Question

This request relates to this question regarding who the original estimator of a case is.

For teams that estimate together, capturing the estimates is a pain because estimates are always associated to the user logged in at the time. This seems like a poor design decision. The original estimator should be selectable from a drop down on the new case screen. This would enable a virtual user (representing a team) to be associated with all estimates for a team. I also think this would provide more flexibility for scenarios where project managers capture cases on behalf of individuals or a team.

Answer 1

I think Rich's Answer to a question you referenced pretty much sums up the best way to approach this problem.

EBS favors a working environment where the person doing the estimate is the same person that will be doing the work. EBS was designed this pay partially in response to environments where managers do the estimates for their developers, which doesn't usually produce accurate estimates. By having each developer do their own estimate, EBS can better learn how to estimate when a project will be completed.

That being said, your best bet is going to be either to use Rich's suggestion or, as you suggested, to do something like put your team estimate into a custom field and then update the original estimate when you go to work on the case (this workflow could be enhanced by either a plugin or the XML API.