How to use Jira for a Repeatable business process

[Won Lee]

Hello,

My company has a team that is responsible for customized software installs of a product we own.  Currently that team manages all their tasks via spread sheets.  They do a good job, but they would consider using a tool that would help them with the project management.  I have used BPMN tools for something like in the past but am considering Jira since we already have a cloud account.  I looked up how others would solve this problem and nothing really fits my use case perfectly. 

Here is my exact use case.  Sales person calls the install team on Monday and says "I'm close to signing the contracts for Client A, be ready to kick off the install phase in the near future.  don't know when exactly."  The install team has two sets of work: a bucket of known and repeatable steps and a second bucket of unknown steps that is discovered in one of the steps from bucket 1.  Then on Wed, a different sales person calls and says that Client B is about to sign their contract.  the install team has the bucket 1 but a different bucket 2.

Asking the install team to create same user stories/tasks for Client A and Client B is a turn off to use Jira Software.  Asking them to clone and move issues is also not viable.   I also looked using Jira Work Management and that is just Jira Software with another skin on top of it.  I need a way to quickly setup bucket 1 for them for each new client.  They understand that they would need to create issues for bucket 2

Any one use Jira for this use case?  

[Trudy Claspill · Accepted solution]

Hello @Won Lee 

Welcome to the community.

I had a similar use case at a previous employer.

What we opted to do was set up one Jira Software Company Managed project. In that project we would create one Epic per Client. In that Epic we would create an issue (we used the Story issue type) for each task.

To make it easier to pre-load the set of fixed, known, repeatable tasks, I kept that list of tasks in a CSV file and then would use the CSV import process to add that set of tasks to a new Epic that was manually created for the client. Any additional work that was discovered would be added manually as Stories under that Epic for that client.

If you don't like the idea of having to manage that CSV file and import the issue, and if you are open to paying for a third party app then you could look at apps that would extend the Cloning functionality. There are some that allow you to clone Epics with their child issues, and some that enable you to clone projects.

https://marketplace.atlassian.com/search?hosting=cloud&product=jira&query=clone

With regard to "emailing the next team", Jira has built in Notification processes that can be configured, and if those don't provide enough functionality then you might be able to construct what you need with Automation Rules .

[Won Lee]

Thanks for the answers, Trudy.  

Can we do notifications to a Jira-team instead of individuals?  I can't seem to find that option.

[Won Lee]

So the one project and having each client an epic is an interesting solution.  If you had to do it over again, would you do it that way or have a different project for each client?  I ask because my plan is to have separate project but roll the data up in an advanced roadmap/plan because I do need to see the status of all the clients in a single view.

[Trudy Claspill]

Are you talking about the Teams you created in Advanced Roadmaps, and can assign to a Team field in an issue?

Or are you talking about the Teams that can be created under the People menu?

If the latter, no, you can't send notifications to Teams created under the People menu.

If the former, I am not sure if you can send notifications to Teams created in Advanced Roadmaps. I would have to do research on that, as I have not worked much with Advanced Roadmaps.

If it is not possible, an alternative is to set up Project Roles, one for each team, and add the team members to those roles. You can send notifications based on Project Roles. Or, set up User Groups for each team and send notifications to the User Groups.

[Won Lee]

I meant the people menu but I'm open to other options.  Thanks for the quick answer.

[Trudy Claspill]

The Teams in the People menu can't currently be used for anything related to notifications, issue fields, automations, etc.

So, the options I know would work would be using Project Roles and User Groups. And I'm not sure about the Teams in Advanced Roadmaps (which is available in your Premium subscription).

[Won Lee]

The install team has 3 sub teams.  All the work in Bucket 1, the known work, is always assigned to the same sub team.  So they would like all of that done automatically too.  as well as email the next team when a user story/task is done.