How to sum up original estimates from existing subtasks to their parent story or task
Asked by Ree Agarwal:

Hi everyone,

I know this question has been answered over multiple posts and I have created my automation based on the solutions from those posts but it is still not working for me.

My scenario is as follows:

We have stories or tasks that were created by BA. Then we did grooming and the team created sub-tasks. Then we did sprint planning and the team estimated the subtasks and added them in the original estimate field in hours which JIRA converted to weeks/ days or left it as hours if \< 8.

Now on the parent story/task when I turn on time tracking it shows the sum of all the sub-task estimates but the original estimate field of the story still shows 0.

![Screenshot 2024-01-15 140414.jpg](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/300512iECF7DC62FE239D31/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Screenshot 2024-01-15 140414.jpg")

I created the following automation rules to update this field but they still did not work:

![Screenshot 2024-01-15 140027.jpg](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/300510i5A4D90D0F5B666EE/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Screenshot 2024-01-15 140027.jpg")![Screenshot 2024-01-15 140153.jpg](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/300511i2869AE4D379253EF/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Screenshot 2024-01-15 140153.jpg")

So, can anyone guide me on what am I doing wrong here or why is the automation not working on the original estimate field of the story/task??

Thanks,

Ree


Answers:
author: Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
body: Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

There is a lot wrong here, but the most basic question is "why are you not using the time-tracking fields that automatically add up your estimates by default"?

comments: author: Ree Agarwal
body: Hi Nic,

Could you please elaborate here on your statement that there is a lot wrong here. I have taken the automation query from the JIRA community posts itself on sum up the logged hours/estimates from sub-tasks to parent.

Also, I am using the timetracking field to track the estimated hours and actual logged hours against the parent issue but that is not helping me with JIRA reports especially burn down or sprint report when I run them on original estimates as the sum or original estimates on sub-tasks is not populating the original estimate field on the parent story/task,

We are not doing estimates on story points otherwise this wouldn't have been an issue.

Also, my scenario is bit different from the other posts as I already have stories and subtasks created before the estimates are done.


author: Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
body: There are two things wrong with it.

You don't need to do it. Jira's issues already have fields that sum up all of the estimates. This is from an issue with

|----------|-------------------|-------------|
|          | Original estimate | Logged work |
| Issue    | 2d                | 4h          |
| Sub-task | 42m               | 12m         |

![Screenshot 2024-01-19 at 09.34.57.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/301426i981F3C54CF47E828/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Screenshot 2024-01-19 at 09.34.57.png")![Screenshot 2024-01-19 at 09.34.28.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/301427i26D6EE0AB671CDA5/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Screenshot 2024-01-19 at 09.34.28.png")

But the main problem is when people are pretending to do Scrum, and put **sprint** estimates on sub-tasks. It doesn't matter whether you're looking at time estimates or number based estimates for your Sprint estimate field, you should not put estimates on sub-tasks.

If you're not doing scrum, or doing scrum without estimates, it's fine. This only applies to **sprint estimates**

Sub-tasks are not sprint items, you can't commit to doing a sub-task in a sprint. They are wholly a part of their parent issue, and you commit to doing the parent (which means you're saying you are going to do all the sub-tasks as part of it).

That means that the estimates on a sub-task are already a part of the estimate on the story, so again, you don't need to add them up, they're already there. Not broken down individually, but they're part of the story.

So, when you put an estimate on a sub-task, you create a massive problem for yourself.

Your sprint reporting (velocity, burn down, etc) all ignore sub-tasks. You can only burn-down when a sprint item is done, which means all the sub-tasks are done as well. You can't burn down any points on sub-tasks until the parent is done.

The problem with then adding estimates up to their parent issue is that while your burn charts will work, the rest of Jira will not. It will count the estimates twice, making a nonsense of all the rest of your time reporting.