How does the auto-scheduler in my plan work?
This page refers to the advanced planning features that are only available as part of Jira Cloud Premium and Enterprise.
The auto-scheduler constructs a plan using work item details which you can then adjust to meet your exact needs. To do this, it balances a range of different values from the dates assigned to a work item, work item estimates, a team’s capacity and velocity, and any dependencies between work items. There isn’t one aspect that the auto-scheduler focuses on, but rather takes all of them in aggregate.
However, one requirement for all work items is that they have a To Do or In Progress status. Work items with Done statuses are ignored by the auto-scheduler. Beyond this, you can select which work items you want the auto-scheduler to work on by selecting work items in the Scope column before using it. If you select none, the auto-scheduler works on your whole plan.
By default, the auto-scheduler schedules all work items in your plan, regardless of whether you’ve set dates for them. To exclude already-scheduled work items from the auto-scheduler, you’ll need to choose which work items it can overwrite. See how to configure the auto-scheduler.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. On this page, we’ll cover the following topics:
How the auto-scheduler handles dates
When scheduling work items, the auto-scheduler looks at the work item’s start and end date if there’s no estimation defined. If it has none, then the auto-scheduler looks for a sprint assignment, and assigns it those dates. If it has no sprint assignment or assigned dates, the auto-scheduler checks to see if it’s included in a release, and then assign the dates of the release.
How the auto-scheduler allocates capacity
In order to allocate capacity, your work items need to have an estimate. Work items without estimates may still be scheduled according to dates, but won’t be included in capacity calculations.
The auto-scheduler assigns capacity in a sprint on a first-come, first-serve basis, with priority given to:
work item rank as defined on your timeline
the auto-scheduler starts at the top of your plan and works its way down based on work item rankings; work items ranked higher are scheduled first. Read more about work item ranking.
a work item’s estimation
work items of lower hierarchy levels (stories or subtasks take priority over epics or initiatives)
for the reasons discussed below, we recommend that you only estimate work items at the story level, and that you show rolled-up values in your plan
Outside of these main pillars, the auto-scheduler also considers other plan data:
Work source assignment
teams associated to a work source (board, project, or filter) are prioritized when assigning work
Team velocity
a higher team velocity means that more work can be done in one sprint
Number of team members
since the auto-scheduler assumes that one person can handle one story-level work item at a time, the number of team members affects how many work items can run in parallel
Sprint information
sprint duration and capacity
Releases
if this field is empty, the auto-scheduler assigns a work item to the next available release
Dependencies
if two work items are dependent on each other (also known as a cyclical dependency), they’ll be ignored by the auto-scheduler; examples include:
work item A blocks work item B, and work item B blocks work item A
a story has a dependency to its own subtask
How the auto-scheduler handles higher hierarchy levels
As covered above, the auto-scheduler assumes that one person can work on one task when dealing with story-level work items. This isn’t the case when working with hierarchy levels above epic; if your plan includes an estimated work item at the epic-level or above, the auto-scheduler schedules the work item according to the team’s full capacity, as it assumes that everyone can work simultaneously on it.
If, in the example above, the work item that you estimated at 10 story points was an epic (instead of a story-level work item), the auto-scheduler would assign it one sprint instead of three.
To resolve this, we recommend that you only estimate work items at the story level, and that you show rolled-up values in your plan.
How the auto-scheduler handles active sprints
This is a common source of unexpectedly overbooked sprints.
The auto-scheduler handles active sprints differently than future planned sprints.
First of all, the auto-scheduler won’t reschedule work items in the active sprint, even if it’s overbooked.
Secondly, the auto-scheduler won’t overwrite any values of work items in the active sprint. Sprint, Team, and Release can only be overwritten in the active sprint if the field is empty. See how to configure the auto-scheduler.
How the auto-scheduler handles capacity
This is a common source of unexpectedly overbooked sprints.
The auto-scheduler handles capacity based on the capacity distribution algorithm. Read more about how capacity is distributed in plans.
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