Options
The "Options" tab of the configuration dialog allows you to configure various mapping options of The Connector.
Default JIRA Mappings
The Connector allows you to setup default mappings that will get used whenever creating a new project plan. There are 5 fields that must be mapped for The Connector to function. These fields include the first 5 listed on the screen:
Required Mappings
- Issue ID
- Project ID
- Issue Type
- Issue Priority
- Issue Status
All of the other fields that The Connector has available to map are optional. You can choose to use them if you wish. Microsoft Project has a limit of 30 text fields that can be used in these mappings, but you are free to mix and match whichever fields you desire.
If you have Custom Fields enabled, you will get an additional tab on the mappings for configuring these fields.
The optional fields on the mapping dialog will have a checkbox and a drop down list of the available text locations. To enable a specific field, simply check the field you wish to map and select a text location from the drop down list.
Each text location can only be used once. The Connector will validate that you do not have this value duplicated anywhere in your configuration.
Reset to Defaults
This button will reset your mappings to a default state selecting the first 5 required fields and disabling others.
Default All
The default all button will automatically assign all of the available fields to the first available configuration text location.
Use Microsoft Project Enterprise Text Fields
If you are using Microsoft Project Professional with Microsoft Project Server, you can enable this option, which will allow you to store custom data in the enterprise fields of Microsoft Project Server. This information will be stored on the Project Server and can be used in a team collaboration environment.
If this option is checked, you will notice options in the drop down list of the mapping for EnterpriseText fields. These correspond to storage locations for Microsoft Project Server.
Advanced Field Mappings
The Advanced Field Mappings configuration allows control over how the due dates and durations get mapped during the data exchange with JIRA.
The General Field Mappings allow you to control where you want the JIRA due date to get stored. Options are to store that value in the Task Deadline field or the Date End Date.
- Exclude parent task duration and work information when sending to JIRA - This option will not update JIRA parent task duration and timespent data. This can be used to prevent The Connector from doubling up duration information in JIRA. Microsoft Project forces the sum of all sub-tasks to be equal to the parent task. JIRA does not have this enforcement. Depending on how you use JIRA, the estimates in JIRA may be in addition to the estimates of the sub tasks.
- Do not map JIRA issue assignment on parent issues - When this option is checked, only the sub-task issues will get the assignment updated. You are free to set the assignment value in Microsoft Project to anything you want but The Connector will ignore these values.
- Update Actual Work/Duration to the JIRA Time Spent - If this option is checked and you perform the “Send To JIRA” function, the actual work or actual duration field of Microsoft Project will get updated to the JIRA time spent field. Typically the time spent field in JIRA is accumulated as work log entries are made. Enabling this option will overwrite those values in JIRA.
- Do not update original estimate if the issue has Time Spent - This option will prevent the original estimate in JIRA from being updated if the issue currently has time spent against it. This will allow you to preserve that value is needed.
The "Duration and Work" tab allows you to configure where the estimate and work log values get mapped to. These values can get mapped to Microsoft Project’s actual work/duration fields or planned work/duration fields, depending on your usage. You can use the option to "Do Not Map" if you wish to have The Connector ignore those values.
- Set JIRA remaining estimate to original estimate when creating new issues - Enabling this option will cause The Connector to set both the original estimate and the remaining estimate to the same value when new issues are created.
- Set JIRA remaining estimate to original estimate if no time spent - Enabling this option will cause the original estimate to be overwritten with the remaining estimate value ONLY if there is current no time spent on the issue.
The Connector supports 3 different calculation modes for calculating the percentage complete of a task.
- Basic Calculation - this will simply map the JIRA original estimate value to the duration or work field (depending on your configuration).
- Adjusted Calculation – The adjusted calculation mode will take the JIRA remaining estimate and add it to the time spent on the task to calculate the new duration of the task. This mode is used if you wish to have our project plan updated with values that represent the "current" time estimate of a task. For example, a task may be originally estimated at 6 hours, but after 2 hours are spent, it gets updated with a remaining estimate of 2 hours. After the update is done, your project plan will reflect the 4 hour task estimate (2 hours remaining + 2 hour spent).
- Use remaining estimate if present – This option is used if you wish to have your project plan update to reflect the "remaining effort" necessary to complete the tasks. From a scheduling standpoint, you may wish to only work against what is known left to complete. With this mode, your Microsoft Project tasks will get updated with a duration of what is left to complete the task (JIRA remaining estimate).
Time Unit Mapping
The time unit mappings are used for non-English versions of Microsoft Project. Various languages with use different "codes" to represent minutes, hours, and days than the English version does. Configuring these values allow you to control these settings.
Enable Import Profile Sharing
"Import Profile Sharing" allows you to specify a network location and store saved import profiles. Groups of users can all access the same location and re-use the saved profiles.
