Assigned Time by Epic
Assigned Time by Epic estimates how much time individuals spend on specific epics, giving leaders insight into where team effort is being concentrated. Unlike traditional time logging, this metric is generated using minware’s proprietary work attribution model, which infers activity from development signals and ticket metadata.
Calculation
Before presenting the calculation, it’s important to understand the attribution model. Time is allocated using the Assignee Work Time model, which maps all observable activity (like commits and ticket status changes) to the most likely ticket in progress. This includes:
- Time between commits, weighted by active hours.
- Unattributed work mapped to tickets via heuristics that prioritize epics, then fallback to recent activity.
- Filtering for vacation time or periods of complete inactivity.
This allows 100% of traceable time to be allocated to work—even in the absence of consistent ticket updates—making the data robust for long-term effort analysis. This includes both coding and non-coding time spent on those tickets.
The actual calculation:
assigned time by epic = sum of traceable hours for tickets linked to a given epic
Goals
Assigned Time by Epic supports questions like:
- Are we allocating enough time to strategic initiatives?
- Which epics are consuming the most team capacity?
- How does our investment compare across themes or departments?
This visibility helps engineering leaders course-correct when attention drifts toward urgent but non-strategic work. According to insights from minware’s Individual Contributions report, understanding epic-level allocation reveals which priorities are truly being executed, not just planned.
Variations
Teams may segment this metric by:
- Role: Compare time spent by engineers vs. designers or PMs on each epic.
- Work Type: Filter by development vs. non-coding time to understand effort distribution.
- Time Period: View epic allocation over sprints or quarters to identify shifts in focus.
- Epic Status: Evaluate time spent on active vs. completed initiatives.
Some teams pair this metric with Assignee Work Days or Dev Days to track total work effort and refine capacity planning across projects.
Limitations
Assigned Time by Epic doesn’t measure ticket outcomes or quality, just time investment. It cannot determine whether time spent was efficient, productive, or ultimately valuable.
This metric also inherits assumptions from the work attribution model, which may over- or under-count time if tickets are mismanaged, ignored, or manipulated.
To address these limitations, consider pairing it with:
| Complementary Metric | What It Helps Explain |
|---|---|
| Sprint Rollover Rate | Whether the time spent on an epic resulted in completed work or slipped. |
| Bug Time Ratio | How much of the time within an epic was spent on reactive bug fixes. |
| Focus Time | If work on an epic occurred during high-quality, interruption-free hours. |
Interpreting this metric in isolation may lead to false assumptions about value delivered.
Optimization
Improving how time is allocated across epics involves better priority setting and clearer work boundaries. Several techniques can help increase strategic alignment:
Align Epic Ownership. Ensure each epic has a clear DRI (directly responsible individual) who monitors scope, reviews ticket relevance, and re-assigns stray work where necessary.
Enforce Ticket Hygiene. Teams should maintain high-quality ticket linkage. All meaningful work should map to a ticket that rolls up to an epic, ensuring no activity gets misattributed.
Limit Work-in-Progress. When too many epics are open simultaneously, time gets diluted across initiatives. Introduce WIP Limits to maintain sharper focus.
Use Scorecards in Planning. During sprint planning or roadmap reviews, surface this metric alongside point estimates. It’s often revealing to compare where teams thought they’d spend time vs. where they actually did.
Refactor Overloaded Epics. If an epic shows sustained high time investment without closure, it may be too large. Break it into smaller epics or milestones to improve focus and accountability.
Assigned Time by Epic is most valuable when it fuels strategic clarity, ensuring engineering time reflects organizational priorities, not just reactive demands.
