Syncing Jira backlog with Advanced Roadmaps?

[Robb Robins]

Hi - I apologize if this was already addressed somewhere. Two related questions:

1. After moving a few stories between sprints in the Jira backlog yesterday, I noticed that Advanced Roadmaps is not syncing with the changes I made. I know in Live Plans I had to push the Calculate button in order to sync, but I can't figure out how to do it in the Improved Interface.
2. The "Team" field in Advanced Roadmaps is not syncing with Jira. 

Would appreciate any pointers or suggestions on how to sync! Thanks!

[Walter Buggenhout]

Hi @Robb Robins,

About your first question, the new interface of advanced roadmaps uses formal target dates which are stored in custom fields (e.g. target start and end of start date and due date). Whereas in live plans the timelines were calculated all the time, the new plan builds its roadmap from those dates. And indeed, updating a sprint does not automatically update those dates.

It is possible to leave the dates unset and use sprint dates for issues with no date set. Have a look at this article (the section about sprint dates more specifically) on how that should work. It is a Data Center article, but in my Cloud instance, I see the same behaviour.

About your second question: the teams in your plan must be shared teams in order to synchronise to Jira. Local teams from a plan will indeed not appear in Jira. For more information, see the documentation.  

[Robb Robins]

Hi @Walter Buggenhout 

I do in fact have it set to use sprint dates for issues with no date set. Are you saying that if this is checked in my settings that it should sync between Jira and Advanced Roadmaps new interface?

Also also do have these teams designated as shared teams.

[Walter Buggenhout]

Hi @Robb Robins,

I have an instance at my disposal and dates do get updated when I move issues to a different sprint. To be entirely correct: the due date gets updated (not the start date). 

Issues that get their dates from sprints are marked with an S lozenge alongside the dates:

[Robb Robins]

Hi @Walter Buggenhout 

Interesting. Both of my dates (the start and due dates, marked with an S) are when I change the sprint:

I still am not getting the latest data from Jira to update Advanced Roadmaps. Perhaps I will file a support ticket and see if this is a bug on my end

[Walter Buggenhout]

There is one more thing I can think of to check, @Robb Robins. Can you make sure that the scrum board that holds the sprint you are assigning issues to in Jira is set as (one of) the issue source(s) of your plan? If that were not the case, your plan would not be aware of the existence of those sprints, I reckon ...

[Robb Robins]

Correct! I have our Board as the issue source for my plan in Advanced Roadmaps.

I raised a support ticket. We'll see if there's a fix I'm missing! Thanks for your help @Walter Buggenhout 

[Dave]

Hi @Robb Robins,

First think I wanted to check is that you're using the "Review Changes" button to save the changes back to the Jira issues?

I'm pretty sure you are doing this but just wanted to check!

Based on your other comments it sounds like you're just setting sprints rather than dates. There is a configurable option in the plan to use the start and end dates of sprints to render issues on the timeline - but this does not actually change the date fields on the issue.

If you want to save those dates on the issue then you actually have to edit the date fields or drag the issue on the timeline. 

The reason that the date fields are in italics and marked with that "S" is to indicate that the dates inferred from a sprint. If you hover over the "S" a tooltip will explain this is the case.

I hope that makes sense!

Regards,

Dave

[Robb Robins]

Hi @Dave !

Just to be clear, I am wanting to sync changes I made in Jira to Advanced Roadmaps. For example, yesterday I moved a story from sprint 138 to sprint 139 in the Jira backlog. I want that change to be reflected in Advanced Roadmaps but it doesn't appear to be in sync. AR still lists the story as residing in sprint 138.

I also want other fields to be in sync (e.g. the Teams custom field, as per my related question).

Up to this point I have not clicked "Review Changes" in Advanced Roadmaps since it doesn't reflect the plan I want to push to Jira. I am assuming it would move the stories I mentioned in the first paragraph back to sprint 138.

[Dave]

Hi @Robb Robins,

Thanks for the clarification.... so the synchronisation is typically pushed from the plan to the issues (when you Review Changes and Save to Jira), and when you update the issue it will be reflected in the plan.

However, one possible reason why you might not see the change is that you have a pending change (what we call a scenario change) in the plan.

So say for example in a plan I update Issue-1 to be assigned to Sprint-1 but don't save that change to Jira and then on an issue details screen I change the sprint I won't see that change I made on the issue displayed in my plan because it is superseded by scenario change.

If you don't have any pending scenario changes and you're not seeing an update to an issue reflected in a plan then that sounds like a bug.

Regards,

Dave

[Robb Robins]

Hi @Dave - I think this is the answer I am looking for. It makes sense now that if I have pending changes in Advanced Roadmaps that it would not accept any updates coming from the Jira backlog until I have either cleared all pending changes or pushed all pending changes in AR.

Sounds like an argument in favor of reviewing and pushing changes often, rather than letting them pile up!

Thanks for your help!

[Dave]

Hi @Robb Robins,

Yes, I'd definitely recommend reviewing and pushing changes often! I'm glad we were able to get to the bottom of this!

Regards,

Dave