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* JIRA APPS
*
TeamRhythm
Improve the reliability and productivity of every sprint
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*
Programs
Plan and collaborate at scale with a unified view of work
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Roadmaps
Build a visual roadmap and track progress towards epic completion
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Personas
Capture customer archetypes alongside project and agile boards
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JIRA APPS FOR AGILE TEAMS
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SEE JIRA LIKE NEVER BEFORE
* ALIGN AND UNBLOCK TEAMS AT SCALE
Know when team A is going to impact team B before it becomes a problem with
dependency markers that reach across team boards. Maintain alignment and
foster collaboration to keep everyone on track.
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* ONE UNIFIED VIEW FOR EPICS, SPRINTS, VERSIONS AND USER STORY MAPS
Create a single view for teams, and a unified understanding of what really
matters. Keep deliverables on track and aligned to user stories.
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* BE READY TO ROCK WITH RETROSPECTIVE TEMPLATES
Keep your retrospectives relevant and work your way with customizable
retrospective templates.
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* RUN SMOOTHER PI PLANNING SESSIONS
Bring distributed teams together to plan your next increment. Prioritise, and
create high-context visual dependency maps and reporting.
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* MAKE SENSE OF THE FLAT JIRA BACKLOG
Level up backlog refinement and make sense of the flat Jira backlog with
visual representations directly in Jira.
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Testimonials
DON'T JUST TAKE OUR WORD FOR IT...
Hear from some of our amazing customers who are making agile easier.
* You get smart, sexy and colourful displays of workstreams: for us, that was
hugely impactful when dealing with an industry that had never seen this type
of professional delivery.
Andrew Ross
Bluey Merino
* We’ve improved our communication and team alignment, which has helped give us
faster results.
Casey Flynn
Adidas
* Easy Agile apps are intuitive and easy to use. The features perfectly
complement the Jira experience and provide our teams with easy ways to
organize and scale work.
Christopher Heritage
NextEra Energy
BUILT FOR TEAMS WHO WORK IN JIRA
All Easy Agile apps sit inside Jira, visualizing and enhancing your Jira data
with new views and functionality
Use Cases
WE’RE MAKING AGILE EASIER…
Tools that help people shine in their most important agile ceremonies.
* PI PLANNING
PI Planning is the heartbeat of your agile release train. Take care of it
with Easy Agile.
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* SAFE
SAFe promises much, but also asks much of teams. Reduce the burden of SAFe
with Easy Agile's simple, flexible tools.
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* DEPENDANCY MANAGEMENT
Know exactly what’s coming, and how to master dependency management with
high-context visual flags at every stage.
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* USER STORY MAPPING
Know your user’s journey and ensure alignment with business objectives
through User Story Maps
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* SPRINT PLANNING
Work the way you want with native scrum sprint planning in Jira. Just made
faster, smoother, better
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* RETROSPECTIVES
Give remote and on-site teams the structure to reflect on their latest sprint
and the processes to identify what worked, and what didn’t with
retrospectives
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* BACKLOG REFINEMENT
Be ready for your next sprint with intuitive tools to make your review and
prioritization of the product backlog a breeze
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* ROADMAPPING
Connect teams, groups and your whole organization under one vision for your
product future
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* Product
RETHINKING OUR UI: HOW EASY AGILE INNOVATES FOR A BETTER USER EXPERIENCE
At Easy Agile, we’re constantly looking for new ways to improve our products,
and one of the ways we foster innovation is through Dash Days—a focused
period where our team steps away from daily tasks to experiment, explore, and
reimagine how our tools can better serve customers.
During our most recent Dash Days, we took a fresh look at the user interface
of two of our flagship products, Easy Agile TeamRhythym and Easy Agile
Programs. The goal was to enhance interaction and discoverability, so users
can experience the full value of our tools without unnecessary complexity.
Here’s a glimpse into our thought process, challenges, and the exciting
solutions we explored.
THE CHALLENGE
As Easy Agile TeamRhythym and Easy Agile Programs have evolved, we’ve
introduced powerful features designed to give users more control and
flexibility. However, as new capabilities have been added, the interface has
become more elaborate. For us, this presents an opportunity—an opportunity to
take a step back, simplify the experience, and help users unlock more of what
our products offer.
To address this, we brought people from across the business together to
brainstorm how we could improve the experience in both products. Through
these sessions, we identified a few core opportunities:
* Discoverability: How do we make it easier for users to find and use the
powerful features built into our tools?
