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- Work estimates on task/sub-task level (this functionality is provided by JIRA and ictime uses the data). JIRA allows for entering values on the level of sub-task and task, and if both levels have work estimates, they are all added; so ictime usesthe value on task level.
- Planning/estimates on component and project level. This is extra functionality provided by ictime.
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Please note that planning in ictime is always time-based. Even though you can assign a cost/price to you work for time you log, we do not offer budget planning at this stage, but just time-planning. |
Planning Approach
When you plan your project, especially in the beginning, you might only have a very high-level planning (e.g. time budgets on project or component level), and with the time, you can go more into details (tasks, sub-tasks). So you need to start planning with very rough numbers, but of course with the time, you want to benefit from being able to plan more in detail.
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- top-down planning, where planning only takes place for on project and maybe component level,
- bottom-up planning, where plan figures for a project or component (only) arise from the plan figures for tasks and sub-tasks.
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| Time Budget / Planning Values | Description | Remarks |
|---|---|---|
| top-downgeneric | plan-values directly entered on the level of component and project | |
| bottom-up | plan-values (= work estimates) entered on the level of sub-task and task according to the logic of JIRA | JIRA allows for entering values on the level of sub-task and task, and if both levels have work estimates, they are just all added; ictime takes the value on task level |
This means that we have three levels where we can manage and view plan values and can compare them with time already spent:
- Project.
- Component.
- Task.
According to the planning approach explained above, we use a specific logic
When calculating viewing the project time planning sheet, we proceed according to the following logic:
As long as there is plan value set for a component and/or for the complete project, we always show this plan value.
If there is no plan value set on component or project level, we show the value resulting
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| this level | possible for components and project; on the task level, this is simply the JIRA work estimate | |
| calculated | time is retrieved from lower levels | this is a value calculated by ictime from available data on the next-lower level; according to the logic explained below |
According to the planning approach explained above, we apply a specific logic to calculate and show plan vaues on every level. Have a look at the following example:
| Level | Generic | Calculated | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Task A1-01 | 5h | We have made a work estimate of 5h. | |
| Task A1-02 | 10h | We have made a work estimate of 10h. | |
| Component A1 | 30h | = 15h | We have planned 30h for component A1, and we have a calculated plan value for this component of 15h from task level. Obviously, the generic value is to high or we are still missing work estoimates for tasks of this component. |
| Component A2 | 20h | We have planned 30h for component A2. No work estimates for tasks yet, so no calculated value. | |
| Component A3 | 10h | We have planned 10h for component A3. No work estimates for tasks yet, so no calculated value. | |
| Projekt A | 100h | = 60h | We have planned 100h on project level. We have a calculated value of 60h from component level. So still some planning to do on lower levels ... |
You remember, we wanted to plan top-down and bottom up at the same time. The example above shows a planning situation where we are still missing some detailed planning. As we are aware of that, we still have set plan values directly on component level. This way we have decided that we want to use these (rough) values and are not ready yet to replace them by calculated values from task level. All this gets transparent as we can see that generic and calculated values are present and still don't fit very well.
If we find a plan value on one level, we use it to calculate the plan value for the next-higher level. If we do not find a plan value on this level, and only in this case, we use the plan values of the next-deeper level.
The derived budget is always displayed (and calculated) only between exactly two levels, and it considers derived time budgets as well as generic time budgets. If there is a generic time budget, this is always taken. If not, the derived one is taken.
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