Jira training for Yamaha IS Projects (YIS)

Yamaha IS Projects (YIS)

Project YIS is set up as a single space to allow Information Systems and Business to align on an Agile way of working, as part of the Agile Transformation.

Together we strive to arrive at a Jira configuration that is usable for all teams, supporting all YME Information Systems processes in a comprehensive, simplified manner.

Issuetypes

Issuetypes have a hierarchy to them:

Items in YIS project build on the Programmes or Projects created in YPM. An Epic should always be linked to one of these, so it is clear which strategic initiative it's part of.

An Epic is a large feature, that is broken down into its component Stories by a scrum team.

A Story is a feature that can be tested separately, and is part of an Epic.

A Sub-task is an activity that needs to be performed to complete a higher-level issuetype. It's always part of another issuetype.

At the same level as Story, other Product Backlog Items exist with slightly different meanings:

A Bug is a broken feature found outside of sprint;

A Change Request is a change to an existing feature, requested during UAT;

A Defect is a broken feature found during UAT;

A Spike is a Proof of Concept or other research required to prove the feasibility of a solution;

A Task is a Non-Functional Requirement, work in software development that brings no value to business yet is necessary (for example: code refactoring).

For testing using addon Xray, the following issuetypes exist. These are used solely by testers, to plan their work:

A Precondition describes the correct starting point of the test case. It can be a user's configuration; or a required object status, "with product _1" for example; or some permission that needs to be set before a test case is run.

A Test describes a single test scenario;

A Test Execution reports the execution of a Test;

A Test Plan is a container for test cases, usually related to a single sprint.

A Test Set collects Tests that logically belong together, so they can easily be resused, for example for planning of UAT.

Workflows

This project contains three workflows, with the distinction being made whether an item contains a software release (development workflow) or not (four step workflow).

Any work that can require a deployment uses the "Development" workflow:

These workflow steps are intended for:

Backlog: work has not started;
In progress: a developer builds & unit tests their own work to meet acceptance criteria;
Review: a peer reviews any code & functionality;
Ready for test: waiting for a QA officer;
In test: QA officer is performing integration test & regression test;
In UAT: PO/business validate that the functionality is as required, or provide feedback;
Done: the work is completed without deployment needed; or
Ready for deployment: the work is done & documented, but deployment to production is needed;
Scheduled for deployment: deployment date is set;
Done deployment: the solution is available and working on production.

Any issue-type that will not include a deployment uses the simplified "Four-step" workflow:

Epics have three additional statuses for Product Owners to prepare the work:

These workflow steps are intended for:

Epic created: work has not yet started (this specific status allows easy searching for open Epics);
Define business case: the goal of the epic needs to be made clear - what is the current situation, and why do we need to change this?
Define acceptance criteria: we can only celebrate the success of an initiative, if we make clear how we will measure success - what is the acceptance criteria?
Assign team: only after the business case and acceptance criteria are clear, does it make sense to involve a development team.

Field configuration

Yamaha Teams

This is a drop-down fields of all teams that exist within YME Information Services. When a new team is founded, an entry is added to this field.

For example, the entries on 16/11/2023:

Any team board uses this field to filter on, so it's mandary to fill in at ticket creation, so that the item will show up on the correct team board.

N.B.: In the past a free text field "Team Yamaha" was used, in which typing errors caused for tickets to get lost. This old field is in the process of being phased out, so you may still see it on certain screens.

Fix/version

When closing an item, it is mandatory to fill the field Fix/Version.

The fix/version is used to assign completed developments to a release scheduled to go to production.

Additionally, on Kanban boards, closed items will disappear from the board once a fix/version is closed, not earlier.

DoD projects

When closing an item, it is mandatory to full the field "DoD projects":

A Definition of Done (DoD) is a term from the scrum framework, which describes the agreement of what it means when an item is set to "Done" status.

Within YME the intent it to validate these three organization-wide requirements for each ticket, because YME is being audited on these three points. For this reason, it is expected that this field will become mandatory across all YME projects in Jira.

N.B.: Jira COP wishes to limit the field to only being mandatory when a release is involved, this is a planned improvement.

Deployment board

The work done in sprints ends when a PBI is either "Done" or "Ready for Release" in the item workflow. All items that require a deployment are next shows on the Deployment Board.

Since at the moment YME works with bi-weekly releases (and sometimes in-between hotfixes), this board collects all work across teams that still needs to be released.

At the top of the screen the quick filter for a team can be activated, which limits the work shown to a single team.

Bonus features of YIS

DOR

Scrum teams generally use a Definition of Ready to clarify whether a Jira issue (Product Backlog Item, or PBI) can be taken into sprint. Within Jira, this process has been summarized in a field, "DoR", which allows tracking what an issue needs to become ready for development.

The generalized DoR steps are:

PBI created
User story defined
Acceptance criteria defined
Refinement & estimation done
Ready for sprint

We find that most teams follow similar steps, so should be able to make use of this field.

N.B. This is an optional feature. Set the field manually in refinement sessions, in case that makes sense for your team.

Card colours

Based on the DoR field, PBI's receive a card colour on the standardised YIS scrum and kanban boards.

This way it's easy to see whether PBI's are ready for sprint:

YIS Boards

YIS works with 3 template boards:

Good to know: YIS project uses a template Scrum and Kanban board, which has the same configuration across teams.

YIS Product Owner board

For Product Owners (PO's) who want to collaborate across teams, we can set up a Product Owner Board.

A PO board shows all Epics, Projects, and Programmes for teams who work on a single solution, enabling PO's to prioritise large initiatives together, and prepare new initiatives before these are assigned to development teams.

Here is an example for PO's Salesforce. Notice how certain epics are assigned to the group "PO Salesforce" to prepare further, instead of a development team:

Remember that a development team only sees Epics that are assigned to their Yamaha Team development team.

A PO board follows Epics across the board in a Kanban flow, using the YIS Epic statuses:

YIS Scrum template

Within YIS all scrum boards use the same template, with the following configuration features:

Custom field "Business value" is used to estimate (in a fibonacci range) the value of that piece of development to the YME business.
Something that cannot be used yet (partial development or a spike) has BV 0, while a development that benefits entire Europe might count as much as BV 13.
Custom field "DoR" is used to track the Definition of Ready, or PBI readiness for development.
Card colours show the stages:

The board contains quick filters to easily select only PBI's relevant for the specific person or meeting:

Board Columns are named for the story status, though as long as multiple projects exists other statusses are also shows in these columns:

"Days in column" is activated. Hovering over the dots shows the amount of days in column in text.

Custom field "Target release date" is available to track the intended release date aligned with stakeholders.
When closing an item, the "Resolution" is set. This field is cleared when an item is reopened.

YIS Kanban template

Within YIS all Kanban boards use the same template, with the same configuration features as the scrum template, and in addition:

WIP limit set to team size: distribute the amount of developers over In Progress / Review columns, and the amount of testers over Ready for Test / In Test columns. The BA or PO validates items with status UAT.

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