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Hi,

when you have a case which has an estimate and then close the case, no elapsed time is added to the case. Are those cases then considered by EBS?

Would it make sense to automatically put the value of the estimated time in the elapsed field? Otherwise, you get incorrect values for say the total effort for a milestone, or the remaining effort for the current milestone.

My understanding is that currently, you need to either use the "working on" feature, or enter a value for the elapsed time manually, is that correct?

edited Jul 29 2010 at 18:28

adambox♦♦
20.9k●14●46

asked Jul 29 2010 at 8:55

Rodrigue
470●3●10

	Making the elapsed time match the estimate would artificially skew the estimate histories...if someone doesn't enter time against a case, then the reality is that you don't have the other point needed to make the vector that EBS needs. – cdeszaq Jul 29 2010 at 13:38
	I understand that and don't mean to use artificial elapsed value. My use case is: it took me the time estimated to complete the case. I'll close it but don't want to have to 'copy & paste' estimate into elapsed. Some developers I work with forget to use the 'working on' and then close cases and at the end of the week, FB tells them that 0 hours have been done so far in the milestone. – Rodrigue Jul 29 2010 at 13:51
	This would be really helpful as a project setting when using FB for customer support. If a case is being edited on or an email is being sent that is all time that a rep spent working on a case thus elapsed time. – HopesOblivion May 17 2011 at 17:39

adambox · Accepted Answer · 2010-07-29 18:27:59Z UTC

It is pretty rare in real life to have a 100% perfect estimate. If FogBugz assumed you are closing a case having spent exactly the estimated time on it, Fogbugz would be making that assumption. The power of EBS comes from the fact that it uses actual time spent on cases compared to your estimates in order to give you accurate predictions for ship dates.

For EBS to work properly, you need to explicitly tell it when work is done by entering time and resolving and closing the case with an appropriate status (i.e. "Resolved (Won't Implement)" doesn't affect EBS and "Resolved (Fixed)" does).

Can I have FogBugz assume the elapsed time for a case with none entered is the estimated time when I close it?

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