Efforts Roll up in Tasks
If I have created a work item(Type: Task) and have created multiple child work items(Type:Task) under the parent work item, RTC allows me to enter effort in both parent and child work items. The child effort is not summed up to the parent work item. Is there a way to roll up efforts from child tasks to parent tasks?
5 answers
Hi Dilip,
you could do that using a follow up action. See https://jazz.net/library/article/1000 how to create one.
Actually I have seen one example around in the WiKi, but I can't find it anymore. You would
On save and changes to the estimation, look for the parent, look for all siblings and then so the math and save it to the parent. Some clues here: https://jazz.net/forum/questions/82482/calculate-value-from-child-workitem-field-and-update-in-parent-workitem-field
I will do a last attempt to find the code.
you could do that using a follow up action. See https://jazz.net/library/article/1000 how to create one.
Actually I have seen one example around in the WiKi, but I can't find it anymore. You would
On save and changes to the estimation, look for the parent, look for all siblings and then so the math and save it to the parent. Some clues here: https://jazz.net/forum/questions/82482/calculate-value-from-child-workitem-field-and-update-in-parent-workitem-field
I will do a last attempt to find the code.
Hi Dilip.
You can enable the progress bar on the Task work item presentation that will do this job for you. Its a non attribute based editor presentations and is called "Work Progress".
It will collect the estimates from the children and will also show the progress in a nice bar. Only restriction on this is that you will not be able to see this bar in the Query results.
Also you can see the similar information if you use the plan editor.
Thanks
Aradhya K
Thanks Ralph for the response. I am still working on to get the one you suggested done so that i can try it on.
Aradhya. Is it possible to make this bar visible only for tasks having child tasks?
In the meanwhile,I think there is a bug in RTC for efforts roll up.
I created a scenario under which I created a task. I estimated the task for 5hours and put the actual figure as 5hours.
Under the task I created two child task ( Child task 1: Planned 3hours , Actual 5hours and Child Task 2: Planned 6hours and Actual 7hours). I went back and adjusted the parent task estimate with a correction value. I noticed two things.
1) when i entered a correction value of 4hours in the parent task, the scenario showed planned 17hours and actual 17hours. In this case the actual value is correct, but the planned value is not correct.
2) When i tried to manually sum up the two child tasks and put them in parent task, the scenario treated them as three individual efforts and summed up the effort. This may be because RTC does not automatically roll up efforts as of now. Should this be a feature or is there any significance in not rolling up the efforts.
Hi Dilip
Currently there is no feature as to not have some work item presentation based on some conditions. Its only based on the state that you can control the visibility of the work item presentations.
Let me Redraw the scenario you have mentioned
Parent Task Effort 5h Actuals: 5h Progress 17h/17h
Child 1 Effort 3h Actuals: 5h Progress 5h/5h
Child 2 Effort 6h Actuals: 7h Progress 7h/7h
Question 1: The plan progress does not consider over work. Showing 17h/14h looks a bit awkward. For Over Work you have to get it from the report.
Question 2: For Progress calculation the work items considered are the work item itself and its children, So adding up at the Estimates at the Parent level will not be helpful.
The reason why we do not store the rolled up values in the repository is because a change in work item will actually change the state of the work items in the complete hierarchy. This will hit the performance a lot. We have some of the views like the Plan Editor which calculate the rolled up values.
I would really recommend you to use the Plan Editor once. Its quite simple and has some of the features like Grid View of the work items with Gantt bars, Progress as a Column, Inline Edit ....
If its just the Progress Bar, then the progress in Work item Editor and Plan Editor are the same.
I work for RTC Planning we can fix the issues you are facing.