Progress bar not showing completed work

[Michael Hirsch]

We're in our first iteration with VersionOne. We're the first team to
try it--if we are successful, the rest of our teams will probably use
it. This means I have no one more experienced to ask questions of
except this list.

I just noticed that none of the process bars show any work as being
completed. I suspect that I'm doing something wrong.

For instance, in the "My Work" page, my personal personal Member
Summary bar is all black. When I mouse over it is says "Done: 0.00 To
Do: 3.44". I had much more than 3.44 which I have done. I would
expect something like "Done: 6.56 To Do: 3.44".

I've marked tasks as Done, I've marked backlog items as Done. I've
quick-close items, but nothing changes my progress bar.

Is there another step I need to do to get these progress bars working?

Thanks,

Michael

[grayaii]

Hi David,

Marking something as "done" does not modify how much time you've spent
to accomplish a task.
When working on a task, you have to (this is all under the "Iteration
Tracking" tab):
1) Mark the task as "In progress"
2) Enter how much time you've spent working on the task, under
"Effort".
3) Update how much remaining time you have left to complete the task.

Once the task is complete, you mark the task as Complete.
Once all the tasks are complete for the User Story, mark the User
Story as complete.

Hope this helps!
-alex-

ps. For me, I update all all my time ("Effort" and "To Do") 1 or 2
times a day :)

[Ian Culling]

In addition to setting the status to whatever your final value is, you also need to 'Close' (or 'Quick Close', if that's configured) Stories to ensure that your release burndowns reflect that progress. Closing tasks will automatically zero out any remaining effort, but it will not increment effort (assuming you're tracking effort) - you still need to log the effort spent prior to closing a task out (or as part of that process).

If you're still unclear or having issues, sup...@versionone.com can help clarify - we want to ensure you get up & running as efficiently and successfully as possible.

Cheers,
Ian

[Michael Hirsch]

On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 7:27 AM, grayaii <gra...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi David,

Um, Michael. But Hi.

> Marking something as "done" does not modify how much time you've spent
> to accomplish a task.
> When working on a task, you have to (this is all under the "Iteration
> Tracking" tab):
> 1) Mark the task as "In progress"

I do this

> 2) Enter how much time you've spent working on the task, under
> "Effort".

I don't do this for two reasons. The biggest one is that it doesn't
display in "My Work". Only "Status", "Detail Estimate", "To Do", and
"Estimate" are visible. The second reason is that Scrum process is
supposed to track only work to do. It deliberately leaves out actual
effort from it's metrics. At the end of an iteration you can now
estimate the effor per unit of estimated work. Using this empirical
data provides you with the numbers you need to go forward. Only when
you are billing hours is there a good reason for tracking effort like
that. At least, that is the Scrum theory and we're trying to
implement Scrum.

> 3) Update how much remaining time you have left to complete the task.

I do this.

>
> Once the task is complete, you mark the task as Complete.
> Once all the tasks are complete for the User Story, mark the User
> Story as complete.

This too. The problem is that the progress bar shows nothing done.
What goes into that? Does it really pull that from the "Effort"
field?

Thanks,

Michael

[Michael Hirsch]

On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 7:41 AM, Ian Culling <ian.c...@versionone.com> wrote:
>
> In addition to setting the status to whatever your final value is, you also need to 'Close' (or 'Quick Close', if that's configured) Stories to ensure that your release burndowns reflect that progress.  Closing tasks will automatically zero out any remaining effort, but it will not increment effort (assuming you're tracking effort) - you still need to log the effort spent prior to closing a task out (or as part of that process).

We are not tracking effort, only work left to do. Are you saying that
if effort isn't tracked the progress bars will show no work done?

> If you're still unclear or having issues, sup...@versionone.com can help clarify - we want to ensure you get up & running as efficiently and successfully as possible.

I've sent mail to support. Thanks,

Michael

[Ian Culling]

Whether you're tracking effort or not, the progress bars will indicate progress, but need to calculate it differently.

