For example at YME for Yamaha Motor Portfolio Project Board (YPMYPB) issue type Image RemovedProgramme and Image Removed Project Image AddedStrategic Theme and Image Added Initiative have been created by a Jira Administrator and for XRAY (test management tool) add-on the following issue types are created: Test, Test execution ,Test Plan, Test Set.

Workflow

A Jira Workflow has three basic components: statuses, transitions and resolutions.

Statuses represent the position of an issue in its workflow, state of a task.
Transitions informs how a piece of work can move between statuses.
Resolutions are the ways in which an issue can be closed.

In a Jira issue you can check all the issue statuses and transitions as well as view your issue workflow with a single click from the Issue status menu.

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Issue status menu label: a trigger menu button that displays the current status of an issue (1).
Issue status menu: contains a set of issue statuses (3), transitions (2), and current issue workflow (4).

Example for Project Yamaha Applications Support Desk (SD):
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By hovering over the arrows and the workflow the transition of this specific status is shown which can be chosen as next/previous step.

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Another example of a more simplified Jira Service Management Workflow:
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A Jira issue can be moved by using a specific transaction button or if not available via the Issue status menu.
When using a Board an issue can be transitioned to another workflow status by dragging and dropping the issue from one column to another.

Depending on authorization, rights are granted to each specific group of users and make issue transitions and statuses available.

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Working with issues

Issue creation

Create an issue via the Jira Customer portal

Users can create a new issue via the Jira Customer Portal, at Yamaha it is called Yamaha Motor Europe support portal. Instructions of the portal can be found here: Yamaha Support Portal Guide
Service management issues should only be created via the Jira Customer Portal as these can be submitted by pre-set forms.

YME Jira Hierarchy
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YMEHIERARCHY
YMEHIERARCHY

The Hierarchy for Plans, project items are grouped into hierarchy levels based on Issue Types.
For YME Jira the following Hierarchy has been setup:
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Level 1-3 is used for Portfolio planning:

Level 1: Capability (YNSEU)
Level 2: Programme (YPM) , Strategic Theme (YPB), Milestone (YNSEU),
Level 3: Initiative (YPB) , Feature (YNSEU), Project (YPM)

All others levels are used in Jira Software projects.

Story level = Story, Enable Story, Task, Spike, Bug, Defect and for Jira Service Management Incident, Service request, Service request with approvals etc.

Hierarchy linking is done through epic link or parent link. You cannot skip a level so an epic must always be linked to a Initiative, Feature or a Project.

Workflow

A Jira Workflow has three basic components: statuses, transitions and resolutions.

Statuses represent the position of an issue in its workflow, state of a task.
Transitions informs how a piece of work can move between statuses.
Resolutions are the ways in which an issue can be closed.

In a Jira issue you can check all the issue statuses and transitions as well as view your issue workflow with a single click from the Issue status menu.

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Issue status menu label: a trigger menu button that displays the current status of an issue (1).
Issue status menu: contains a set of issue statuses (3), transitions (2), and current issue workflow (4).

Example for Project Yamaha Applications Support Desk (SD):
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To view the the workflow select View workflow in the Issue status menu
Mouse over the transitions of this specific status via View Workflow which status transition can be chosen as next/previous step.

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Another example of a more simplified Jira Service Management Workflow:
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A Jira issue can be moved by using a specific transaction button or if not available via the Issue status menu.
When using a Board an issue can be transitioned to another workflow status by dragging and dropping the issue from one column to another.

Depending on authorization, rights are granted to each specific group of users and make issue transitions and statuses available.

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Working with issues

Issue creation

Create an issue via the Jira Customer portal

Users can create a new issue via the Jira Customer Portal, at Yamaha it is called Yamaha Motor Europe support portal. Instructions of the portal can be found here: Yamaha Support Portal Guide
Service management issues should only be created via the Jira Customer Portal as these can be submitted by pre-set forms.

Create an issue from the top navigation bar, anywhere Create an issue from the top navigation bar, anywhere in Jira for Jira Software or Jira Core projects

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If you've added sub-tasks to an issue, and need to reorder them, you can drag and drop them on the issue navigator view of the parent issue. If you're using a board in Jira Software, you can also reorder the sub-tasks on the board view. However, these two methods are independent of each other. Reordering sub-tasks on the parent issue will not reorder tasks on an existing board, and vice-versa.

Issue links

Epic and Parent link

All issue types on Story level Jira Projects issues and Confluence pages can be linked to a specific Jira issue. These links can be found in a Jira issue under section Issue Links

Confluence links to a Jira issue can be found under Section Issue Links - Mentioned in

Example:

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Subtasks are automatically linked to the original ticket.

