Time remaining for a work item that is completed early

I assume you are using basic Scrum and using Time Remaining to track tasks. Your task page has 3 interesting attributes: Time Remaining, Estimate, Corrected Estimate. Time Remaining needs to be accurately specified so that the Burndown Chart can be properly calculated. A task's Time Remaining field is automatically set to be the Estimate (or Corrected Estimate) field until the user changes it. Even then, if the Corrected Estimate field is updated, the Time Remaining field is automatically updated with the difference between the old and new estimate.

Closing a task seems to have no effect on the burndown chart -- you must set Time Remaining to zero. I've been testing as I write this and refreshing the burndown chart after closing the task had no effect. So setting Time Remaining to zero when there is no time remaining is important, even if you are closing the item. [That seems like a defect to me -- counting time remaining for closed tasks. I'll look into that separately.]

So your first scenario is a definite "no" -- don't set time remaining to the extra hours and close the item.

What you do with the Corrected Estimate depends on what your team intends to do with that data. Do you have metrics on estimates and do you need to know that the task was estimated at 8 hours but only took 3? You could use Corrected Estimate to actually mean "Time Spent" but then what do you do when you actually need to correct an estimate? Does your team actively track Time Spent and compare it to estimates? IMO, I would not change the Corrected Estimate unless you were actually correcting an estimate based on a task reassignment or learning more about it as you get into it. If you want to track actual effort and compare it to your estimates, consider adding an Actual Effort field to your tasks/defects where you can record the 3 hours. Now, if it matters to your team, you could do metrics on how good your estimates tend to be -- because you have accurately captured your estimate(s) and your actual.

So in your second scenario, I'd say "yes" to set time remaining to zero and you can set something to "3 hours" but I wouldn't make it Corrected Estimate.

HTH...Millard

Have you found anything in your search for:

"So setting Time Remaining to zero when there is no time remaining is important, even if you are closing the item. [That seems like a defect to me -- counting time remaining for closed tasks. I'll look into that separately.]"

In my opinion it does not make any sense to not force time remaining to zero when closing a workitem. The 2 enhancements you've linked to seem to not get any attention.

Best regards

Anders Holm