No Effort Tracking:
If you're not tracking effort, the progress bars will display the difference between the total 'Detail Estimate' and total remaining 'To Do'. For instance, if you have 3 tasks with a total 'Detail Estimate' of 7 (hours, for most people), and the total remaining 'To Do' is 3.5, the progress bar will be 50% across.

NOTE: if you didn't enter an original Detail Estimate for your tasks, there's no way to track progress - this may be the issue in your case. When you're entering tasks, you should enter the estimate in the 'Detail Estimate' field, and the 'To Do' field will auto-populate with that estimate.


With Effort Tracking:
For others listening on the thread that do track effort, the progress bars will display progress as a combination of total 'Done' (i.e. effort) versus remaining 'To Do'. So, if you've logged 3.5 hours of effort/done on some tasks, but there's a total of 3.5 hours of 'To Do' remaining, the progress bar will be 50% across.

I hope this helps,

[Michael Hirsch]

On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 9:45 AM, Ian Culling <ian.c...@versionone.com> wrote:
>
> Whether you're tracking effort or not, the progress bars will indicate progress, but need to calculate it differently.
>
> No Effort Tracking:
> If you're not tracking effort, the progress bars will display the difference between the total 'Detail Estimate' and total remaining 'To Do'.  For instance, if you have 3 tasks with a total 'Detail Estimate' of 7 (hours, for most people), and the total remaining 'To Do' is 3.5, the progress bar will be 50% across.
>
> NOTE: if you didn't enter an original Detail Estimate for your tasks, there's no way to track progress - this may be the issue in your case.  When you're entering tasks, you should enter the estimate in the 'Detail Estimate' field, and the 'To Do' field will auto-populate with that estimate.

This sounds like what may be going on, though I swear that in some
cases I put in the estimate when I created the task. The Detail
Estemates are all populated now. Is there no way to update the
progress bar? It's strange that the todo keeps dropping, but Done
never goes above zero.

Is there something I need to do to turn off effort tracking? Does the
owner need to turn it off, or does it suffice to just not use it?

Thanks,

Michael

[Maggie Bullington]

Hi-
You must turn off effort tracking in the Administration area for the calculation of progress to change. It is under Admin -> Configuration -> System, and you must be a System Admin to access it.
-Maggie

-----Original Message-----
From: versiono...@googlegroups.com [mailto:versiono...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Michael Hirsch
Sent: Friday, March 27, 2009 12:07 PM
To: versiono...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: Progress bar not showing completed work

[Kevin S.]

Michael-

Have you checked which sprints are active? Progress on the MyHome
dashboard is based on the active sprint/iteration.

On Mar 26, 7:08 pm, Michael Hirsch <mdhir...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Michael Hirsch]

On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 10:14 AM, Maggie Bullington
<maggie.b...@versionone.com> wrote:
>
> Hi-
> You must turn off effort tracking in the Administration area for the calculation of progress to change. It is under Admin -> Configuration -> System, and you must be a System Admin to access it.

Ah ha! I bet that's it. I'll see if I can get our admin to change that.

Thanks Maggie,

Michael

[Michael Hirsch]

On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 11:29 AM, Kevin S. <ksc...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Michael-
>
> Have you checked which sprints are active?  Progress on the MyHome
> dashboard is based on the active sprint/iteration.

We have only one active iteration: iteration 1. It is active and it
is the one I'm looking at. I can see the little triangle point to the
location on the progress bar, so I think I've got the right iterations
activated.

I suspect I need to turn off effort tracking.

Thanks for the suggestion,

Michael

[Michael Hirsch]

On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 1:39 PM, Michael Hirsch <mdhi...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 10:14 AM, Maggie Bullington
> <maggie.b...@versionone.com> wrote:
>>
>> Hi-
>> You must turn off effort tracking in the Administration area for the calculation of progress to change. It is under Admin -> Configuration -> System, and you must be a System Admin to access it.
>
> Ah ha!  I bet that's it.  I'll see if I can get our admin to change that.

Yes, that was it. I have good looking progress bars, now. :)

Thanks again, Maggie.

Michael