In the original ticket you can see all linked sub-Tasks

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Create manually a new issue link to Jira issue or Confluence or Weblink

To create a new manual link open the issue you wish to link to another issue.

Please note that that this manual action is only needed for issues that did not follow the correct workflow or if it need to be linked to a different or parent/child issue as well.

Confluence pages can directly be linked to a Jira ticket. Instructions can be found on the following page: How-to use links and anchors (bookmarks) in Confluence.

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Select More > Link to display the Link dialog box.
Ensure that the Jira Issue item is selected at the left of the dialog box and then choose the type of link to be created from the This issue drop-down list

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Share a issue link with a customer

When a licensed Jira Service Management user opens issue, the link differs from the public link used for the Customer Portal.
If the Licensed user wants to share an issue to a customer, use the view customer request button, and then copy the link for sharing.

This link can only be retrieved in licensed mode:

Open a Jira issue
Select at right column under Servicedesk request View Customer request
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A new page will be opened with a view of the request in the customer portal.
This link can be shared to a user. Note: to view the ticket the user must be linked in the ticket as reporter or participant or manager.

Link for licensed user: https://support.yamnet.com/browse/SD-7312
Link for Customer: https://support.yamnet.com/servicedesk/customer/portal/1/SD-7312

Commenting on issues

Adding comments to an issue is a useful way to record additional detail about an issue, and collaborate with team members.
Comments are shown in the Comments tab of the Activity section when you view an issue.

In JIRA Service Desk projects, comments are segregated by internal vs external visibility. Meaning that I am able to select whether I want to Share with customer or Comment Internally.

Share with customer makes the comment visible to everyone who can see the issue/request. (Jira Service Management agents , reporter and participants)
When this button is used the reporter and all participants will receive a notification by e-mail.
Internal comments are not shown on the portal view of the issue.
When this button is used then only Jira Service Management agents (licensed Jira Service Management user) are able to see the comment.

Note: Jira Service Management agents (licensed users) are able to see both internal and external comments

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Tip
Keyboard shortcut for Jira Software: Press M on your keyboard to jump straight into the comment field and start typing.

Text help

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directly to an Epic, Epic Link is used for this.
Story level = Story, Enable Story, Task, Spike, Bug, Defect and for Jira Service Management: Incident, Service request, Service request with approvals etc.
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All issues above an Epic level can have a Parent link, see for more information: YME Jira Hierarchy
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Via de Edit button you can add the epic or parent link.

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If an issue is related to an higher hierarchy issue type Epic or Parent link should be used.
If you have to link multiple epics or higher hierarchy issue types in one issue, then use one main Epic/ Parent link and for the others use Issue links.

Issue links

Jira Projects issues and Confluence pages can be linked to a specific Jira issue. This can also be used if you want to link multiple epics or parent issues.
These links can be found in a Jira issue under section Issue Links

Confluence links to a Jira issue can be found under Section Issue Links - Mentioned in

Example:

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Subtasks are automatically linked to the original ticket.

In the original ticket you can see all linked sub-Tasks

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Create manually a new issue link to Jira issue or Confluence or Weblink

To create a new manual link open the issue you wish to link to another issue.

Please note that that this manual action is only needed for issues that did not follow the correct workflow or if it need to be linked to a different or parent/child issue as well.

Confluence pages can directly be linked to a Jira ticket. Instructions can be found on the following page: How-to use links and anchors (bookmarks) in Confluence.

Parent = Main (original) issue
Child = Sub issue from main issue

Select More > Link to display the Link dialog box.
Ensure that the Jira Issue item is selected at the left of the dialog box and then choose the type of link to be created from the This issue drop-down list

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Share a issue link with a customer

When a licensed Jira Service Management user opens issue, the link differs from the public link used for the Customer Portal.
If the Licensed user wants to share an issue to a customer, use the view customer request button, and then copy the link for sharing.

This link can only be retrieved in licensed mode:

Open a Jira issue
Select at right column under Servicedesk request View Customer request
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A new page will be opened with a view of the request in the customer portal.
This link can be shared to a user. Note: to view the ticket the user must be linked in the ticket as reporter or participant or manager.

Link for licensed user: https://support.yamnet.com/browse/SD-7312
Link for Customer: https://support.yamnet.com/servicedesk/customer/portal/1/SD-7312

Commenting on issues

Adding comments to an issue is a useful way to record additional detail about an issue, and collaborate with team members.
Comments are shown in the Comments tab of the Activity section when you view an issue.

In JIRA Service Desk projects, comments are segregated by internal vs external visibility. Meaning that I am able to select whether I want to Share with customer or Comment Internally.

