Reviewing and charting progress

You can assess your team's progress for an iteration in several ways. Use the progress report in an iteration plan to compare completed and estimated labor for the whole team. Use the Planned Items page in an iteration plan to review work items by assigned team member, category, tags, or scheduled time. Use the Charts page in an iteration plan to view a chart of open work items that are planned for this iteration. Use the Team Load section in the Team Central view or My Work view to review each team member's progress and estimated hours for the iteration.
To track progress using these methods, your project must have at least one iteration with an iteration plan, and one team area with an associated work item category. The most accurate tracking takes place when at least the following details are specified for all work items:
  • Category
  • Owner
  • "Planned for" iteration
  • Estimated labor in minutes, hours, days, or weeks
Note: Estimated time is calculated using three values in a work item:
  • If the Estimate is the only available value, then that value is used.
  • If a Correction value is available, then that value is used.
  • If a Time Spent value is available and the work item has not been resolved, then that value is subtracted from the estimate or corrected estimate. If the Time Spent value is available and the work item has been resolved, then that value is used.

To open an iteration plan, expand the Plans folder in the Team Artifacts view and double-click the iteration plan.

For information about using the Planned Items page to review work items, see Viewing work items in an iteration plan.

Using the progress report in an iteration plan

The progress report is displayed at the top of the iteration plan. It shows a comparison of completed and expected work hours for the team in this iteration. It also reports the percentage of work items with planned estimates. The width of the progress indicator represents the full duration of the iteration. The length of the green bar shows how much work has been done. A bright green extension shows work completed ahead of plan. A red extension shows work that is behind plan (remaining estimated work exceeds the remaining available hours in the iteration). Hover over the report and press F2 for more information. The percentage of items estimated reflects the quality of the planning. The green and red bars fill the indicator vertically as more items contain work estimates.

Using the Charts page in an iteration plan

The default report for the Charts page in an iteration plan is the "Open Work Items by Type" report. This report displays open work items that are planned for this iteration and owned by the team area associated with this iteration plan. Open work items are displayed by type (such as defect, enhancement, and task) and charted on an axis representing the weeks in the iteration. The number of open work items should trend towards zero as the project moves toward completion.

To select a different report for the Charts page:

  1. In the Team Artifacts view, expand the Reports and Report Templates folders.
  2. Do one of the following actions:
    • If there is not a Report Template named APT Report, create one by right-clicking the Report Templates folder and clicking New > Report Template. At the Name field, type APT Report. At the Identifier field, type apt.WorkItems.
    • If there is a template named APT Report, right-click it and click Properties.
  3. At the File Path field, browse to the Eclipse plugin directory in your client installation. The default location for this plugin is C:\Program Files\IBM\SDP70Shared\plugins.
  4. In the plugin com.ibm.team.examples.reports.common, select a .rptdesign file and click Open.
  5. Type a description that represents your report selection.
  6. If necessary, browse to a different team area. Select the Shared check box to make the report available to other members of your team.

Using the Team Load section

If the Team Load section is not visible in the Team Central or My Work view, click the drop-down menu in the view toolbar and click Visible Sections > Team Load.

Use the Team Load section to review each team member's progress by comparing the remaining hours available in the iteration (based on the team member's work schedule, planned absences, and percentage of assignment to this development line) with the estimated hours for completing the planned work items for the iteration. If estimated hours exceed available hours, the difference is displayed as overbooked hours. This section also shows the percentage of work items that have work estimates. Work items without estimates are a risk to the iteration. Hover over a team member's work load indicator and press F2 for more information.

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