Define how progress is calculated

This article explains how progress indicators based on work item count, such as Completion Rate, appear by default and how those indicators can be configured to consider only leaf work items.

How is progress calculated by default?

When the app is installed, based on the default settings, the Completion Rate indicator is composed of three elements:

1. Completed work items: The number of work items in the Done status category. This value is used as the numerator in the Completion Rate calculation.

2. Work items: The total number of work items, regardless of work type. This value is used as the denominator in the Completion Rate calculation.

3. Completion Rate: A percentage calculated by dividing the number of completed work items by the total number of work items. In the example above, 3 out of 21 work items are in the Done status category. Dividing 3 by 21 results in a Completion Rate of 14%.

How is progress calculated when using leaf work items?

When you modify work item count–based progress indicators to include only leaf work items, both the number of completed work items and the total work item count may change.

After this adjustment, the Completion Rate indicator is calculated using three elements:

1. Completed work items: The number of leaf work items in the Done status category. This value is used as the numerator in the Completion Rate calculation.

2. Work items: The total number of leaf work items, regardless of work type. This value is used as the denominator in the Completion Rate calculation.

3. Completion Rate: A percentage calculated by dividing completed leaf work items by total leaf work items.. In the example above, there are still 3 leaf work items in the Done status category, but the total number of leaf work items decreases to 13. As a result, dividing 3 by 13 produces a Completion Rate of 23%.

What are leaf work items?

Whether you use a default or custom work item hierarchy, work items are organized into a tree structure. A leaf work item is any work item that does not have child items.

A leaf work item can be of any type—such as a story, bug, task, or sub-task—as long as it is the lowest-level item in a branch of the hierarchy.

Within the example:

• Tasks with no child items are leaf items, such as Tasks #1 and #2.

• A task with sub-tasks is not a leaf work item because it has child items, such as Task #3. In contrast, the Sub-task is a leaf work item since it has no children.

Why use leaf work items when calculating progress?

When parent work items act only as containers—without logged time and with statuses updated only after all child items are complete—using leaf work items provides a more accurate view of progress.

Features and use cases

Display a more accurate completion rate

Parent work items do not always reflect true progress when they are used as containers.

In the example above, only one story (Story #3) is in the Done status category. The Epic will remain incomplete until all three stories are finished, and no work is typically logged against it, as is expected for parent work items used as containers.

When parent work items are included in the calculation, 3 out of 21 work items are completed, resulting in a 14% completion rate.

By focusing only on leaf work items, the progress calculation becomes more accurate because parent container work items are excluded.

In this case, there are 3 leaf work items in the Done status category (Bug #1, Task #1, and Story #3) out of 13 total leaf work items, resulting in a 23% completion rate.

Extend the report source

When creating or editing a report, you can extend it to include parent and child items using several options. These options determine which leaf work items are used in progress indicators.

• Extend with parent items: Includes the parent of each work item in the report source. For example, if your source includes Stories, this adds their parent Epics. In this case, Stories remain the leaf work items.

• Add sibling items as well: Includes work items that share the same parent. For example, if your source includes Stories, this adds other work items under the same Epics, such as additional stories and their sub-tasks. In this case, sub-tasks become the leaf work items.

• Extend with child items: Includes child items for each item in the report source. For example, if your source includes Stories, this adds their sub-tasks. In this case, sub-tasks are the leaf work items.

Filter rollup fields and show the count per status

You can filter rollup fields—such as ∑ Related work items, ∑ Related work items Completed, ∑ Related work items In Progress, and ∑ Related work items To Do—to include only leaf items.

This approach is useful when status updates are tracked only at the leaf level. For the Epic shown:

• There are 5 child items (2 bugs, 2 tasks, and 1 sub-task).

• 3 items are in progress (shown in the ∑ InPr column).

• 2 items are completed (shown in the ∑ Cmpl column).

To display filtered rollup fields:

1. In the General tab of the report sidebar, go to the Misc section.

2. Enable Leaf items only.

3. In the report summary section, click Columns.

4. Select the related work item rollup fields you want to display.

When these fields are not filtered, all work items under a parent—including the parent itself—are considered. In the example below, the ∑ Related work items column counts 7 work items for an Epic (1 Epic, 2 bugs, 3 tasks, and 1 sub-task).

Display filtered progress

You can configure the Completion Rate progress indicator to count only leaf work items in the report summary section in Jira.

In the example above, the progress indicator shows a 40% completion rate, based only on the 5 child work items in the Epic (2 bugs, 2 tasks, and 1 sub-task). This approach is useful when work is logged at the leaf level, while progress is tracked at the parent level.

To display this filtered progress indicator:

1. In the General tab of the report sidebar, go to the Misc section.

2. Enable Leaf work items only.

3. In the report summary section, click Columns.

4. Select Completion Rate.

How can you use progress indicators based on leaf work items only?

Follow these steps to control whether progress indicators based on work item count use all work items or only leaf work items:

1. Click Configure in the header.

2. Select General from the dropdown.

3. Open the Misc section and choose one of the following options:

• Use default settings: Applies the app-level behavior (selected by default when a report is created).

• All work items: Includes all work items when calculating progress.

• Leaf work items only: Uses only leaf work items when calculating progress.

Why and how should you change settings at the app level?

After installing the app, All Work items is selected by default. This setting includes all work items in the hierarchy when calculating progress for indicators based on work item count.

If your teams follow a consistent approach across spaces and you want progress calculations to include only leaf work items for work item count–based indicators, you can change this setting at the app level. To do so, follow these steps as a Jira admin:

1. Open the Settings menu in Jira’s top navigation bar, by clicking on the gear icon.

2. From the dropdown, choose Marketplace apps.

3. Under Pivot Report, click Settings.

4. On the Pivot Report Settings page, select the General tab.

5. In the Parent work items estimates section, select Leaf Work items Only.

FAQ

What happens if you assign deliverables under stories or bugs in Jira?

A leaf work item can be of any type.

Within the example:

1. Stories with no child items are leaf work items, even if they have a different parent (such as an Epic) than other leaf work items.

2. Similarly, Bugs are also are leaf work items, in the above hierarchy.

If you create a child item type (similar to a sub-task) under stories or bugs, those child items become the lowest-level items in the hierarchy.

As a result:

• Each child item under a bug is considered a leaf work item.

• A bug that has child items is not a leaf work item.

• A bug with no child items remains a leaf work item.