Welcome to the first part of Magic Estimations for Jira Cloud documentation, which describes 3 initial steps to configure and start estimation and additional Export entry point:

Locating Magic Estimations app

Magic Estimations can be located in the Apps menu of Jira Cloud:

Open

Can’t find it?

1. The app is not installed. Use the “Find new apps” option from the same menu. Even if you don’t have administrator permissions, you can still request the app.

2. The app is installed, but you don’t have permission to use the app. Check Global permissions for details.

From the main Magic Estimations page click on “Create session” to start estimating:

Open

Alternatively, you can use the Magic Estimations entry point from the Advanced issue search or Filter pages. Use the icon from the top right to add selected JQL to an existing session or create a new one, you can find details of this feature below on this page.

Creating and configuring estimation session

The initial session creation page has 5 main configurations. Let’s briefly stop at each of them.

Name your session

We recommend adding a unique session name so that you can distinguish it from the other session in the session list.

Select estimation field

Magic Estimations app supports estimation of the following field types:

• numeric fields;

• time fields;

• text fields;

• priority field.

The most popular default Jira fields are pinned to the top of the Estimation field selector:

• Story Points;

• Story point estimate;

• Original Estimate;

• Remaining Estimate.

The app can “estimate”/assign custom text fields for cases when you need to align with T-Shirt sizes, risk levels, and priority saved in text fields. Simply select a text field from the Estimation field dropdown:

Priority field estimation supports only Poker and Classic modes and has a unique experience of configuration because of the fixed range of values available:

note For successful estimation, the selected estimation field must be properly configured for the issues you are estimating, including issue screens and issue contexts. In case of problems with saving the estimates, check Configuring estimation field and handling errors page or contact our support team: support@magicapps.io

Select estimation mode

The app includes 4 estimation modes

Classic Magic Estimation

Classic Magic Estimation or Classic mode is a digital variation of a good old Magic Estimation offline game. Create fixed lanes, assign standard estimation values your team uses, and spread the stories to the lanes.

The estimation game is a turn-based and focused on locating differences in understanding the details of user stories.

Poker mode

Poker or Planning Poker mode inherits the gamified consensus-based core of the Planning Poker card game, but we use lanes (columns) of the collaborative estimation board instead of cards.

In the Poker game participants provide personal votes on every issue, then check the votes of the team discussing differences and trying to reach a consensus.

Async mode

Async Poker or simply Async game mode of Magic Estimations has been inspired by the Planning Poker framework but optimized for remote and distributed teams. Our solution inherits the gamified consensus-based core of the card game, but we use lanes (columns) of the collaborative estimation board instead of cards.

Relative mode

Relative mode (Relative Magic Estimation or Swimlane Sizing) is focused on complete retentiveness, you don’t need to think about estimation values while estimating. All you need is to focus on placing stories in an appropriate place and comparing their size to the other stories on the board. At the end assign estimation values to the lanes and save estimates.

This mode is very flexible. You can spread the stories to an unlimited number of lanes, create new lanes in between, and group stories similar by size together.

Configure estimation values

For Classic or Poker modes values for lanes are required. You can easily configure them here by entering the values and using Enter key:

By default, the Classic Fibonacci sequence numbers are shown. Clicking on the More actions option for the Lane values will open the menu with available default presets: Classic Fibonacci, Agile Fibonacci, T-Shirt sizes, and Emoji.

Emoji and T-Shirt use the Fixed Lanes labels feature, which allows displaying labels instead of the numeric values as lanes headers on the session board.

Time values. In case you are estimating effort in time, you can have estimates in minutes, hours, days, or weeks. Type in values followed by:

• “m” or nothing to enter number of minutes: 30m

• “h” to enter number of hours: 3h

• “d” to enter number of days: 2d

• “w” to enter number of weeks: 5w

• the combination of the values above: 5w2d3h30m

• any other symbol will be considered as minutes: 10y → 10m

Time calculations. Magic Estimations will automatically recalculate minutes or days to the higher level period, for example, 60m are automatically replaced by 1h, 5d are replaced by 1w, and so on.

Note: automatic recalculations depend on your Jira settings. For example, you can have 1d equal to 8h, 7h30m, 7h, and so on.

Text values. In the case of selecting text fields for “estimation”, use any set of symbols to form a string.

Drag-and-drop the values. Don’t forget that you can easily re-shuffle the estimation values by a simple drag-drop:

Using labels for lane values

While editing Lane values, you can configure custom labels (end even emojis) to be shown instead of the numeric values. To do so, use the “LABEL=VALUE” format, for example, “XXL=13”, and click Enter.

That’s it, the initial configuration is done, now click on the button to proceed to the estimation scope selection. And don’t forget to share your feedback, the Leave feedback option is right next to the Select scope button.