* Visibility: What’s the best way to surface the right information and
features when users need them?
* Consistency: How do we create a more uniform experience within and across
our products to make navigation intuitive?
Armed with these insights, we then set out to explore solutions tailored to
each product’s unique challenges.
A MORE PERSONALIZED EXPERIENCE WITH EASY AGILE PROGRAMS
For Programs, we focused on three “how might we” questions to reframe our
challenges into opportunities:
1. How might we create more focus on the actions users are trying to
complete?
2. How might we make navigation more intuitive and easy?
3. How might we help users with more context about where they are in the app
at any given screen?
Out of the many solutions we explored, the one that got us the most excited
was the idea of an Easy Agile Programs Home Screen—a personalized dashboard
designed to guide users based on where they are in their planning cycle.
Conceptual sketch of the Easy Agile Programs home screen
This home screen could adapt based on where users are in their journey,
offering relevant guidance and actions.
* For new users, the home screen could provide clear onboarding steps and
easy access to help, so they can get started quickly and confidently.
* For experienced users, it could offer insights and key actions related to
their progress, so they can stay focused on what matters most. Users might
even see data summarizing their accomplishments, which makes it easier to
share successes with their teams.
Whether someone’s brand new to the product or deep into execution, the home
screen could be a great way to guide and coach our users—helping them answer
questions like, "What should I be doing next?" or "What extra value am I
missing out on?".
A MORE FOCUSED INTERFACE FOR EASY AGILE TEAMRHYTHM
For TeamRhythym, our three key “how might we” questions were:
* How might we provide more focus within the User Story Map during sprint
planning?
* How might we improve the discoverability of issues without epics?
* How might we enhance the layout to highlight key features and improve
overall usability?
With these questions in mind, we explored a range of ideas to simplify sprint
planning and make it easier for users to prep, plan, and review their work,
whether they’re using Scrum or Kanban.
Three steps to simplify sprint planning on Easy Agile TeamRhythm
Sprint planning can sometimes feel overwhelming when you have multiple
sprints competing for attention. To help users focus, so we explored the idea
of introducing a focused view during sprint planning.
* This would allow users to zoom in on a specific sprint and the backlog
alone, while collapsing others.
* Each issue would have its own row in the detailed view, and users can drag
and drop either an entire row or drag individual issues to quickly rank
them based on priorities.
* The sprint view will also hide epics that don’t have linked issues in the
current sprint, giving users a cleaner view of what’s relevant to their
current work.
Conceptual UI of TeamRhythm User Story Map's focused view for sprint planning
Conceptual UI of TeamRhythm User Story Map's detailed sprint view
We also looked at ways to enhance the User Story Map interface to bring the
most useful tools and features to the forefront. By improving how key
functionality is presented, we’re helping teams quickly access what they
need, when they need it, enabling them to stay productive without
interruption.
Conceptual UI of a more condensed top navigation for TeamRhythm User Story
Map
This way, we can create a smoother, more focused experience for teams using
TeamRhythm, so they can focus on what’s in front of them without being
distracted by everything else.
YOUR TURN. WHAT DO YOU THINK?
At Easy Agile, we’re always thinking about what comes next.
These ideas aren’t on our official roadmap just yet, but they’re the kind of
innovations we’re excited to explore.
If you think these changes would improve your experience with Easy Agile
TeamRhythm and Easy Agile Programs, let us know! Your feedback helps us
decide what to prioritize, so we can continue building tools that truly make
a difference for your teams.
Read more
Read more
* Agile Best Practice
5 STEPS TO LAY THE TRACKS FOR YOUR AGILE RELEASE TRAIN
Your company has finally committed to practicing Scrum. WOOT!! 🎉 The
promised land is laid out before you — self-organizing teams, sustainable
delivery pace, and autonomy to do the right thing for the product and the
team. You can't wait to get started! (Spoiler alert: There's an agile release
train in your future.)
That was three months ago. Today, your product development organization is a
hot mess. Teams are delivering the wrong work at the right time. Code is
stuck on a shelf waiting for another team to deliver a dependency. And upper
management is thinking about pulling the plug and going back to the older
waterfall days.
If you work in a large organization with 50+ software developers and
engineers, Scrum can be a tough nut to crack. The larger the organization,
the more likely you'll have cross-team dependencies, scheduling conflicts,
and challenges creating transparency between the business, product, and
engineering teams. But fear not...
