DV-28
Child Issues Exceed Parent Story Points
Discipline
Default severity: medium
ProcessMetricsQuality
What it detects
The sum of story points of child issues exceeds the parent issue\'s story points by more than the configured tolerance — the parent was underestimated relative to its breakdown, or children have grown in scope without the parent being updated. children_sp_total = SUM(child.story_points
Detection formula
FOR child IN issue.children) IF issue.story_points > 0 // parent has estimate AND children_sp_total > issue.story_points * config.discipline.child_parent_sp_ratio // default: 1.2 (20% over) THEN FLAG parent_underestimated Report: parent_sp, children_sp_total, ratioExamples in practice
- Assignee, field, hierarchy, or sprint hygiene rules are violated on active work.
- Issues miss mandatory fields or ownership while still in progress.
- A team shows the sum of story points of child issues exceeds the parent issue\'s story points by more than the configured tolerance while child parent sp ratio is set to 1.2 (20% over).
Suggested response
Enforce assignee, field, hierarchy, and sprint hygiene rules your team agreed on.
Coaching playbook
Symptom
The sum of story points of child issues exceeds the parent issue\'s story points by more than the configured tolerance — the parent was underestimated relative to its breakdown, or children have grown in scope without the parent being updated. children_sp_total = SUM(child.story_points
Why it matters
When "Child Issues Exceed Parent Story Points" keeps appearing, the team is signalling a repeatable process gap. Left unexamined, the pattern hides where work really stalls and makes improvement metrics harder to trust.
What you can achieve
Enforce assignee, field, hierarchy, and sprint hygiene rules your team agreed on.
Facilitation questions
- What system change would stop "Child Issues Exceed Parent Story Points" from firing again?
- What do the cited issues have in common — same root cause or same workaround?
- Who owns the two-week experiment and how will we verify on the next import?
Run this rule against your own tracker data with Flow Analyzer.