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The FogBugz Project Planning page on Outline Tasks states:

Creating a detailed project outline is fast and simple in FogBugz. You can create a high-level case for each feature you're planning to implement, and then fill in the detailed work that needs to be done -- the functions you’re going to write, the code you’re going to refactor, the algorithms you'll need to implement, and so on.

I'd like to use FogBugz in this manner, but I'm stumped on how to deal with the time estimates. If I assign a rough time estimate for the high-level case and then add detailed subcases later, the time estimates for the detailed subcases get added to the original time estimate for the parent case.

What I'd prefer is that the subcase time be taken from the parent case's time, but I understand why this isn't done currently.

Are there any suggestions for how to work around this? I can always remove time from the parent case manually, but I'm not sure how that messes up the EBS

flag	asked Mar 3 2010 at 0:03 Chris Taylor 203●7

Brett Kiefer · Accepted Answer · 2010-03-03 13:37:41Z UTC

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Heard and understood, and we're talking about how we can make this method of using EBS smoother. For now, the best workaround is to (as you say) manually remove time from the parent case as you add it to subcases. This won't mess up EBS at all as long as you have not started charging time against the parent case, because the 'original' estimate on that case does not lock in until time is charged against it. Does that work for you?

answered Mar 3 2010 at 13:37

Brett Kiefer♦♦
2,620●2●5

	Yes. It's good to know that the original estimate doesn't lock in until time is charge against it. That can work as a work-around. Of course, it would be desirable (for me at least) if there was a less-clunky way of dealing with this. Thanks for the answer and thanks for attempting to figure out a smoother solution. – Chris Taylor Mar 3 2010 at 15:38
	So how do you handle adding subcases after work has been logged on the parent case? – Todd Sep 29 at 17:05

Sandy · Answer 2 · 2010-03-05 15:23:29Z UTC

I was trying to use the 'manual subtraction' approach to move time-allocations to and from sub case and parent case, but the book-keeping was driving me crazy.

The approach I've gravitated to instead, is to create subcases with a 1 minute estimate. My filters have remaining time (parent minus sum of subs) and elapsed time (totals of the subs) columns, and that more-or-less allows me to see how I am tracking against the estimates.

On the other hand, this probably destroys my estimation reliability as far as EBS is concerned... but the way I use FogBugz is pretty far from the usual to start with.

André · Answer 3 · 2010-03-03 10:31:55Z UTC

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Good suggestion, I'd like to see this feature too!

Sorry: This should have gone under comments, my first time using stackexchange. Can I move it somehow?

answered Mar 3 2010 at 10:31

André
31●2

I believe there should be a 'delete' link under your post; you could click that and then add a comment to the original post if you like. It's not a big deal, though, having this here as an answer isn't going to hurt anything. – Brett Kiefer♦ Mar 3 2010 at 13:41

Adding subcase and taking time away from parent cases original time estimate

3 Answers