SAFe to the rescue! SAFe is short for scaled agile framework. Intended to
help large companies implement Scrum, SAFe provides a framework for
coordinating work across many Scrum teams.
Part of the SAFe framework is the concept of an agile release train (ART). If
you're not familiar with ARTs, you're in the right place. We'll explain what
an ART is, why it helps large companies deliver software solutions more
efficiently, and how you can start an ART at your company.
Want to empower your team to implement the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)?
Try Easy Agile Programs
Join a demo
SO, WHAT IS AN AGILE RELEASE TRAIN?
First, let's explain the train metaphor. A train goes down the tracks
intending to reach a specific destination. Along the way, the train may stop
at multiple depots and add new cargo or passengers. Your software solution is
the train tracks. Team contributions to that solution are the new cargo you
pick up at the depots. And, the destination is the business value delivered
to your users. Simple enough, huh?
ARTs help a group of teams stay aligned on the business purpose of their work
and coordinate the delivery of solutions. Your teams are probably organized
by function or value stream. An ART identifies the input and timing of each
team's contributions that help achieve the business objective for the value
stream. Think of it as cross-functional coordination on steroids.
Here are some basic requirements for an ART:
* The schedule is fixed so the scope is variable. But don't panic — once
your teams have a consistent velocity, confidence in the scope will
increase.
* All teams must be on the same sprint and release cadence.
* Each team follows the values and principles in the Agile Manifesto.
* ARTs participate in planning events for program increments (PIs) and
inspect and adapt (I&A) ceremonies, which are similar to retrospectives
and system demos.
* Innovation and planning (IP) iterations must be regularly scheduled
between program increments. This provides your large team of individual
agile teams time to innovate, update infrastructure, or indulge in some
specialized training or a hot tech conference. IP iterations also offer a
nice buffer in case your PI gets behind schedule.
If your organization is large enough, you may need multiple agile release
trains focused on independent value streams. If that's the case, you may need
an additional level of coordination found in a solution train. But let's not
get ahead of ourselves.
PRINCIPLES OF AN AGILE RELEASE TRAIN
An Agile Release Train (ART) takes its cues from the Scaled Agile Framework
(SAFe) to ensure that multiple agile teams can align and collaborate
seamlessly. Here are the core principles that guide an Agile Release Train:
FIXED SCHEDULE
ARTs adhere to a predefined schedule to deliver work consistently. This
schedule is organized through Program Increments (PIs), which are typically
12 weeks long. The fixed cadence helps teams plan and deliver work
efficiently.
BI-WEEKLY CADENCE
Much like individual agile teams work in sprints, ARTs operate in two-week
segments known as system increments. This regular rhythm facilitates
continuous progress and rapid feedback cycles.
KNOWN VELOCITY
The train's capacity to produce work in a given PI—referred to as velocity—is
derived from historical performance data. By dividing projects into smaller
tasks, teams can prioritize and deliver essential features more effectively.
DEVELOP ON CADENCE, RELEASE ON DEMAND
While development follows a rigid schedule, the release date is flexible and
depends on project completion. This approach allows teams to continuously
provide value to customers without being restricted by fixed release dates.
PROGRAM INCREMENT PLANNING
PI planning is a cornerstone event where all agile teams within the ART come
together, usually in person, to establish strategic objectives for the
upcoming increment. This collaborative planning ensures everyone is aligned
and working towards common goals.
INNOVATION AND PLANNING
At the end of each PI, teams participate in an innovation and planning (IP)
event. This period is dedicated to planning the next increment, engaging in
educational activities, and addressing infrastructure needs.
INSPECT AND ADAPT
To foster continuous improvement, ARTs hold an inspect and adapt (IA) event
at the end of every PI. Teams assess their progress and identify areas for
improvement through a problem-solving workshop, ensuring that they are always
refining their processes and delivering better results.
ROLES IN A SAFE AGILE RELEASE TRAIN
Generally, teams use an ART in a Scrum environment, but, SAFe and agile
release train concepts can apply to any agile methodology, including extreme
programming (XP), Lean, or Kanban. Regardless of your chosen agile
methodology, there are specific roles required to run an ART.
AGILE TEAMS
You can't have an ART without agile teams. Thank you, Captain Obvious. 🙄
One difference between SAFe and traditional Scrum is that ARTs allow you to
operate with teams dedicated to a specific function, like frontend or backend
development, quality assurance, DevOps, security, and business or product
functions. ART itself is cross-functional so your teams don't have to be.
