The short version. Vote from any issue, reveal when ready, and save. The app writes the estimate to the field your board estimates in, reads it back, and tells you plainly if Jira refused it and why.
1. Set up a project
After installing, Estimation is on in every project with sensible defaults. A project administrator can adjust it in Project settings → Estimation:
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Use Estimation in this project | Turns the app on or off for this project. On by default. |
| Cards | Fibonacci (0, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8…), powers of two (1, 2, 4, 8…), T-shirt sizes (XS–XXL) or hours (½, 1, 2, 4, 8…). Every scale also has a ? card and a coffee card, for "not sure" and "let's take a break"; neither can be saved. |
| Save estimates to | The board's estimation field (recommended) or Original estimate (time tracking). The page shows which field was detected on the project's board. |
| Email watchers each time an estimate is saved | Off by default. Saving thirty estimates in a refinement would otherwise send thirty emails to every watcher. |
If the page says No board estimation field, none of the project's boards estimates in a field. Set one in the board's settings under Estimation, or choose Original estimate.
2. Estimate from an issue
Open an issue. The Estimation icon sits in the row of buttons under the issue title (in some layouts, inside the Apps menu). Select it to add the panel to the issue.
- Pick a card. Only you see your card, and you can change it until the votes are revealed. The panel shows how many people have voted and who, but not what they chose. Withdraw my vote takes it back.
- Reveal votes when the team is ready. Everyone sees every vote, with the spread and a suggested estimate.
- Choose the final estimate (the suggestion is preselected) and press Save … to …. The button names the field it will write to.
- On success you see "8 saved to Story Points. Checked: Jira now holds 8." The check is a real read of the issue after the write, not an assumption.
Vote again discards the revealed votes and starts a new round. Estimate again does the same after a save.
There's no meeting required: people vote whenever they get to the issue, and whoever looks at it once enough votes are in can reveal and save.
3. Run a live session
For a refinement meeting, open Estimation sessions in the project's navigation. Anyone who can see the project can join.
Start a session
- Name it.
- Choose the Issues: the backlog (in backlog order), an active or future sprint, or a custom JQL query limited to this project. Issues always come in rank order, and sub-tasks are left out.
- Tick Only issues without an estimate to skip what's already done.
- Start session. A session holds up to 100 issues; if the search had more, or included issues you can't see, a note says so.
Whoever starts the session is its moderator.
During the session
Everyone in the session sees the same issue, and the page updates by itself every few seconds. Participants pick a card; the moderator runs the rest:
- Reveal votes, then pick the final card and Save, or Vote again.
- Skip moves on without estimating; Next issue moves on after a save; Go jumps to any issue in the list.
- Add an issue by key or Remove one from the list.
- Make anyone who is present a co-moderator, with the same controls.
Votes are shared with the issue panel: a vote cast in the panel counts in the session, and the other way round.
End the session
End session records the final result of every issue, releases the issues, and shows the results with a CSV to copy. Closed sessions stay listed and keep exactly what was decided, even if an issue is estimated again later.
If ending is interrupted, the session shows Closing and a Finish closing button that picks up where it stopped. An abandoned close releases its issues automatically after ten minutes.
One session per issue. An issue can be in only one open session at a time, so two meetings can't overwrite each other's estimates. While an issue is in an open session, only that session's moderators can reveal and save it, from the session or from the panel.
4. How estimates are saved
- The right field. The app reads the estimation field from the project's board configuration, because it differs between projects: Story Points and Story point estimate are separate fields in company-managed and team-managed projects.
- Numbers. Fibonacci, powers of two and hours are saved as the number on the card.
- T-shirt sizes are saved as points: XS 1, S 2, M 3, L 5, XL 8, XXL 13.
- Original estimate receives hours: a card of 8 becomes
8h. - Always checked. After writing, the app reads the issue again and only reports success if Jira holds the value.
- Quiet by default. The save doesn't email watchers unless the project setting says so. If Jira won't accept a quiet edit, the save is retried with notifications rather than failing.
5. When Jira refuses an estimate
The team's decision is never lost: the agreed card stays on the issue, and the message says what to change.
| Message | What it means and how to fix it |
|---|---|
| Jira doesn't let Bug issues in this project hold "Story Points" | The field's context doesn't include that issue type. This is common for Bugs and Tasks in company-managed projects. A Jira admin fixes it in Settings → Work items → Fields → Story Points → Contexts by adding the issue type. The panel warns about it before the team votes, once it has happened in that project. |
| Jira accepted the change but the field did not keep the value | The field is hidden for that issue type in this project. Same fix as above, or check the field configuration. |
| You need permission to edit this issue | Saving requires the Edit issues permission on that issue. Voting doesn't. |
| No estimation field found | The project's board doesn't estimate in a field. Set one in the board's settings under Estimation, or switch to Original estimate in Project settings → Estimation. You can still vote meanwhile. |
| No active licence | Past sessions stay visible, but voting and saving need an active licence. Sites with up to 10 users are free. |
6. Who can do what
- Everyone sees only what Jira lets them see. In a live session, each participant sees the key, summary and votes only of issues they can browse in Jira, including issue security levels. Others appear as hidden entries.
- Voting and revealing need permission to browse the issue.
- Saving needs permission to edit the issue.
- Settings are for project administrators; Jira enforces this.
- Nothing leaves your instance. The app runs entirely on Atlassian's infrastructure. See the privacy & security page for what it stores and why each permission is requested.
7. Support
Support is handled by the developer who builds the app, in English and Spanish, Monday to Friday, 09:00–18:00 Central European Time, excluding Spanish public holidays.
Raise a request on the support portal, or email soporte@vantelia.es. Include your Jira site URL, the issue key and roughly when it happened; that is usually enough to find it in the app logs.