Time spent in epic and its children

Configuration

To use the Time spent in epic and child work items template, simply select it from the template grid. Filter by Epic to find it faster.

Parameters

This template does not require any additional parameter configuration.

Expert mode

Expression

General expression:

%{%{issue.issueType} = "Epic" ? sum(append(fieldValue({issue.timeSpent}, issuesUnderEpic()), [0])) / 60 : null}

If the resulting number from the expression contains too many decimal numbers, feel free to select one of the available display formats or to configure it manually.

Display as

Number

Formatting style

Default (unformatted)

Used parser functions

• sum()

• append()

• fieldValue()

• issuesUnderEpic()

Details

1. What does the expression do?

The expression calculates the total time spent (in hours) on a given epic and all its child work items, excluding sub-tasks. If the current work item is not an epic, it returns nothing.

2. Step-by-step breakdown

Let’s break it down:

• %{issue.issueType} = "Epic" ? ... : null
  Checks if the current work item is an epic. If it is, the calculation proceeds; if not, it returns null (which displays as “None”).

• issuesUnderEpic()
  Retrieves all child work items that belong to the current epic (excluding sub-tasks).

• fieldValue({issue.timeSpent}, issuesUnderEpic())
  For each child work item under the epic, this gets the value from the "Time spent" field.

• append(..., [0])
  Adds a zero to the list of time spent values. This ensures that if there are no child work items, the expression still works correctly and returns 0 instead of an error.

• sum(...)
  Adds up all the time spent values (including the epic itself and its children).

• / 60
  Converts the total time from minutes to hours (since Jira stores time spent in minutes).

3. Examples

• If you view an epic with three child work items, and their "Time spent" values are 120, 60, and 30 minutes, the calculation will be:
  (120 + 60 + 30) / 60 = 3.5 hours

• If you view a standard work item (not an epic), the displayed result will be “None”.

4. Real-life use cases

• Epic progress tracking:
  Project managers can use this field to quickly see the total time spent on an epic and all its related work items, helping with reporting and resource planning.

• Sprint reviews:
  During sprint reviews, teams can assess how much effort was invested in each epic, making it easier to evaluate progress and forecast future work.

• Time reporting:
  For billing or internal reporting, this field provides a consolidated view of time spent on larger initiatives (epics), without needing to manually sum up each child work item.