Share with customer makes the comment visible to everyone who can see the issue/request. (Jira Service Management agents , reporter and participants)
When this button is used the reporter and all participants will receive a notification by e-mail.
Internal comments are not shown on the portal view of the issue.
When this button is used then only Jira Service Management agents (licensed Jira Service Management user) are able to see the comment.

Note: Jira Service Management agents (licensed users) are able to see both internal and external comments

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Tip
Keyboard shortcut for Jira Software: Press M on your keyboard to jump straight into the comment field and start typing.

Text help

Via + you can select Text help, this will bring you to Text formatting notification Help.
In here you can find a explanation for text formatting and advanced formatting like adding code in a comment.
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Adding code to a comment

For adding a code block to a comment select + and then Code in the formatting toolbar. In the code block you can type in as much code as you want, and select the language for syntax highlighting.

If you've already typed in your code, select the text and press CMD/Ctrl+Shift+M to turn that bit of text into a code snippet,

All the optional parameters of {panel} macro are valid for {code} too. The default language is Java but you can specify others too, including: ActionScript, Ada, AppleScript, bash, C, C#, C++, CSS, Erlang, Go, Groovy, Haskell, HTML, JavaScript, JSON, Lua, Nyan, Objc, Perl, PHP, Python, R, Ruby, Scala, SQL, Swift, VisualBasic, XML and YAML.

For selecting the correct syntax highlighting change the setting to Text. and adjust code:java to any of the above languages. When done you can change back to Visual.

Note: {code:sql} Jira recognizes -- comment but not /* comment */, which is supported by the Transact-SQL (T-SQL) language in Microsoft SQL Server. Please add syntax highlighting for that, too. It could be part of {code:sql} or have a distinct language identifier such as {code:mssql} or {code:t-sql}.

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Comment sorting

Comments can be sorted by newest or oldest first.

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If there are more then 10 comments in an issue you need to click "Load 10 newer comments" .
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The Comment bar is not customizable, to add a comment you need to scroll down on the issue page.

Work around is to collapse Image Addedthe Activity tab when having more then 10 comments to add a new comment.
Please note that settings are saved when you collapse a section, when opening a new Jira issue make sure you have opened the section again.
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Pinned Comments (Jira Software)

Keep your team updated on the most important parts of a conversation by pinning comments in issues. This option is only available for Jira Software, not for Jira Service Management!

All important comments you’ve pinned will always appear at the top of the Comments tab, above the other issue comments:

Adding code to a comment

For adding a code block to a comment select + and then Code in the formatting toolbar. In the code block you can type in as much code as you want, and select the language for syntax highlighting.

If you've already typed in your code, select the text and press CMD/Ctrl+Shift+M to turn that bit of text into a code snippet,

All the optional parameters of {panel} macro are valid for {code} too. The default language is Java but you can specify others too, including: ActionScript, Ada, AppleScript, bash, C, C#, C++, CSS, Erlang, Go, Groovy, Haskell, HTML, JavaScript, JSON, Lua, Nyan, Objc, Perl, PHP, Python, R, Ruby, Scala, SQL, Swift, VisualBasic, XML and YAML.

For selecting the correct syntax highlighting change the setting to Text. and adjust code:java to any of the above languages. When done you can change back to Visual.

Note: {code:sql} Jira recognizes -- comment but not /* comment */, which is supported by the Transact-SQL (T-SQL) language in Microsoft SQL Server. Please add syntax highlighting for that, too. It could be part of {code:sql} or have a distinct language identifier such as {code:mssql} or {code:t-sql}.

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Comment sorting

Comments can be sorted by newest or oldest first.

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If there are more then 10 comments in an issue you need to click "Load 10 newer comments" .
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The Comment bar is not customizable, to add a comment you need to scroll down on the issue page.

Work around is to collapse Image Removedthe Activity tab when having more then 10 comments to add a new comment.
Please note that settings are saved when you collapse a section, when opening a new Jira issue make sure you have opened the section again.
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Pinned Comments (Jira Software)

Keep your team updated on the most important parts of a conversation by pinning comments in issues. This option is only available for Jira Software, not for Jira Service Management!

All important comments you’ve pinned will always appear at the top of the Comments tab, above the other issue comments:

Pinned comments: a section that contains all comments that are currently pinned on an issue.
All comments: a section with all issue comments, including the pinned ones.

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Searching for flagged issues

The flag for an issue is stored in a custom checkbox field named "Flagged", which has only one value: Impediment.

This means that you can use this JQL query to find flagged issues: Flagged = Impediment

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Navigate to your desired board.
Click either Scrum backlog, Active sprints, Kanban backlog (if enabled), or Kanban board.
Click the issue that you want to flag or unflag.
In the Issue Detail View, select Add flag or Remove flag from the 'cog' drop-down. You can also right-click on the issue > Add flag or Remove flag.

