Contents

Prerequisites

Ensure that you are good on the following prerequisites:

• Ensure that JIRA Agile is installed
• The Story Points field is available
• If you want to build a report using time metric, make sure that time tracking is enabled.
• Release Prediction Chart is added to your dashboard
• You have configured the Release Prediction Chart
  
  

Reading the chart

Your Release Prediction Chart displays the following information:

• Sprint related data
  • sprint estimates - The estimated progression of the project
  • sprint actuals - The actual progression of the project
  • planned sprint - The planned progression of the sprints 
  • future normal sprint - The predicted progression of the sprints (how the sprints should be planned)
• Version related data
  • version estimated - The estimated progression of the version
  • version actuals - The actuals progression of the version
  • planned version - The planned progression of the version (how the version should be planned)
• Acceptable deviation and danger zone – a user defined deviation area around the future sprint estimates. If the future sprint actuals are inside this area, the team progress is considered to be on track even if the actuals are below the estimates. 
  • Deviation (ahead) – a gold to aim for. This is the hardest line to reach on the chart but at the same time the sweetest one. Very rarely do teams reach that gold but it's worth trying! 
  • Deviation (behind) – this line marks the maximum deviation from planned work beyond which the team progress is not considered to be on track and thus - entering the danger zone.
  • Danger zone – transparent red area below the Deviation (behind) line.
    
    

The following example shows that the team was bad in delivering sprint work and releasing versions for several sprints (sprints actuals are far below sprints estimates). The team is currently far behind schedule. In order to deliver the estimated work (403 SP) and get back to normal velocity, the team should plan 17 sprints until the projected release date(5/24/2018). Considering the deviation norm, if the team will be behind schedule, the pessimistic release date should be 9/08/2018. Otherwise, if the team will burn up more points per sprint and will be ahead of schedule, the optimistic release date should be 2/5/2018. The team progress will be on track as long as the team will be within the deviation norm.

Selecting data to display on the chart

The interface enables you to customize your report view by showing and hiding the data depending on your current focus. For instance, if you are focused on how you should planned the sprints until release and you are not interested in the versions, you can hide the lines by clicking them in the chart legend as shown below. To display the lines again, click them again.

Tooltips

For you to have an instant insight into what the certain parts of the chart mean and how much work was delivered at a certain point in time, just hover over a place on the chart. You'll see the summary in the tooltip.

Zoom feature

For a better drill down and work analysis, you can zoom in to see an area representing a short period of time. To zoom in, hover over the chart and use the mouse wheel. Also, you can pan over the chart by clicking and dragging on a section of the chart. To zoom out, you can use your mouse wheel or click the Refresh button.

Release Prediciton Chart details in tabs

In addition to chart visualization. For this purpose we provide detailed information, insights, and warnings in a table view below the chart.

Summary tab

In addition to sprint information that you would typically find in JIRA, you can also see:

Sprints tab

The Sprints tab contains details of the closed sprints, open sprints(current sprints) and planned sprints that are included in the report. The sprints are clickable to make the navigation faster for you. For the unplanned sprints the link displays the backlog issues.

Versions tab

The Versions tab contains details of the released and unrealeased versions that are included in the report. For each version you can see the estimates, actuals, start date, end date and prediction date which shows the projected date of release for the version.

Warnings tab

Warnings help you quickly identify tickets that require attention.

We generate warnings when an issue is not estimated and thus might affect the chart's accuracy or when a ticket is resolved outside of the sprint and is not marked as a duplicate or clone. Such tickets are not included into the chart calculations, therefore to ensure the chart's accuracy, you might want to triage such tickets first.

Also, we generate warnings for the sprints and versions that will not be delivered on time.

Exporting the Release Prediction Chart data

You can save the chart image, all you have to do is right click on the chart area and select Save image. You can also export the statistics and the sprints details into the XLS file by clicking the Export button.

Other tips and tricks

For you to have a meaningful data on the Release Prediction Chart check on the following items:

• You have at least 2 completed sprints on the SCRUM board
• You check the Warnings tab from time to time and triage tickets from there. The tickets shown in the Warnings tab are not included into the chart calculations, and thus in order to see the accurate picture on the chart, you might want to triage those tickets first.

See also

RPC - Configuring Release Prediction Chart