Each team is required to have a Scrum Master and Product Owner, just like in
Scrum.
RELEASE TRAIN ENGINEERS (RTES)
Like Scrum Masters help their team members follow Scrum principles and best
practices, release train engineers are servant leaders who do the same for
the agile release train. RTEs help ensure the proper execution of program
increments, remove blockers, manage risk, and work with the teams on
improvements.
Release train engineers typically report to an Agile Management Office, or in
the case of Lean, the portfolio management team.
PRODUCT MANAGERS
While some traditional Scrum teams use both product managers and product
owners, SAFe operates at such a scale that both roles are required. The
product manager drives the vision, roadmap, and feature backlog while the
product owner is responsible for defining the PI objective with the team and
executing the functionality.
Easy Agile Programs enables Release Train Engineers and Program Managers to
effectively manage programs to deliver alignment at scale.
Try Easy Agile Programs
SYSTEM ARCHITECTS
Again, due to the scale at which SAFe teams operate, a system architect is
required to design the high-level structure of the overall system, determine
how each piece fits into the puzzle, and create stable integration points to
bring data and processes into a centralized ERP.
BUSINESS OWNERS
The business owners are responsible for achieving business outcomes like
revenue or customer acquisition goals. As the primary stakeholder for ARTS,
business owners operate at a strategic level and will participate in vision,
roadmap, and program increment discussions. Their job is to ensure products
are built to meet specific business objectives.
CUSTOMERS
Customers are the ultimate economic buyers or value users of the solution.
Their feedback and needs are critical to the success of the ART.
SYSTEM TEAMS
System teams typically assist in building and maintaining development,
continuous integration, and test environments. They play a crucial role in
ensuring that the infrastructure supports the ART effectively.
SHARED SERVICES
Shared services include specialists necessary for the success of an ART but
who cannot be dedicated to a specific train. These often include data
security experts, information architects, site reliability engineers (SRE),
database administrators (DBAs), and many more.
GET STARTED WITH YOUR AGILE RELEASE TRAIN
So, you're ready to jump on the ART! Great! Let's walk through the steps to
get you started on your journey.
1. START WITH TRAINING
Don't skimp on this one. You likely started your agile practices with some
training. Do the same here. All the hard work and best intentions in the
world can't help you if you don't have a solid understanding of the basics.
Along with training teams, you'll also want to train your leadership teams
and executives. Just like when your company adopted agile principles, you'll
want to make sure you have buy-in, an understanding of how agile release
trains work, and the roles required to support them.
2. IDENTIFY YOUR VALUE STREAMS
There are two types of value streams in SAFe: operational and development. An
operational value stream focuses on delivering the value to end-users that
was created by the development value stream. An example might be fulfilling
an order from an eCommerce website.
A development value stream focuses on developing the business solution, like
building that eCommerce website.
Identifying your value streams is important before selecting individuals and
teams to work on the value stream and filling the additional roles required
for the ART. Once the players have been chosen, you're ready to start
planning.
3. PREPARE THE PROGRAM INCREMENT BACKLOG
It's time to refine your program backlog and get ready for PI planning.
Planning and refining are best when you can meet face-to-face, but sometimes
in large organizations, that's impossible. If you have a distributed team,
make sure you have a good backlog tool like Jira to help facilitate virtual
meetings.
🚨 Looking for the complete PI Planning solution for Jira?
Try Easy Agile Programs
Ideal for distributed, remote or face-to-face Program Increment Planning.
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Create your user stories at the program level to fit in a two-week timebox
and plan your initial release. Until your teams have established a
predictable velocity, leave some wiggle room in the iteration.
4. START THE PROGRAM INCREMENT
Now, it's Scrum as usual. You have your sprint ready to go — just execute it
like normal. At the end of the sprint, you can add your teams' contribution
to the release train.
5. RINSE AND REPEAT
Agile release trains are a continuous, iterative delivery mechanism. Just
like traditional Scrum, your teams will build, release, learn, and then start
building again. Don't forget to schedule an innovation and planning iteration
to give the team a break from the train and time to improve their systems or
their team.
ARE YOU READY TO JUMP ON BOARD?
SAFe and agile release trains help teams maintain agile development practices
as they scale up in size. What may look complicated at first glance is
actually a well-orchestrated process designed for team synchronization
according to business value streams.