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Click the issue that you want to flag or unflag.
In the Issue Detail View,

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select Add flag

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or Remove flag from the 'cog' drop-down. You can also right-click on the issue > Add flag

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or Remove flag.

You can also and add comment. After adding your comment, it will appear in the Comments section of the issue, with an indication that a flag was added or removed accordingly.
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Board configuration

You must be a Jira administrator or a Board administrator for the board to modify its configuration. Any board user is able to view the board configuration.

Go to the desired board and select Board > Configure.
On the Board Configuration screen, select the desired tab (Columns, Swimlanes, etc).

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General: Includes Board general and filter settings. Board name and Administrator. The Board filter(s) determine which issues appear on the board. It can be based on one or more projects, or custom JQL depending on your needs.

Columns: (1) Columns can be added, removed, reordered and renamed. Columns are based upon global statuses and can be moved between columns. Minimum and maximum constraints can be set for each mapped column.

Swimlanes: (2) A swimlane is a row on the board that can be used to group issues. Swimlane type can be changed below and will be saved automatically. Note: queries will not be lost when changing to another swimlane type.

Quick Filters: (3) Quick Filters can be used to further filter the issues in the board based on the additional JQL query.

Card colors: (4)Choose a method for assigning colors to your cards. If no method is selected, the cards will not have a colored edge. Any changes to the color configuration for a method are saved immediately, so you can switch back to it later if you wish.

Card layout: (5) Cards can be configured to show up to three extra fields.

Working days: These settings allow you to highlight or exclude non-working days from reports and gadgets.
They apply to the following reports: Burndown Chart, Sprint Report, Epic Report, Version Report, Control Chart; and the following gadgets: Sprint Health Gadget, Burndown Gadget.

Issue Detail View: (6) Add, delete or reorder fields on the Issue Detail View.

Agile Tools & Filters: Backlog settings, Search bar settings

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Board administrator

You can find your board administrator via

Go to the desired board and select Board
Select Configure

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Under General (left panel) > Administrators you can find the name(s) of your Team Board administrator(s). They are your first point of contact if you want anything changed on your Team Board.

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Recommended learning

Jira fundamentals (free Atlassian training, self-paced, 90 minutes, certification option)

Tips & tricks

Keyboard shortcuts

Via the Image Removed help button in the main navigation bar at the top rights side you can select Keyboard Shortcuts.

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Additional to the above:

Board shortcut: When you have an item selected and press "." on the keyboard, the 'more' menu pops-up, allowing you to quickly change (for example) the issue status.

Jira Add-Ons

Introduction Add-Ons

Jira add-ons/plugins are software that a Jira administrator can install to improve Jira's functionality.
At Yamaha Motor Europe N.V. we have the following add-ons installed:

General apps that could be used in a Jira project or used by a Jira Admin or Project Admin

Active Directory Attributes Sync
Backbone Issue Sync for Jira
Big Picture
Checklist
Eazy BI
JSU Automation Suite for Jira Workflows (Jira Admin/ Project Admin only)
ProForma: Forms for Jira
ScriptRunner for Jira (Jira Admin only)
Secure Admin for Jira (Jira Admin only)
Status Time Free
Timesheet Reports and Gadgets

Addons specifically used by Service Management Projects:

Doublecheck for Jira Service Management

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Add-Ons

Active Directory Attributes Sync

Display and manage user attributes from Active Directory all across your Jira. At Yamaha Motor Europe N.V. this Addon is used to sync YME directory for all YME and Distributor employees.
Fields that are synced between Active Directory and Jira:

Username = User Id
Full Name
E-mail
Job Title
Telephone Number
Mobile Number
Company
Office = YME or Distributor
Department
Manager
Description = Job Title & Department

Agile Tools & Filters for Jira Software

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a comment when you're adding a flag to or removing a flag from an issue. You may want to do this to indicate your reason for adding or removing the flag.

In the Issue Detail View, select Add flag and comment or Remove flag and add comment from the 'cog' drop-down. You can also right-click on the issue > Add flag and comment or Remove flag and add comment. After adding your comment, it will appear in the Comments section of the issue, with an indication that a flag was added or removed accordingly.
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Board configuration

You must be a Jira administrator or a Board administrator for the board to modify its configuration. Any board user is able to view the board configuration.

Go to the desired board and select Board > Configure.
On the Board Configuration screen, select the desired tab (Columns, Swimlanes, etc).

Instructions how to Configure a Board can be found on the following Atlassian page: Configuring a board