Emojis as labels

Emojis can also be used as labels for the board lanes. Use standard operating system shortcuts to select an emoji:

• ctrl+cmd+space for macOS

• Windows key + period button for Windows

You can even select the emoji template for lane values:

Lanes with empty values

For special occasions, you can use a label without a value in the format of “?=”. Issues in the columns without a value will be omitted during saving estimates. We recommend using this feature for:

• “No idea” or “?” columns for players who can’t provide an estimate for some reason;

• “Coffee card” for players who suggest taking a break;

• any other suitable case.

Together with emojis, it might improve your game experience:

Configure game flow

There are several game flow settings unique to a game type and one standard - Auto-assign moderator.

Auto-assign moderator

The automatic moderator assignment feature allows online participants to get the moderator role whenever the game moderator (the game creator by default) is offline. This feature is a must when you trust your team, know they can back you up if you’re disconnected, and that they won’t harm the session while you’re gone.

2 notes:

• The session owner can always revoke the moderator role from the Board tab;

• The session moderator can pass the moderator’s role to any other online participant from the Participants tab.

Classic and Relative game settings

Classic and Relative Magic Estimation team game settings are similar. You can find more details about the game flow here: Magic Estimation game process

The following parameters might be configured during session creation:

• Time per turn limits participants' period for providing changes on the board and automatically finishes the turn if exceeded. You can set the timeframe from 15 seconds to 2 minutes.

• Moves per turn defines the maximum number of board changes available for participants each turn. You can set this configuration to 1-10 moves.

• Pause on empty backlog defines whether the game stops when the backlog is empty. 

Poker game settings

• Auto pickup next issue allows the app to start estimation of the next backlog issue after submitting the final vote for the previous one.

• Auto reveal votes allows the app to reveal personal votes when all the participants finish voting.

• Allow players to update votes after revealing results.

• Enable voting timeout (timer).

Selecting session backlog (estimation scope)

Now you need to pick user stories or other issues that will be added to the estimation board. To do that:

1. Type a JQL request to display issues. If you need support with JQL usage, check out JQL tips to master issue selection or use one of the several simple examples below:

   • filter="Filter name"
     project=ProjectKey AND "Story Points" IS EMPTY
   • sprint=”Sprint Name” OR sprint=SprintID

   •  

2. Select issues to be estimated in the session. Once an issue is highlighted, it will be added to the session scope. There are several ways of selection:

• click on issues one by one;

• click on one issue, don’t release the cursor, and drag it to select multiple issues at once;

• use keyboard shortcuts: “Tab” to switch to the next issue and “Space” to select/unselect an issue;

• Use “Select all” at the bottom.

3. Review the total number of issues selected together with the number of issues added and removed (for later steps) at the bottom of the issue selection view:

4. If needed, you can repeat the whole procedure with a new JQL, all previously selected issues will be saved and added to estimation. A warning message will appear in this case with 2 extra options of Unselect and Show all:

note Currently Magic Estimation sessions support up to 300 issues. If you would like to estimate more issues in a single session, please let us know: support@magicapps.io

Once the scope is selected, click on “Update board” to proceed to the estimation.

JQL history

When the JQL input is empty, click on the JQL history icon to see your 10 last JQL presets, eliminating the need for note-taking and copy-pasting:

Problems while loading session?

If after selecting the backlog and clicking on the Estimate issues button you see a constant spinning wheel, consider enabling Fallback connection feature from the global configuration of Magic Estimations. You can find more details on the Troubleshooting page.

Clone existing sessions

Another way to create a new session is to clone the existing one. In this case, the following attributes will be taken from the parent session:

• game settings;

• game backlog;

• board state.

After cloning a session, you can use Reset board action to clear the board or remove all issues and edit the game backlog for new estimation.

Clone session feature can be found on the home page in session action:

Exporting JQL from Advanced issue search or filters

There is an alternative way to create a session or add issues to an existing one. Open Filters/Advanced issue search or Filters/[filter name], locate the Magic Estimations button under Apps menu from the top right, and export the selected JQL to an estimation session:

You will see the export modal with the JQL that will be exported. Specify the following parameters:

1. Estimation session. Select an existing session or create a new one.
   note Only sessions created by the current user are displayed in the list.

2. Session name for new session creation. By default, it will display the selected filter name or date of the export. 

3. Estimation field for new session creation.

In the next step, you will see issues for the exported JQL, select ones you would like to estimate similarly to the standard session scope selection process. In case of the creation of a new session, there will be an extra step of session configuration.

Note that if you can’t locate this entry point, you might not have permission to use the app. Check Global permissions for details.

On this page

Magic Estimations docs

• Magic Estimations overview