Use the Scrum knowledge you have within the individual teams, and then train
in SAFe practices and get prepared to build your first agile release train.
You'll learn by doing but save yourself and your company some headaches and
money and invest in training first.
We've linked to some great learning articles throughout this piece, but here
are a few more to help you jumpstart your SAFe learning:
* The Ultimate Guide to PI Planning [2021 SAFe Edition]
* SAFe Program Board 101: Everything You Need To Know
* Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) 5.0 — The Easy Agile Review
* Streamline your workflows with better PI Planning software
* How to prepare for distributed PI Planning
Good luck on your agile journey and stay SAFe! (Too corny??🤦🏽♀️)
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* Jira
YOUR GUIDE TO USING SCRUM AND KANBAN JIRA BOARDS
Project management has many moving parts, and team collaboration and
integration of these moving parts is quite challenging. Without intuitive
software to guide projects, managers and team members can easily end up
shaking their heads in utter confusion.
Software development and other project management teams need all the help
they can get when managing these complex projects. Enter the Jira board.
Before we delve deeper into the Jira board, please understand that the topics
we cover are just the tip of the iceberg. But unlike the Titanic, there is no
room for disasters here — only streamlining your successes!
In this article, we'll cover what Jira boards are, how to create, configure,
and navigate the boards, and how to approach reporting, project sidebars, the
cross-project board, and using the Scrum and Kanban backlogs.
Adopting Jira boards increases productivity, promotes teamwork, and improves
the overall management of any Scrum or Kanban project.
With this kind of support, it's easy to produce outstanding outcomes.
OVERVIEW OF JIRA BOARDS
The Jira board is an Atlassian creation that has become the go-to tool for
team collaboration. Jira boards are versatile and practical, allowing teams
to streamline their WIP limits and optimize their workflow.
Teams welcome software like Jira to help them control the iterative nature of
their projects. The upshot is that project teams deliver high-quality work
and exceed customer expectations. Not bad, right?
Anyone can create and use either the Scrum or Kanban Jira board to support
their agile methodology and manage iterative, constraining work-in-progress,
and monitoring of project processes for optimum value-driven outcomes.
There are two Jira boards: one for each of the Scrum and Kanban agile
methodologies. Each software automation board provides an overview of the
project, making it easy to see a status snapshot of the work in progress.
Scrum teams work in sprints where individuals must complete tasks in
realistic timeframes. Team members capture all backlogs, sprints, and reports
on their boards, making work collaboration and integration more
straightforward.
Similarly, teams using the Kanban agile methodology get to experience the
benefits of Jira boards and reduce their amount of work. Kanban boards also
focus primarily on the backlog and reporting functions.
However, the difference between the boards for these agile methodologies is
that Scrum highlights iterative work, and Kanban focuses on the workflow,
which means managing the workload through work constraints.
KEY FEATURES AND PRACTICES OF A KANBAN BOARD
VISUAL WORKFLOW REPRESENTATION
Kanban boards use columns to represent distinct phases of a workflow. Each
column signifies a step in the process, from task inception to completion.
This visual representation helps teams understand their capacity and manage
their workload effectively.
CONTINUOUS FLOW
One of the key principles of Kanban is maintaining a continuous flow of
tasks. Unlike other methodologies that rely on fixed iterations, Kanban
encourages the progression of tasks through each workflow stage in a steady,
uninterrupted manner.
WORK IN PROGRESS (WIP) LIMITS
Setting WIP limits is critical in Kanban practice. This means capping the
number of tasks that can occupy a column simultaneously. By doing so, teams
can pinpoint bottlenecks and inefficiencies more easily, facilitating
smoother task transitions and more predictable delivery times.
TASK CARDS
Each task or work item is represented by a card on the board. These cards can
include details such as descriptions, deadlines, assignees, and priority
levels. This allows team members to quickly grasp the status and requirements
of each task.
CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT
Kanban promotes continuous improvement (Kaizen) through regular reviews and
feedback loops. Teams are encouraged to consistently evaluate their processes
and outcomes to identify areas for enhancement.
FLEXIBILITY AND CUSTOMIZATION
Kanban boards can be tailored to fit the unique workflows and requirements of
any team. From customizing columns to aligning WIP limits, teams have the
freedom to configure the board to best suit their specific needs and goals.
