Introduction

Never worked with Jira before? No problem. Please first read the Jira training Basics page.
In this chapter below the Jira setup for Information Systems project is explained.

Jira projects

Information Systems are using the following projects:

In a future state for 2023 only the Jira Projects in black text will remain for Information Systems.

• Yamaha Applications Support Desk (SD) captures all requests from end-users, who experience difficulties with their day-to-day use of IT applications. These items are validated, then if valid resolved as soon as possible.
• Yamaha IS Projects (YIS) captures all work of scrum teams in the Agile Transformation. These processes are being streamlined to support scrum processes, and make Jira a tool for collaboration more than administration.
• Yamaha Portfolio Board (YPM) collects all ideas for IT initiatives, and validates the business case and expected rewards for implementing such initiatives before assigning work to development teams. It's very much about preparing work.
• Other projects capture work for teams that have not yet joined the Agile Transformation.

In due time, Information Systems teams working in Jira Software projects will be onboarded to the YIS project, so this can become our mutually agreed way of working for Software delivery.

Any team joining will be coached through the (Agile) transition and will be able to provide input on unique ways of working that will need to be integrated. Together we will make it a success.

For now, these Information Systems projects will keep on using their current of way of working. With time and proper preparation, they will migrate into YIS. 

The Change Advisory Board will be phased out completely as it will be covered by the Yamaha Portfolio Board and  Software project(s).

J-sox compliance

YIS: 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.

Yamaha Applications Support Desk (SD)

In Yamaha Applications Support Desk all operational support (BAU- Business As Usual) requests are registered that related to IT Application Issues/errors for existing functionality, data correction and authorization requests.

Users can create a new issue via the Yamaha Motor Europe support portal, via this portal you can go to the YME Information Systems Support Portal to submit a IT request.
Instructions of the portal forms can be found here: YME Information Systems Support Portal Guide

Issuetypes

Audit: Used for J-sox change requests and IRY issues registered to deliver evidence for auditors.

Authorization request: Elevate user rights request used for Ympact to request YMXXITS1 access to have command line access and to operate in Ympact (Branch specific) Production environment.

Incident:  Reporting a incident or outage. Currently all incoming issues submitted via the Jira Customer portal will have Issue type Incident.

RobotJob Change: Robot Job Change request used for Ympact Job scheduling

Deployment request: Triggered by Development software projects used by B2B teams for Ympact,Ympulse, Yamcom deployments.

Service Request:  Request for information, this issue type is currently not used anymore.

Workflow

If a (bug) fix for a appliction is required the Bugfix transistion can be used to trigger a issue being created in a Development project.

Change Advisory Board (CAB)

Change advisory Board (CAB) workflow is used for approval of fixes and creation of a functional/technical conceptional design document

One of the two following conditions must be met to create a CAB issue.

1. Bugfix to deliver a functional/technical solution for the original SD issue. SD issue remains open until the fix has been applied.
2. Non-bugfix for internal improvement, prevent (recurring) issues for the future. SD issue can be closed, user will be informed that current issue is fixed but there will still be worked on in the background to prevent from happening again or improvements.

Under the SD issue the reporter and requested participants can be informed about the change applied/ to be applied but is also used to collect information from the requester.

Function design (FD) and Technical design (TD) documents can be found in Confluence under space  Functional Conceptional Designs.
At the main page instructions can be found how a Functional/Technical Conceptional Design document can be created (via standardized template).

Software delivery projects

Yamaha IS Projects (YIS) 

Project YIS is set up as a single space to allow Information Systems 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.

J-sox compliance

YIS: 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.

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:

1. PBI created 
2. User story defined
3. Acceptance criteria defined
4. Refinement & estimation done
5. 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 Product Owner boards

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:

Yamaha Portfolio Board  (YPM) (project) 

Enhancements, improvements and new functionality requests are raised via the Yamaha Portfolio Board (YPM) and can only be raised by Portfolio managers.
Functional Design (FD) and Technical Design (TD) activities and approvals are done in the Yamaha Portfolioboard (so no longer CAB).
Planning activities for YPM is done in Jira via Big Picture, by the Project Owner.

All project related documentation can be found under Confluence space Yamaha Portfolio Board. In here you can find Procedures, Training material, report outs, processes etc. 

Explanation off used issue types and YPM procedure can be found in the following Presentation: Jira Training material

Issue types:
Programme are multiple projects delivering functionality of value, e.g. the e-bike programme.

 A Project is a set of activities to deliver one or more outputs in accordance with a specific business case. A particular project may or may not be part of a program. 

Epics are large bodies of work that need to be completed over several sprints or over a longer period of time.

 
The High Level Design (HLD) and Functional Design (FD) are always linked to the  Project YPM-Issue (not Programme!) 
The Technical Design (TD) can be done under the project (single application), but will be registered under the EPIC YPM-Issue. 

Documentation for FD and TD is written in Confluence under  Project and Programme documentation and needs to be linked to the YPM project and respective EPIC.
A HLD should always be documented under the MAIN project , so highest level. Depending on the complexity of a project (as soon as 2 or more applications are affected) EPICs will be the key to record TDs under.
Although recorded under the EPIC, all TDs should refer/link to the HLD or HFD.

It can be that a project belongs to a Programme (multiple projects delivering functionality of value, e.g. the e-bike programme). If that is the case (recognizable on project level by checking the TICKET GROUP),
documentation of the project should be under the Programmes section in the project documentation section under of the portfolioboard. All non-programme projects are documented under YME Portfolio Projects.

More complex Jira features

4.1 Jira SD-> B2C-Incident ticket creation

As discussed with Patrick a new functionality in Jira SD project has been created for B2C.

If a SD ticket is in progress a linked B2C-Incident ticket can now be created via Workflow-Create B2C-Incident button.

This means that CAB can now be skipped for Incidents/Bugs.

This option is only available for Consumer Applications team, not for Epam.

With this option many fields will be copied, like previously was done for CAB.
See below fields that will be copied/set:

Unfortunately it is not possible to copy all comments, but last comment and the comment entered in the comment screen that pops up if this transition is used will both be copied to the new B2C incident.

Add-ons used by Information Systems

• Version manager  Version manager for Jira plugin limits rights for all version managers to this specific functionality without the need for administer Jira-project permission.
• Status Time Free  Easy reporting on how long an issue has remained in a specific status.