on the Estimation Statistic.

    Remaining Estimate and Time Spent

    Tracking will be based on the JIRA 'Remaining Estimate' and 'Time Spent' fields (for details see the JIRA documentation Logging Work on an Issue). By default these fields are specified in minutes, but you can use hours/days/weeks depending on your JIRA system configuration (for details see the JIRA Time Tracking documentation).

    Note that this is fundamentally different from using the Estimation Statistic for burndown in that values do not burn down when an issue is completed — instead, values only burn down when users enter Time Spent or set the Remaining Estimate to a new value.

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