KEY FEATURES AND PRACTICES OF A SCRUM BOARD
SCRUM BOARD
This board is great for teams that like to work in sprints, or time-boxed
periods when a team works to complete a set amount of work.
SCRUM
Ideology: Learn through experiences and reflect on wins and losses to
improve.
Cadence: Regular, fixed-length sprints (i.e., two weeks).
SELECT FEATURES
* Insights: Use insights to optimize sprint planning, make daily stand-ups
more meaningful, and improve delivery velocity.
* Backlog: The backlog is home to all of your team's potential work items
for the project.
* Sprint: A sprint is a time-boxed period when a scrum team works to
complete a set amount of work. Create a sprint, define its goals, and add
all the issues from the backlog that your team intends to complete during
a sprint.
NAVIGATING THE SCRUM AND KANBAN JIRA BOARDS
A Jira board shows everything you need to know about a software project. You
need a board to track team software activities and collaborate accountably.
As any team member knows, this is the backbone of working well together.
In case it isn’t yet clear, these boards help you achieve those goals.
Both these methodologies work for Jira boards, whether your focus is on
sprints or constraining the current work.
If you select Kanban for your project, you must enable the backlog feature.
Whichever methodology your team prefers, you can use the issue detail view to
determine progress immediately and enhance functionality.
Let’s take a look at what the Jira board offers.
1. JIRA SOFTWARE BOARD CREATION
Once you start a project, the software creates a Jira board template
automatically. You will need to activate the “Create Shared Objects” feature
to allow access to the new board. Alternatively, you can use the 'View All
Boards' feature to copy an existing board.
You don’t need to adjust sharing permissions for an existing project board,
as the software automatically creates a board for a new project. Once you
create your new project, you add the relevant team members to the Jira board.
You also don’t need sharing permission if you copy a board, as all the
original users can automatically access the copy until you make changes in
line with permission parameters.
However, you’ll use the same issue filter when copying an existing board. You
will be the board's administrator, but you may want to select a new filter,
as you can't change the original one. Additionally, you can create custom
fields to sync with project requirements.
Remember — choose one methodology before you create a board, as it is not
possible to switch after starting a new project.
After creating a board, you can share the link with the team, which you will
find under the “View All Boards” tab. Best of all, you save all your projects
in the Jira software cloud, lowering overall project risks and saving space.
2. BOARD CONFIGURATION
Configuration allows you to express your creativity in new and practical ways
that benefit the overall project. Only Jira or board administrators can
configure Jira boards.
You get to customize the board to align with project outcomes, and you have
several configuration options to meet your goals.
You can literally configure everything on the Jira board, from the filters to
the ranking, columns, swimlanes, issue detail view, and other elements. This
is your chance to shine as you use the tool to express your creative side.
Have fun mapping the workflow on the board. Keep track of statuses, and use
color to enhance the board’s readability so everyone on the team can see what
they need to do and when. Plus, board configuration is intuitive, making it
enjoyable to use this software.
3. USING THE SCRUM BACKLOG
In the backlog, you have two sections — the sprints and the backlog. You can
create issues and keep these current or delete them when complete.
Because Jira is user-friendly, you can drag and drop any issue into rankings,
sprints, organizing stories into epics, or anywhere else you wish to assign
them.
Only specific issues are visible in this section. For instance, issues such
as sub-tasks or those that sync with a saved filter are visible. But if you
map the status of all the issues to a specific column such as a Done column,
they won’t be visible in this section.
When planning a backlog, note that various functions have different
permission requirements. Only project administrators can initiate sprints,
for example, but they can grant permissions to others.
4. ACTIVE SPRINTS
The Scrum board uses active sprints, whereas Kanban uses a “monitoring work”
feature. Active sprints on the Scrum board deal with current teamwork
iterations. As with the planning mode, administrators can manage issues,
dragging and dropping them into the workflow or elsewhere as necessary.
These boards update twice every minute, and the same concept applies as in
the plan mode. Some issues on the active sprints will be visible, and others
will be invisible. Software developers should be able to figure out the
differences quickly, since they deal with this kind of thing regularly.
Again, this part of the Jira board is comprehensive. active sprints allow you
to generate and move issues to different columns. Managing active sprints
keeps the project current and informs team members of the status of each
issue, whether in transition, flagged, or if there is a change in its
ranking.
5. GETTING FAMILIAR WITH THE KANBAN BACKLOG
Image credit: Atlassian
Remember that the Kanban backlog is only accessible when the software
administrator enables this feature for an assignee.
