How Effort is calculated for high-level scopes of work: Features, Epics, Projects, Releases, Sprints, Team Iterations

This article describes how Effort is calculated for high-level scopes of work such as features, epics, projects, portfolio epics releases and iterations.

High-level scopes of work do not have their own effort. Instead, you can assign work items to them. Their effort becomes equal to total amount of effort of all assigned entities.

It is possible to manually input rough total estimated effort (capacity) for some of the high-level planning entities:

• Input total effort of epics and features to predefined fields named Initial Estimate;
• Input total effort of iterations and team iterations to predefined fields named Velocity.

There are no prefined fields for total estimated effort in projects and releases. Add Custom Fields to input and keep initial estimates for these entities. Configure custom calculations with Metrics to compare total assigned effort with manually set estimates.

Effort for Features

For a feature without user stories, its Effort is equal to its Initial Estimate.

For a feature with user stories, its Effort is automatically calculated as sum of effort of its user stories. It happens all the time even when none of user story is estimated yet.

It is possible to compare Initial Estimate, Effort, and Time Spent for every feature.

Total Effort of a Feature having at least one User Story is always equal to total Effort of its User Stories. Effort of nested Bugs is not included.

Total time spent of a Feature is always equal to total time spent on its User Stories. Time spent on nested Bugs is not included. It is not possible to submit Time record to a Feature directly.

It is possible to set up custom calculations and get total Bugs count, effort, time spent, cost displayed per Feature. Learn how: Metrics for Bugs in User Stories and Features.

Effort for Epics and Portfolio Epics

For an epic without features its Effort is equal to its Initial Estimate.

For an epic with features, its Effort is automatically calculated as sum of effort of its features.

Total time spent of an Epic is always equal to total time spent on its Features. It is not possible to submit Time record to an Epic directly.

It is possible to compare Initial Estimate, Effort, and Time Spent for every epic.

Effort and Time Spent of Bugs is not included into a total effort of Epics. It is possible to set up custom calculations and get total Bugs count, effort, time spent, cost displayed per Feature, and further set up similar metrics to summarize values across nested Features per Epic. Learn how: Metrics for Bugs in User Stories and Features.

An effort for Portfolio Epics is calculated similarly but it also includes child Epics in calculation

Effort for Projects

For a Project, the effort is calculated as the total of:

• Portfolio Epics that have no Feature and Epics
• Epics in this project that have no features;
• Features in this project that have no user stories;
• User Stories in this project. Sum of effort of Tasks is always included to User Stories' effort;
• Bugs in this project.

Effort of Requests and Test Plan Runs is not included into total effort of the Project.

Assigned Effort for Sprints (Iterations) and Team Iterations

For a Sprint (Iteration) or a Team Iteration, the effort is calculated as total of:

• User Stories assigned to the sprint. Sum of effort of tasks is always included to user stories' effort.
• Bugs assigned to the sprint.

Assigned Effort for Releases

For a Release, the effort is calculated as total of:

• Epics assigned to the release that have no features;
• Features assigned to the release that have no user stories;
• User Stories assigned to the release. Sum of effort of tasks is always included to user stories' effort;
• Bugs assigned to the release.