Cost per Point (Agile Release Train)

Requires the following solution to be installed:

• Working Days (7fe5edc0-360f-4fca-9eec-05d754a89fe8)
• Agile Release Train (ART) Rate (d5c2064f-5b34-4a04-b491-dde81d4a597b)
• Agile Release Train (ART) Actual, Average and Forecasted Velocity (00b0e846-32da-4582-afdb-2597789c9b06)

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Solution overview

This solution allows calculating Cost per Point for an Agile Release Train based on the ART Rate and the ART Velocity. It's used to predict the cost of work or calculate actual costs. Let's say an ART Velocity is 2000 points per Planning Interval, and we know that an ART cost for a Planning Interval is 500000 USD. Then Cost per Point for this ART would be 500000/2000 = 250 USD. If we'd like to estimate how much a Portfolio Epic estimated as 3000 points would cost us, we'd calculate it as 250*3000 = 750000 USD.

Cost per Point calculation will take into account the following Agile Release Train data:

• ART Cost for a Planning Interval – we'll use an ART Hourly Rate and a number of Working Days in a Planning Interval to calculate it. In case an ART Rate got updated in the middle of a Planning Interval, we'll use both Rates and calculate the ART Cost.
• ART Velocity – we'll use either an ART Average Velocity (based on the last 3 Planning Intervals) or an ART Initial Velocity in case there are no yet finished Planning Intervals.

Initial setup

Calculate Working Days in Planning Intervals

As Cost per Point calculation requires a number of Working Days in a Planning Interval, we need to calculate it for all the Planning Intervals. To do that you need to configure Working Days (7fe5edc0-360f-4fca-9eec-05d754a89fe8) solution for Planning Intervals. Please follow the instructions in that solution to do that.

As a result, the number of Working Days for each Planning Interval will be calculated.

Set Budgeting Portfolio ID in Automation Rules

To make Cost per Point information available to a limited group of people, we need to hide them in a separate Portfolio (Project) called Budgeting (or use any other name which suits your organization). All the Cost per Point records will be kept in this project by default. By assigning people to this project, you will provide access to the Cost per Point details. People who don't have access to the Budgeting Portfolio (Project) won't see anything on the Cost per Point tab on an ART view. To do that:

• Copy a "Budgeting" portfolio ID (if not created yet)
• Go to Settings -> Automation Rules
• Replace the Project ID parameter in the following rule:
  • ART Cost Per Point creation - main rule
• Save the rules

Update the solution parameters (optional)

There are several additional parameters that can be updated in the solution:

• "RateCF": "Hourly Rate" - the name of a custom field, which contains information about a ART Hourly Rate. If it differs in your account, please update it in the rules.
• "DailyHours": 8 - if your standard number of Hours per Day differs from 8, please update it with the correct number

To do that:

• Go to Settings -> Automation Rules
• Open the following rules one by one:
  • ART Cost Per Point creation - main rule
  • ART Cost Per Point update - main rule
• Update the parameters
• Save the rules

Calculate ART Cost per Point

ART Cost per Point will be calculated for ART Rates and stored there. It will be based either on Average ART Velocity (in case at least one finished Planning Interval exists and have a Completed Effort) or using ART Initial Velocity (please make sure the data exist, check Agile Release Train (ART) Actual, Average and Forecasted Velocity (00b0e846-32da-4582-afdb-2597789c9b06) solution for more details).

Create and calculate Cost per Point for existing Planning Intervals

When the solution is installed, you may already have existing Planning Intervals in the system. To create respective Cost per Point records for these Planning Intervals, please do the following:

• Go to Settings -> Automation Rules
• Enable and open the following rule:
  • Trigger ART Cost Per Point creation for existing Releases (Planning Intervals)
• Click Save and Trigger button

Cost per Point records will be generated for all the existing Planning Intervals and Agile Release Trains (ARTs).

Note 1: Going further, when a new Planning Interval will be created, then a respective Cost Per Point will also be created for this Planning Interval automatically with the same Planned Start/End Dates and inherit ART Planning Interval Actual and Forecasted Velocity.

Note 2: If you don't have an ART Rate available for the dates of a Planning Interval, then Cost per Point won't be calculated, so to calculate it for the past Planning Intervals, adjust Planned Start Dates for ART Rates. 

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