Scope change report

Key features of the Jira scope change report

The Jira scope change report gives teams and stakeholders a clear view of how sprint commitments evolve, showing exactly what was added, removed, or re-estimated during each sprint. It helps uncover the root causes of missed goals, improves accountability, and makes scope creep visible across teams and timeframes.

Unlike Jira’s native Velocity report, which only shows commitment versus completed work, the Agile Velocity Chart Gadget app provides full scope change metrics with detailed breakdowns directly on your Jira Dashboard.

How different roles use the Scope change chart

✅ Scrum Master / Agile Coach: I use the Jira scope change report to spot scope creep early and show the team how unplanned additions or re-estimates impact sprint outcomes. It helps drive conversations about commitment reliability during retrospectives.

✅ Product Owner: The Scope change report in Jira helps me explain why sprint goals were missed or adjusted. By showing added or removed items, I can set clearer expectations with stakeholders and negotiate trade-offs.

✅ Release Train Engineer (RTE): I rely on the Scope change graph to monitor scope stability across teams in the ART. When I see repeated changes, I can address systemic issues during PI planning or ART syncs.

✅ Product Manager: I track whether roadmap items are being delivered as planned or if project scope changes and volatility are jeopardizing release commitments. This visibility helps me prioritize and adjust the roadmap based on reality.

✅ Lean Portfolio Manager (LPM): I use the Jira scope change report to assess delivery predictability. If the scope frequently changes, I know how to adjust investment discussions and manage risks at the portfolio level.

Spot scope creep and keep delivery on track with the SCOPE CHANGE REPORT

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1. Key feature: Chart inputs customization

Adjust what’s included in the Scope change chart in Jira to focus on the data that matters most. You can select one or multiple boards as the data source, filter sprints to clean up the timeline, or narrow the scope with issue filters. For example, analyze only user stories, limit the view to a specific epic or release, or apply custom JQL for complete flexibility.

✅ This feature is helpful for:

• Comparing scope change across multiple teams or boards.
• Focusing on the issues relevant to a Program Increment, release, or epic.
• Excluding noise (like bugs or technical tasks) to keep the analysis aligned with your reporting goals.

2. Key feature: Scope change metrics analysis

See why exactly the scope changed during each sprint - whether it’s through added items, removed work, or re-estimation. The Jira scope change report not only shows totals but also lets you drill down into the issue list, so you know precisely which issues contributed to the change and who worked on them.

✅ This feature is helpful for:

• Quickly identifying scope creep that risks sprint goals.
• Understanding the root cause of changes, rather than just the totals.
• Driving accountability by tracing changes back to specific issues and assignees.

3. Key feature: Data normalization with percentage view

Switch the Sprint scope change report from absolute numbers to percentages (1️⃣) for easier comparison across sprints and teams. In this view, scope change is shown relative to the sprint commitment. You can choose whether the percentage is calculated against the initial commitment (scope at the start of the sprint) or the final commitment (scope at the end) (2️⃣).

✅ This feature is helpful for:

• Comparing scope changes across sprints of different sizes.
• Highlighting the relative impact of added, removed, or re-estimated work.
• Providing context for stakeholders by tying scope change to sprint commitments.

4. Key feature: Work scope change segmentation with breakdowns

Go beyond totals and see what’s behind each scope change metric. By clicking a sprint or interval (1️⃣), you can open the Breakdown table and segment data by any Jira field - board, project, issue type, epic, and many others. You can apply two levels of nesting (e.g., metric → board → issue type (2️⃣)) to uncover trends and anomalies.

From the Breakdown table, click Find issues to drill down into the exact work items that contributed to the change, complete with their story points, assignee, and status (3️⃣).

✅ This feature is helpful for:

• Comparing metrics across different teams.
• Analyzing work in the context of a specific epic or Program Increment.
• Ensuring accountability by linking metrics directly to assignees and issue lists.

5. Key feature: Benchmarking with averages and targets

Put scope changes into context by adding average and target lines to the Jira scope change report. Averages give you a historical benchmark, while targets define acceptable thresholds for scope creep.

• Averages: Choose between mean (across all displayed sprints), median (50th percentile), or moving average (last 2–5 sprints). You can highlight averages for selected metrics while keeping others without them:

• Targets: Add target lines to track KPIs. Targets can use an absolute value or adjust relative to the initial or final commitment. Customize their color, value, and name for clarity:

✅ This feature is helpful for:

• Spotting anomalies by comparing sprints against typical performance.
• Defining clear thresholds (e.g., “scope change should stay within ±20% of the initial commitment”).
• Aligning stakeholders with transparent benchmarks for scope stability.

Additional features: X-axis grouping and Y-axis height customization

Adapt the Jira Scope change report view to match your analysis needs and dashboard layout.

• X-axis grouping: Switch between Do not group (default per sprint), Parallel (multiple boards with gap-day settings), or time-based views (Monthly or Quarterly):

• Y-axis height: Choose Auto to let the chart adjust dynamically, or set Fixed bounds for uniform comparison across multiple reports on the same dashboard:

✅ These features are helpful for:

• Aligning results across multiple teams.
• Spotting long-term patterns in monthly or quarterly views when focusing on completed work.
• Standardizing chart sizes for easier cross-gadget comparisons.

What about the native Jira Scope change report

Jira does not include a Scope change report. The built-in Velocity report only compares committed vs. completed work for a single team. It does not capture added, removed, or re-estimated items, making it impossible to see what contributed to changes in scope or why commitments are frequently missed.

Advantages of using the Scope change report

• Track added, removed, and re-estimated work, not just commitments vs. completions.
• Use the breakdown and issue list to see exactly which items and assignees contributed to scope shifts, compare different teams, or only include certain issue types.
• Use averages and target lines to define acceptable corridors for scope change and quickly spot anomalies.
• Track multiple teams or focus the report on specific epics, initiatives, releases, or JQL-defined scopes.
• Switch to percentage view to compare scope change across sprints and teams of different sizes.
• Group results by sprint, month, or quarter, and standardize chart height for easier dashboard comparisons.
• Align calculations with your team’s workflow by defining what counts as “done” and which estimation field to use.
• Narrow the scope by issue type, release, epic, or other Jira fields.

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Apps used in this Scope change chart example

Use our examples to build your use cases on the Jira Dashboard.

Both Jira apps (plugins) used in these examples have a 30-day free trial and are completely free for teams under 10 people:

Agile Velocity Chart Gadget Agile Reports and Gadgets

The Agile Reports and Gadgets app also includes the Scope change chart functionality and a multitude of other reports/charts.

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