1 Introduction

JIRA can bring a new level of transparency to an Agile team, opening up the backlog and work in process beyond the team’s location.

The platform can be used for Scrum or Kanban, but ultimately it’s just a tool: it’s only as good as the data we put in.

If we want to use JIRA, we should:

• populate it with clearly written stories,
• maintain it daily, sharing our progress and refinement.

for then JIRA can provide easy searching and automated reporting.

Jira setup - Portfolio management

The Project in JIRA is much larger than an Information Systems ‘project’ – it is the full backlog for a product that your team (and maybe others) manages.

YME management has decided that we have three Information Systems release trains – Consumer Processes, Business Processes, and Enablement. 

Initially, we will have one single JIRA Project for this entire portfolio, which will allow us to easily assign stories between the development teams.

Each team will have their own team board (either Scrum or Kanban), with their chosen team name in the title. Thanks to the "Yamaha Team" field only stories assigned to this team are visible on their own board.

Data maturity - what & why?

When wishing to change the status quo, it is vital to do two things:

1) Clearly state your goal: why does it have value to do what you propose?

2) Clearly define how you will measure whether that goal has been reached.

In Agile, this is done by writing a User Story and Acceptance Criteria. Your Scrum Master can help you summarise your needs as such:

User Story

As a <position of benefitter>

I want to be able to <software function>

So that <business goal>

Acceptance Criteria

Given <data or precondition>

When <user action>

Then <system response>

Sprinting or Continuous Flow

In Scrum

• Creating a sprint
• Setting a sprint goal
• Choosing stories to fulfil that goal
• Starting the sprint

Work for 2 weeks to complete this selection of work. Then review the work meets the acceptance criteria, and plan when to release the results.

In Kanban

• Choose a limited selection of work (one item per person)
• Do not take up new work until the old work is completed
• If an item gets blocked, the entire team works together to resolve the block before continuing work

Work to provide continuous flow: processing work items through the required workflow (development, peer review, testing, uat, release) as soon and smoothly as possible.

Inspect & adapt

Releases – manage your versions

Reports – only as good as the data we put in

–for Scrum

–for Kanban

–Dashboards

Searching – across or within projects & teams

–Basic or Advanced

–Export to file

–Bulk change

Recommended learning

Jira beginner's guide to Agile (free, self-paced, 90 minutes, certification option)