Jira for Agile projects

Using Jira to manage Scrum Projects

Jira Items/Types
SCRUM Project Management
• Initiative • Risks
• Feature • Opportunities
• Epic • Assumptions
• Story • Decisions
• Task • Dependencies
• Defect • Constraints
• Subtasks: • Issues
• Sub Task • Change Requests
• Bug
• Subtasks:
• Action Item
Risk
Added Attributes STATES/FLOW

• Severity(impact) (Low/Med/High) New

• Likelihood (Low/Medium/High) Analyze

• Impact Description (schedule, cost, In Progress

functionality, Quality) Monitor

• Cost Impact ($) Closed

• Schedule Impact (days) New – new not assessed or analyzed yet.

• Likelihood % Analyze- assessment/analysis in progress
In Progress – treat the risk (eliminate or contain)
Monitor – Monitor risks that cannot be eliminated.
Closed – Risk can no longer happen.
OPPORTUNITY
STATES/FLOW

Added Attributes New

• Impact Description (schedule, cost, Analyze

functionality, Quality) In Progress

• Cost of Implementation Closed

Rejected
Closed
Approved
Closed

Business Rules
• Opportunities can raise risk and
increase cost/schedule so
opportunities must be carefully
analyzed
New – new not assessed or analyzed yet.
Analyze - assessment/analysis in progress
In Progress – opportunity ready for decision
Closed Approved – take the opportunity.
Closed Rejected –the opportunity will not be taken.
Closed – Opportunity can no longer be taken.
Assumption
Assumptions apply at all stages of the project
and are typically are documented at the start of STATES/FLOW
New
a project. They are usually filed in a drawer
and ignored. Analyze
• Assumptions add risk to a project since it is
possible that they will turn out to be false. In Progress

• Assumptions can impact any part of your project

lifecycle and resulting solution implementation, Closed
so it is important to document and analyze them.
• Assumptions usually carry implications and
these should be documented with any resulting
actions if they are not met.
• Revisit assumptions during the project to help
the project team to stay within scope, time, and New – new/suggested.
budget Analysis - analysis in progress
In Progress – assumption are monitored and
controlled to ensure they do not become issue
Added Attributes Closed – assumption found to be not true
Constraint
• Constraints are usually focused on STATES/FLOW
time, money, and resources for a New

project:
Analyze
• Schedule
• Budget In Progress

• Resources Closed
• Skill levels
• Legal
• Procurement
• Dependencies
• Policies New – new.
Analyze - analysis in progress
• Technology In Progress – constraints are monitored to ensure
• Other constraints. they do not become issue
Closed – constraints closed (no longer a constraint)
Added Attributes
Decision
Added Attributes STATES/FLOW

• List of decision makers (Who) New

• when decision was made (Date) Analyze

• Why the decision was In Progress

made(Reason) Closed

• Impact(s)
Business rules
• When decision reversed explain
why, when, who and create a new
Decision link to old decision
New – new/suggested.
Analyze - analysis in progress
In Progress – decision documented
Closed – decision reversed or no longer
relevant
Dependency
Dependencies are deliverables from other projects STATES/FLOW
which your project needs in order to execute.
New
• Dependencies are often overlooked and can cause
project teams to miss their milestones and target Analyze
dates.
• It’s important to determine a link between project In Progress
assumptions and constraints, and then identify any
dependencies between them. Closed

• Project managers need to document and

communicate the dependencies for inclusion in the
project plan. New – new dependency identified.
Added Attributes Analyze- analysis in progress
In Progress – dependency active and can impact
Business Rules
project
Note that it is possible to directly link work items to Closed – when dependency can no longer
each other. This is the preferred way to do impact project
dependencies. Use the project dependencies to
identify what external dependencies there are and
then use the jira links if possible, for more detail
Issue
STATES/FLOW
An issue is anything that may prevent the New

project from meeting its goals.

Analyze
• An issue is a problem that will impede the
progress of the project. In progress

• An issue is a point or matter in question or

Escalated
dispute, or a point or matter that is not
settled and is under discussion, or over
which there are opposing views or Closed

disagreements.
Added Attributes New – new issue identified.
Analyze - analysis of issue
In progress – issue resolution in progress
Business Rules Escalated – issue raised to steering committee
• It is recommended to link the issue to the Closed – issue resolved
actual work item it relates to.
Change request
Added Attributes STATES/FLOW

• Schedule change +- days New

• Cost Change $ Analyze

• Scope change Description2 Ready

Business Rules Closed Closed

• New work items created by a change
request MUST be linked to the
approved change request
• Same if a change request changes
work cost/estimates/due date of
existing work items then they should
be linked to the change request
Rejected Approved
New – new change requests identified.
Analyze- analysis and preparation of
change request
Ready – change request ready
Closed Approved – Change approved
Closed Rejected – Change rejected
Action Item (project sub tasks in jira)
Added Attributes STATES/FLOW

Business Rules New

In progress

Review

Closed

Open – new action item identified.

In Progress - action item being worked on
Review – work reviewed (optional)
Closed – action item completed
Jira Initiative/Epic/Story/task
• Initiative - initiatives being the high-level priorities that multiple teams work against in an organization
(using epics). The initiative hierarchy level, is not included in the default jira hierarchy.  you can
consider creating a dedicated project, and then create all the initiatives you need in that project. You can
then link the epics across all your projects to the initiatives in that dedicated project for initiatives
• Epic - A large feature or theme that can span several releases (versions in Jira parlance) but usually fit
within a year
• Story - A user story is typically functionality that will be visible to end users. A user story follows the
format “I as WHO want to do WHAT, so that WHY. A user story delivers value to the customer/user.
It’s a product requirement from the customer/user. Stories are smaller pieces of work within an Epic. In
other words, a Story is a user-facing benefit that could be explicitly verified. functionality increment we
deliver within an internal milestone (Sprint) while developing a version. Usually done by one team and
many people.
• Task - A task, on the other hand, more a technical nature, Task is typically something like code this,
design that, create test data for such-and-such, automate that, and so on. These tend to be things done
by one person. A task is not written in the user story format. Tasks in Jira are all the bits and pieces of
work that have to be done to make the Story happen, such as research, validation, implementation. In
the world of software development Tasks define all the related work that has to be done to complete the
Story. Recommended that it does not span more than 2 days and if it does break it into smaller tasks.
Jira Initiative/Epic/Story/task Hierarchy
Base Structure
Organization Duration
Initiative Cross teams 1+ year
Epic Single team 1-6 months
Story Single team One sprint
Task Single person Up to 2 days

Alternative
Organization Duration
Initiative Cross teams 1+ year
Feature Cross teams 1-6 months
Epic Single team 1-6 months
Story Single team One sprint
Task Single person Up to 2 days