This feature is not yet stable. It is in preparation for the next release and will be available until end of June 2012.
Idea
There are two different time planning levels within ictime:
- 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 uses the total value on task level (for reasons of simplicity, we are not explicitely showing the sub-task level).
- Planning/estimates on component and project level. This is extra functionality provided by ictime.
Apart from having two different places to enter time budget planning information, there is also a specific approach for being able to manage rough time budget plans and detailing planning at the same time. This is explained in detail in this chapter.
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 financial 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. It also might happen that some people in general prefer to plan top-down and others want to plan bottom-up:
- top-down planning, where planning only takes place 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.
In fact both approaches have serious disadvantages. The first does not allow for control on lower levels, the second leads to a situation where the planning only gets complete towards the end of the project, because you usually can't pre-define all tasks and sub-tasks in the beginning of a project.
As a conclusion and to cover both needs, you need to set top-down time budgets on a certain level, and at the same time, you want to use bottom-up time budgets that are derived from a more detailed planning on lower levels. How this can be reached is described in the following.
When doing the planning and when showing time planning values, we distinguish two kinds of values:
| Planning Values | Description | Remarks |
|---|---|---|
| generic | plan-values entered on this level, you set this value | possible for components and project; on task level, this is simply the JIRA work estimate |
| calculated | time is retrieved from lower levels, you see this value, but can't set it | this is a value calculated by ictime from available data on the next-lower level according to the logic explained below |
Depending on the level (project, component, task) you are working on, these values have a slightly different idea for the ictime project time planning sheet:
| Level | Value | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Sub-Task | generic* | JIRA work estimate on sub-task level |
| Task | generic* | JIRA work estimate on task level |
| Component | generic | if you set this value, it will be considered to calculate the total for the project, if you do not set it, the calculated value for this component will be taken instead |
| calculated | sum of work estimates of all tasks of this component, will be considered to calculate the total for the project if no generic value is set for this component | |
| Project | generic | will be displayed for information purposes |
| calculated | sum of plan values of all components (generic and/or calculated, this is decided on component level) |
Even though it might be difficult to understand in the beginning, it is very simple. It's basically all about the component time planning value. By setting a generic plan value on component level, you decide that this value should be used for calculating the results for the project (top-down approach, not very detailed). By not setting it, you decide that the calculated result for the component (= work estimates for all task/sub-tasks of the component) should be used for calculating the project time budget (bottom-up approach, detailed).
Examples
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, and the key is how we handle component planning values. 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, and we also still maintain a generic value on project level. This way we have decided that we want to use the (rough) component values for calculating the project plan 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.
Now have a look at the same project in a later planning stage:
| 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. | |
| Task A1-03 | 10h | We have added this task and have made a work estimate of 10h. | |
| Component A1 | = 25h | We have deleted the generic value for component A1, as we have decided that the detailed planning for tasks of this component is ready now. So we only have a calculated plan value for this component of 25h from task level (doing the detailed plan on task level, we also realised that 30h was to much). | |
| Task A2-01 | 10h | ||
| Task A2-02 | 25h | ||
| Component A2 | =35h | We have deleted the generic value for component A2, as we have decided that the detailed planning for tasks of this component is ready now. So we only have a calculated plan value for this component of 25h from task level (doing the detailed plan on task level, we also realised that 20h was not enough). | |
| Component A3 | 10h | We have planned 10h for component A3. No work estimates for tasks yet, so still no calculated value. | |
| Projekt A | = 70h | We have deleted the generic value on project level, as we think that planning for components is now okay and reflects the overall time budget we will need. So we have a calculated value of 70h from component level, and big parts of that planning value is a result of work estimates on task level. |
The example above shows a more detailed planning. Except for the component A3, where we do not have tasks with work estimates yet, we have decided to basically rely on the work estimates from task level, and we also have decided that planning is good enough to eliminate the general time budget for the project itself, as the data we get from lower levels is complete enough.
If you don't use components and/or if you have tasks without component assignment, such tasks will be automatically summed up into a "virtual" component provided by ictime in order not to break the logic that all calculated values always need to come from the next-lower level ("No Component"). You can't set a generic plan value for this "component" of course, but the calculated value will be considered for the project like it were a real component. This way, work estimates on task level are made available to calculate the planning value for the project without having a real component.
Setting Plan Values
Work Estimates (Issue Level)
Plan values on the level of tasks and/or sub-tasks are managed via the respective JIRA functionality. See http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRA/Logging+Work+on+an+Issue#LoggingWorkonanIssue-Specifyingtimeestimates and Work Estimates, Remaining Estimate.
Component
Project
Target/Actual Comparison (Reports)
Accuracy / Planning Progress
Difference in % between a generic and calculated value on one level (indicates that detailed planning is required)
Planned/Logged