Upcoming Enhancements to Jira Align Time Tracking

We’re making multiple enhancements to Jira Align’s Time Tracking module in order to provide a simpler, easier to use time management solution. We’ve renamed Work Codes as Time Projects to make the intended use more clear, and decoupled the association between time projects and release vehicles. Time projects may be associated with epic work items, or exist as stand-alone projects for tracking time against categories that may not directly apply to a deployment or work item. You can still associate time projects with release vehicles, but time-based settings have been moved out of release vehicle Details panels, where they were previously hard to find.

This document outlines the changes we plan to include in the release of version 10.76, which will be deployed to test instances on August 1st, 2020, and then production instances on August 15th, 2020. We will update this page if the estimated time of deployment changes. Relevant time tracking documentation will be updated when these changes are released to test instances.

We’d love your feedback on these upcoming changes. Please visit our Atlassian Community announcement to review a summary of these changes, see frequently asked questions, and discuss the enhancements with Jira Align staff.

Time Tracking administration changes

The following changes appear on the Administration > Time Tracking page:

Time projects

The Work Codes section has been renamed to Time Projects. Changes to this section:

  • Time projects can now be associated with epics.
  • Time projects that do not need to be associated with work items or delivery time frames can be associated with the new ‘Stand-alone’ type. This is perfect for long-running support or services projects not tied to program increments or internal initiatives.
  • A warning has been added to the timesheet, letting time trackers know when a project is past its due date.

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Time Tracking terminology

The Time Tracking Terminology section has been expanded to support additional terms related to time project creation.

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Blended rates

Blended rates now keep a history of rates used over time. New rates will be applied on the Rate Start Date. When the Detailed Time Export is used, the rates for specific time periods will be used. For example, if a rate was $100 on June 30th and $125 on July 1st, the export will calculate the daily billed rates based on the rate applied for that day.

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Release vehicles

All time tracking functionality associated with release vehicles has been removed. With the updates in version 10.76 (expected, but can change), all management of time projects has been moved to the Time Projects (formerly Work Codes) section of the Time Tracking module.

The work code-specific functionality marked in red has been removed from the release vehicle form. We also removed the time tracking option to sync with Jira. 

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Time projects (formerly work codes)

All time tracking settings can now be found on a single page in the time tracking module. Time managers no longer have to move between release vehicles and the time tracking module to manage time projects. This section is broken down by areas of the Time Projects page.

Type settings

Type settings allow the time manager to select the type of work item to associate the time project to, set the display name and the task set (formerly standardized tasks). The types of time projects have been expanded to include Epics and Stand-alone projects.

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Approval, status, state and date settings

Approval settings have been simplified and no longer live on the release vehicle and work codes pages. Settings are now dependent on one another:

  • Status is Inactive until Approval is set to Yes
  • State cannot be changed until Status is set to Active

Interaction between time project states will affect the Dates section, as it does on a release vehicle today:

  • Start and Planned Launch dates are user-configurable
  • Selecting the Launched value in the State field will enter today's date in the Launched Date field
  • Selecting the Closed or Cancelled values in the State field will enter today's date in the Closed/Cancelled Date field

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Financial details

The Financial Details section has not changed from the previous implementation on the Work Codes page. Some fields have been relocated for usability purposes. Validation still applies to work codes and work code auto-complete works as it did before.

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Contributing programs

The Contributing Programs and Teams section has been brought over from release vehicles. The program selected still works as a filter for team selection.

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Note: The program and team lists are not shared with epics or release vehicles, and selections are not kept in sync. For example, a release vehicle can have three programs associated with it in the release vehicle's Details panel, with only one program associated with the time project's Details panel. 


Customers and cost centers

The financial details section has not changed from the previous implementation on the Work Codes page. Some fields have been relocated for usability purposes.


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Permissions

Permissions have been added to the Time Projects page allowing financial details to be locked.

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When these options are disabled, the Time Projects page cannot be edited by users with the selected and icons are displayed providing the user feedback.

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User platform settings

The user platform settings have been updated to allow the number of days in the past a team members’ record can be closed. The default is 1 day and can be changed as needed by the organization.

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