JIRA can be a daunting tool. It is robust and flexible, but, as with any tool, it is only as good as our ability to use it. Here are some suggestions for turning JIRA into an agile project management tool. Note: This tutorial assumes installation and configuration of of the excellent Greenhopper plugin.
1. Define Your Workflow
First, create a workflow that fits with your agile development process.
2. Configure Your Agile Views
Second, configure your project agile views to match your workflow. From your project click on Agile. Next, click on Configuration from the Tools options. Navigate to the Taskboard Mapping tab and add or remove columns to match the different statuses in your workflow.
We use the following for our configuration:
- To Do for any Open issue.
- In Progress for issues In Progress.
- Stage Testing for issues implemented in our testing environment that are ready for testing.
- RFP for tested issues that are Ready For Production.
- Production Testing for deployed issues that need to be retested in production.
- Closed for completed issues.
From the configuration screen you can also modify your card, summary and list views, add ticket ranking and ticket flags. We’ll take a deeper look at these and other administrative functions another time.
3. Educate the Team with Task Boards
JIRA's Agile Task Board View
Lastly, help your team by providing tips on how to use the JIRA Agile view.
- Select your project from the dropdown list on the top left.
- Click on Agile.
- Select On the fly (instead of Default).
Note: If ticket ranking is enabled, you will not see tickets in the correct order unless you are viewing the project “On the fly”.
- Now you have several options.
- Select the Planning Board to see the sprint schedule.
- Select the Task Board to see tickets for a particular sprint.
- Click on the Task Board. Working from the Task Board is great as a daily task list. See the screenshot below for an example Task Board.
Working from the Taskboard provides a quick list of all tickets for a particular sprint. You can narrow this down to your task list by clicking Only My Issues. You can also Hide Done Issues or Hide Sub-tasks.
Another great feature of Task Board is the ability to drag and drop tickets from one status to the next. If I have a handful of open tickets and I start one of them, I can drag it from To Do to In Progress. Also, if I drag a ticket from one status to another where it should automatically reassign to another user per my workflow specifications, it will do so automatically if the administrator has enabled it.
Easily drag and drop tickets from one status to the next on the Task Board.
For example, if one of our testers drags an issue from Stage Testing to RFP (as shown in the screenshot), the ticket will automatically reassign to the developer that was working on it and notify him or her via email that this ticket is ready for production.
The Final Word
Agile project management allows us to involve our clients throughout the life of the design and development process to build feature-rich, innovate platforms. We value real-time client and user feedback to influence enhancements.
The Greenhopper Agile plugin for JIRA utilizes planning boards for road mapping, task boards for ticket management and release boards to review productivity. It takes JIRA beyond the traditional ‘bug tracking’ system and, used properly, provides all the organization and notification tools needed to manage even your most complex projects.