A small number of issues are easy to manage in this section, but as these
increase, it becomes more challenging to address them. This excess volume of
issues is a nightmare without software, but you can escape this drama with
ease. Easy Agile has a suite of products aimed at helping you manage project
issues.
Administrators can create and plan their Kanban project as they want by
moving the issues to the hidden Versions section or Epics in the expanded
panel. You can also move issues between this section and the “Selected for
Development” areas per planning requirements.
Like Scrum, some project board issues in Kanban will be visible or invisible.
Visibility and invisibility of issues primarily depend on filter, issue
matches, and this section's status.
Team members can concentrate their efforts on their current work separate
from the planning section to avoid distraction. The separation of these
elements helps team members to focus on issues that need immediate attention.
But none of this information should come as a surprise, as Atlassian has
invested more than a decade into developing precision software to make your
job much easier.
6. KANBAN MONITORING
Instead of active sprints, Kanban monitors project progress on its principle
of continuous delivery. The project administrator tracks tasks and works in
progress to ensure that team members stay in control of their software
development.
Use this board if your team focuses on managing and constraining
work-in-progress.
Many other actions are possible on this project board, including estimating
stories (this is one of the really fun parts), user stories, creating
sub-tasks, filtering, releasing, and hiding issues.
As team members complete tasks, the administrator pulls new ones from the
work in progress section to constrain pressure and support quality
deliveries.
Like active sprints, the administrator can prioritize and rank issues for
their Kanban project.
The Kanban software administrator can also maintain complete control over a
board or allow specific permissions for editing, as with the other board.
Ultimately, the Kanban board presents a bird’s eye view of the project in
progress, allowing for close monitoring of issues at any point.
As hinted at earlier, little of the project board’s potential can be
explained in one article. If you want to upskill yourself on this software,
many sources can help you achieve your goal.
7. REPORTING
One of the most fundamental aspects of projects is reporting (as y’all should
know). Luckily, Atlassian allows for a comprehensive reporting function on
Jira boards for both Scrum and Kanban.
Some of the Scrum reports include the burndown, burnup, and sprint charts.
You will also find control charts, epic reports, the cumulative flow diagram,
velocity chart, and a version report available, among others.
Kanban reporting features encompass the control chart and the cumulative flow
diagram.
Additional general reports like the recently created issues report, time
tracking report, and many others are available for general issue analyses.
The change log and status report are available in Confluence if you connect
your Jira software to other programs.
As you can see, reporting is an inherent feature of the Jira board, which
helps you connect with and inform everyone of a project position at any
point.
8. USING THE PROJECT SIDEBAR
The project sidebar on the top-right of the board is your go-to section for
everything about your project.
Select any tab in the project’s sidebar to view the backlog, reports, or
anything relating to the current project. You can view most project details
from this starting point, including epics, stories, issues, and more
specifics.
Get familiar with the instant filter in the backlog to search for issues with
a search term such as “issue type” or “issue key.”
A quick filter is also available to narrow your search for software work
items that you are handling, including WIP limits, use cases, and more,
adding to the overall versatility of the Jira board.
It should be clear by now that these boards are as creative and versatile as
any project team — take advantage of the opportunity to up the ante.
9. THE CROSS-PROJECT BOARD
A Jira board may include access to a software project add-on that does not
work with Jira software. Either methodology board might also have multiple
projects.
When you see additional projects linked to a software board, you can navigate
to the one that interests you. Select the project header and choose the
cross-project tab, which will enable you to view project details in the
sidebar.
Alternatively, you can navigate to a cross-project from the top-right board
header. Using this option means that you won’t see details since the program
cannot read project info from this perspective.
ADOPTING THE JIRA BOARD: A NEW WORLD OF POSSIBILITIES
If you’re looking at improving team collaboration, project software
integration, and management, the Jira board offers a new world of
possibilities.
When you want your team to master a popular agile methodology, the Jira board
promotes learning and productivity, whether you opt to use Kanban or Scrum.
If you want to become an expert in Atlassian Jira software boards, take your
projects to a new level with Easy Agile apps for Jira.
Easy Agile apps such as Easy Agile TeamRhythm, Roadmaps, and Easy Agile
Programs make it practical and simple to engage with Jira boards by offering
flexible and collaborative solutions.
Software developers also get the benefit behind years of developing these
apps to support the creation of quality solutions for their clients.
Read more
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