Planned vs Actual Report

Planned vs. Actual Report helps you compare the originally estimated time (planned) with the actual time spent on tasks.

Here’s a detailed explanation of how it works:

1. Time Comparison: The report compares:

• Planned Time: The original time estimated to complete a task, issue, epic, or project.

• Actual Time: The actual time spent on the task, along with any remaining time if the task is not yet completed.

2. Deviation Analysis:

• The report calculates the deviation between the planned time and the actual time, showing both in hours and percentages.

• Deviation %: Indicates whether the task was underestimated, overestimated, or remains on track, based on the acceptable deviation set in the report.

3. Status Indicator: Based on the deviation, the report provides a status:

• On Track: If the actual time aligns with the original estimate, within the allowed deviation.

• Underestimated: If more time is spent than originally estimated.

• Overestimated: If less time is spent than planned (though this is not reflected in the current report, it can be tracked).

4. Level of Detail: This report can be generated at various levels:

• Issue: Focuses on individual issues or tasks, breaking down time spent at the task level.

• Project: Aggregates data at the project level, showing time comparison across all tasks within the selected project.

• Epic: Provides insights into how epics, which can span multiple tasks and stories, performed against their original time estimates.

• Jira Custom field: Group issues based on your Jira custom fields for more detailed analysis.

5. Customizable Filters: You can filter the report by:

• Teams: Allows you to select specific teams or individuals.

• Period: Choose a specific date range for which the report should be generated.

• Project Filters: Narrow down the report to specific projects, epics, or tasks.

• Jira Filter: Add Jira filters to refine the tasks or issues included in the report.

6. Sub-task Handling: The option to Include Time of Sub-tasks into the Parent Tasks ensures that the report captures the full scope of work, including any time spent on sub-tasks, and rolls it up into the parent task’s time calculations.

This report is highly beneficial for monitoring project performance, tracking team efficiency, and identifying tasks or projects that were underestimated or overestimated, helping to refine future planning and estimation processes of JIRA tickets, time estimates (original and remaining), time spent already on the tickets, and ticket status.

To generate a Planned vs Actual Report follow the steps:

1. Navigate to the Reports module and find the desired report in the list: 

2. Specify the type of the report (Issue, Project, or Epic)

3. Choose a team to generate it for

4. Choose a period from a predefined list or use a custom period option

5. You can also add additional custom fields to be shown in the report to add some additional information

6. Apply project filter or Jira filter to generate reports for a specific set of task

7. Check 'Exclude Time of Sub-tasks from Time of Main Task' or leave it unchecked

   • if an option is checked, the system will not aggregate the estimates / logged time from the sub-tasks and provide a value of time estimated and time spent on a main task

   • if an option is not checked, the system will aggregate the estimates / logged time from all the sub-tasks of a main task.     

8. Generate Report in Web or Excel format:

Planned vs Actual Report opens in the selected format. 

A report represents the collected data about JIRA tickets, a person who was the last assignee, Start and End Dates, Original and Remaining Estimates, Time Spent (logged work), Issue Summary, and Status.

The status of a ticket is marked with different colors:

• green - ON TRACK status, means that Time Spent + Remaining Estimate = Original Estimate

• yellow - OVERESTIMATED status, means that Time Spent + Remaining Estimate < Original Estimate

• red - UNDERESTIMATED status, means that Time Spent + Remaining Estimate > Original Estimate

For a more comprehensive guide on this report, please, refer to the video guide:

This type of report provides a summary of JIRA tickets, time estimates (original and remaining), time spent already on the tickets, and ticket status.