Leadership walkthrough · Chapter 7 of 8
Work items, sprints and time
Ravi breaks the epics into features and stories, assigns them, plans the first sprint and starts it. The team works the board and logs time once a day across every project. Asha doesn't need to do any of this, but this is where every figure Asha reads later comes from.
One structure for every project
Every project uses the same seven work item types at fixed tiers, so figures mean the same thing from one project to the next.
| Tier | Type | Estimated in | Used for |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Epic | dates | A large body of work; in each-epic projects, a workstream. |
| 1 | Feature | dates | A capability the client will recognise. |
| 2 | Story · Improvement | story points | New capability, or an improvement to an existing one. |
| 2 | Bug | hours | A defect. |
| 3–4 | Task · Subtask | hours | The steps to get a story or bug done. |
Create and assign work
- Choose New work item on the Board, Backlog, Sprints or Work items page.
- Pick the type and write a title. As the title is typed, PMO Assist lists similar items already in the project, so duplicates are caught early.
- Set the Parent. A feature under its epic, a story under its feature. A parent is always on a higher tier.
- Fill in what the form asks for. Description (rich text), Priority, Assignee, Sprint, dates, and Story points or Estimate (h). Draft a description asks AI to write one from the title; nothing is saved until accepted.
- Assign it. Pick the person in Assignee, by name, employee code or email. If they have no allocation on the project, PMO Assist warns, or refuses, as the organisation's policy says.
Each work item gets a number unique across every project, such as 101188. Write #101188 in a comment to link it; anyone can open /issues/101188 without knowing the project.
Plan the first sprint
- Open Sprints and choose New sprint. Name (Sprint 1), Goal, Start and End, and optionally the team's Capacity in hours.
- Fill it from the Backlog. Drag stories onto the sprint, or use a row's Move to…. For a sprint not yet started, Suggested scope sizes a sprint's worth of backlog work and adds it in one step.
- Run the Plan check. It flags items with no estimate, no description, too large for a sprint, or blocked.
- Start the sprint from its header.
Run it
Board
Move cards across columns
The active sprint by default. Dragging a card changes its status; only moves the workflow allows are accepted. A column turns red when it holds more than its WIP limit.
Standup
One day, person by person
What moved, what is open and what is next, in the same columns for everyone. A written summary of the round is one click away.
Insights
Sprint health
Headline figures, the decisions that need making and who carries what, from rules first. AI adds a written summary on request.
Close
Complete and look back
Complete sends unfinished work to the backlog or the next sprint and opens the retrospective. Burndown and velocity sit on the sprint's Plan view.
The team logs time
Meena, end of the day
Meena opens Timesheets: one week, Monday to Sunday, a row per work item, across Card Checkout and Loyalty App together. Meena selects today's cell on a story, enters 3 h with a short note and leaves billable on, as the project's default says. The story's Completed hours rise and its Remaining hours count down.
- Log work on a work item writes the same record as the timesheet.
- The rules show before saving: above 8 hours in a day is a warning; above 12 across all projects is blocked; overlapping times, future dates and ranges past midnight are refused; months before last are locked.
- Ravi checks the team's week under Timesheets›Team, and can correct or log on someone's behalf, locked months included.
Logged hours feed the Team cost's actual, each person's utilisation, and the weekly status. Chapter 8 is what Asha and the client see.