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Licensing & Billing
If we’ve already purchased ActionableAgile for Jira, do we need to pay for this app too?
Yes. This app is a separate app from ActionableAgile for Jira and must be purchased separately.
Can I purchase this for just a few users on our Jira instance?
No. Atlassian rules say that all “paid via Atlassian” apps must be licensed at the same user count as the host instance. Please note that the pricing takes this into account.
How to apply a coupon code?CLOUD ONLY
Go to Apps and then go to Promotions and press Apply Promotions
Enter the coupon code in the designated box
You should then see that the coupon has been applied
How to apply a coupon code? SERVER AND DATA CENTER ONLY
Please look at this quick how to video: https://youtu.be/BKd_PNB_8oA
Basic Usage
Can I forecast epics or versions across multiple projects?
Yes. When choosing what to forecast you can enter more than one project. However, in order to get a valuable forecast, you need to be able to choose a representative set of historical data. This can be more complex when you’re working across projects.
How do I choose the right historical data to use for the forecast?
This is the most complicated question in the process and there is no one right answer.
Look at the work that you’re trying to forecast and choose that same type of work in the same projects. “Same type” can include some combination of issue types, component, label, etc.
In regards to how much data you pull, ask yourself if the conditions you had during the default time period roughly match the conditions you’ll have for the work you’re trying to forecast. Conditions means factors like team size and availability, type of work being done, how much work you try to do at one time, etc. These are all factors that impact the rate at which you finish work. If your answer is yes, you don’t need to choose a longer time period. But, if it doesn’t, you may need to widen the time period until it does.
Just remember, exact precision isn’t needed for either input - you just need to be roughly similar. Regardless, remember to revisit the forecast regularly to monitor how things go once work has begun.
How do I choose the right confidence level?
To answer this question, think about the question “How dire are the consequences if I am wrong?” Knowing that you can never be 100% certain and that trying to be close means the more outliers you have to include, choose what risk you will be comfortable with. If you are ok with a 10% chance of an item taking longer than forecasted, choose 90% for the confidence level. There is no “best” answer, but a common choice is 80 or 85%.
How does the app determine which Epics are In Progress?
In your Jira workflow, each workflow status is assigned a status category: ‘To Do', ‘In Progress' or ‘Done'. For every Epic we check it’s current workflow status and its status category to determine if the Epic is not yet started, in progress, or completed. If you want Epics to appear as IN PROGRESS, make sure you have transitioned them to an In Progress workflow status.
We don’t assume that just because an issue in the Epic is In Progress, that you want to consider the entire Epic as In Progress as there are some use cases where that wouldn’t be accurate. We prefer to have you be explicit about this.
Want your Epics to automatically move to an In Progress workflow status when you start an issue inside your Epic? Jira has automation features that make this possible.
Why can’t I reorder items when Show not started is toggled off?
When you are in the mode where show not started is toggled off, the order of the items doesn’t impact the forecast. See the FAQ on how daily throughput is distributed across items for more explanation.
Can I simulate what would happen if we deprioritized an epic we’ve already started in order to focus on one we haven’t started yet?
Yes. Ensure that the Show not started toggle is toggled on. Now drag and drop items so that the items you want to count as in progress in your What If? scenario are the top items. Finally make sure that your Concurrent Items dropdown value is as desired. Click Save and the forecast will recalculate.
See this and other What If? questions
Forecast Mechanics
How is the daily throughput distributed across items in progress to get the forecast?
To simulate many real-life scenarios, we randomly distribute how much of your daily throughput goes to each epic or version currently marked as in progress. You cannot override how this works at this time.
How does the app take your historical data and use it to make a forecast?
We look at your data’s Throughput metric (how many items you finish per day) and feed that into our Monte Carlo simulations to generate the probabilistic forecasts used in the app.
Why does it take so long to generate my forecast?
In no case will the forecast be instantaneous - there’s a lot getting done behind the scenes! However, you do have an impact on this. The length of time it will take to generate your forecast depends on the number of items you’re forecasting and how many historical data points you are using within the forecast.
If you have a hundred epics, for instance, is it really valuable to forecast them all right now? How likely is it that your priority will change sooner than you get around to starting them? You also don’t need thousands of historical data points to give a great forecast. Unless there’s a valid reason to use so many, consider trimming it down a bit.