Using effort in a weighted formula
Asked by Seth Mason:

I want to build a formula that helps me identify features that are "high impact" and "low effort". Therefore, I would like to build a weighted formula that takes into account "Score" and "Effort". Where:

* Score: Higher is better
* Effort: Lower is better. (1 "dot" better than 5 "dots")

Right now as implemented for weighted formulas, both are calculated/normalized to be "higher is better".


Answers:
author: Tanguy Crusson
body: Hi everyone, this change is coming up soon. Note that [you can also use a "write your own" formula](https://www.loom.com/share/a09506455d6b4571a912567d5df4169b) to do that today.

![Screenshot 2023-01-03 at 14.48.01.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/232851i391D0648FA0D4008/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Screenshot 2023-01-03 at 14.48.01.png")

comments: author: Wing Yee Tang
body: Do you have an estimated date when it will be rolled out? It's a bit silly now to have the effort score in reverse order (e.g. 1 dot is high effort and 3 dots is low effort) ?


author: Tanguy Crusson
body: We don't generally share release dates.

In the meantime, you can try:

* using a negative input? (e.g. "-100" for effort)
* using a custom formula ("write your own", e.g. "{Impact}/{Effort}")

What we're going to ship here is basically a convenience UI to achieve the same result


author: Wing Yee Tang
body: Thanks! I will try the negative input


author: Jonathan Hau
body: I think this can be easily solved by writing an Expression that inverts the value of the weighting in the calculated score. Or divides by effort. For example if using RICE scoring model: 2\* ((\[Reach\]+\[Impact\]+\[Confidence\])/\[Effort\])


author: Riku.Kristersson
body: It's really needed feature that you can select if value is positive or negative (if number 5 is good or bad thing). We are missing a lot if we can't use weighted score with rating fields when using impact vs effort (or other similar) framework


author: Tanguy Crusson
body: [@Seth Mason](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/4731463) : what [@Jonathan Hau](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/4658982) said!

Here's a demo: <https://www.loom.com/share/a09506455d6b4571a912567d5df4169b>

Also, you can use negative numbers in the weighted score (e.g. impact = 200, effort = -100) but I'm not sure how mathematically accurate it is. We've seen users doing that though


author: Hannes Krug
body: I also have problems with that. I would like to have positive and negative weighted inputs.

Problems now:

1. It is not clear to me how the negative input goes into the weighted formula.   
**Is there documentation about the specific formula behind it?**

2. **"Make Your Own" is not normalising input fields** so it is not possible to create an own weighted formula

comments: author: Tanguy Crusson
body: Hi [@Hannes Krug](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/4847950) , it's explained here: <https://support.atlassian.com/jira-product-discovery/docs/expression-based-formulas/>

Can't you see the "positive inputs" and "negative inputs" section in the configuration of your formula?


author: Hannes Krug
body: Thank you very much [@Tanguy Crusson](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/502312) !

Yes I can see it. Problem was that there is no explanation of how that goes into the formula behind it. But you just explained it here :) <https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-Product-Discovery-questions/How-can-we-use-quot-Effort-quot-as-a-negative-weight-for-impact/qaq-p/2304456>


author: Engin Erkan
body: I also came across the same issue.  
As is  
- I'm currently using the values of the effort field in the oppoosite (wrong) direction in order to make the calculation right.

To be  
- User should be able to indicate whether a criteria is contributing to the score in the positive or negative direction


author: Jeremy West
body: Just came across the same issue, if not using RICE this solution isn't really helpful. I agree with Riku that you should be able to indicate if a scoring field is positive or negative.

Where impact score includes effort, the lowest effort should be able to be weighted highest if required.