Sprints
In the first article, Project setup in Jira, I got started with Jira for multiple projects, setting up boards for them and a Cross Project Board to give an overview of Everything, Everywhere in one place. I noted Jira has automatic unique numbering of issues which is vital! I set up my project to use the same Issue type scheme so that all my projects are identical and any future changes I make apply to all these projects.
Theres just one problem. Theres nothing in Jira to manage yet! So lets create sprints and issues for each project in order that we can then use the Jira Dashboard and the Cross Project Board to make sense of everything.
TL:DR: – If you like issue management tools, sprints and work prioritisation, and software product roadmaps you might find this interesting.
Contents
Jira
What is a sprint?
"Sprint" is just a buzzword for a time constrained set of agreed activities towards an agreed set of goals contained in a project. I don't particularly like the word. Not only is it ableist, but also some Managers, especially the "tech bro" type tend to seize on it as a great buzzword to represent overly energetic activity and wringing absolute burn-out levels of constant productivity out of a development resource. It seems to me that this is not a particularly effective method for assured software development. But we are stuck with the term, so we have to use it. But it doesn't need to mean these things. It doesn't need to be all about Agile development either. It is just a term for a time constrained set of agreed activities towards an agreed set of goals contained in a project.
Creating a sprint
Anyway, in Jira you create sprints in the Backlog. That is interesting to me as I have been using a system where Sprints are more of an afterthought and Backlog became a place where issues too difficult or ill defined to work on were sent to languish. Backlog is not where issues go to die in Jira. It is an active part of the planning process for future work. Thats a likeable way of thinking. Seems easy enough. Click the button marked "Create sprint".
But wait. In order to create a sprint you need to have some issues.
Creating issues for a project
We have enforced the same issue type scheme (Epic, Bug, Story, Task, Sub-task) on all projects so lets create the Epics and tasks for this project, which is a professional services work list rather than software development. In order to do this quickly I asked ChatGPT to come up with the Epic names, with the question "What would be good titles for Epics for a project to review an organisations third party and custom developed software systems with a view to modernising and standardising around a single technology framework for the future" and then went and filled out the tasks (#YMMV).
Epics
Perhaps ChatGPT's output was slightly too grandiose so I've edited these generated Epics to fit my own personal style and added them to the project. Then I took the tasks I already know have to be done from my project brief for this project and I have put them in as tasks assigned to one or other of these Epics. The number order of the Epics and tasks isn't important apart from being unique as a reference. It is more important to think about the tasks and how they relate to the Epics.
Tasks
After creating all the Epics in the Issues page, it is simple to create tasks as child issues to the Epics themselves.
Set up sprints in the Backlog
All these issues (the Epics and the tasks) are initially in the Backlog. You can now set up Sprints to prioritise the work delivery. Remember Sprints are just a time constrained set of agreed activities towards an agreed set of goals.
Once you are happy with thie click Start sprint on the current sprint and your project properly begins. Now, if you are following along with multiple projects go ahead and repeat this set of steps for each one, because its how Jira can help manage multiple projects that is of most interest here!
References
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