Release shared across company managed projects

[donhames]

Hello Atlassians! I know this question has been asked a dozen times, but I'm going to ask it one more time. :)

I understand how the planning project can involve multiple teams and display all teams' issues on the same timeline. This is great.

I also understand there is a cross-project release function in the plan under releases. This seems to align with the direction I want to pursue. Each team has its release naming scheme, and the cross-project release combines all teams' releases into a single master release.

The problem is that this concept does not go far enough. The cross-project release doesn't seem to have much utility beyond displaying it on the releases page in a plan. I need an actual cross-project release or a way for team projects to share a master release in a shared project. I need to be able to track the cross-project release with the same granularity as I do with the release within a single project.

It's the old Microsoft Office example. Microsoft Office includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more, each of which is its own product with its own releases. But when released as Microsoft Office, there is only one overarching release, like 16.0.

Has anyone found a way to replicate this in Jira? I'm not the only one with this requirement. If you can't share releases between projects and the cross-project release in the plan is just window dressing that cannot be stored in a project or queried, what are the options to solve this requirement?

I appreciate your input and will be delighted to be wowed with your solution. :)

[Danut M _StonikByte_ · Accepted solution]

Hi @donhames,

As far as I know, sharing releases across projects is supported in the Plans (aka Advanced Roadmaps) feature, which is available in the Jira Cloud Premium subscription.

But if you don't have a good method of tracking overall progress (across all projects, not on a project basis), you could look for a cross-project release burndown chart offered by apps from Atlassian Marketplace. If you consider this idea, our Great Gadgets app offers a Release Burndown Burnup Chart gadget that lets you see the progress and makes ETA forecast based on overall cross-team velocity.     

See also these article: https://community.atlassian.com/forums/App-Central-articles/Creating-a-cross-teams-release-burndown-chart-in-Jira-with-Great/ba-p/1803421

Hope this helps.

Danut.

[donhames]

@Danut M _StonikByte_  Thank you for your reply. We love and use Great Gadgets, so I want to give this one a try. Is this gadget you described using the cross-project release in the Jira Plan Release? If not, what should be included in the filter to give data to the gadget?

Thanks!

[Danut M _StonikByte_]

Hi @donhames,

No, the gadget does not have any link to Plans. 

You should configure it with a filter/JQL that includes all the issues (stories, tasks, etc) from all the projects/teams working on the global release. It's up to you what JQL to use. 

For example, if you have a same value for the "Fix version/s" field across all projects, such as "Release 1.0", then you should configure with a JQL like this:

"Fix version/s" = "Release 1.0" 

Then, set the timeline. Custom dates, or by using the dates of one of the project releases. And that's it, you should get the overall burndown displayed.

Danut

[David Wuth]

@Danut M _StonikByte_  We just recently purchased Great Gadgets and really love what we can do with them. We have implemented the burndown gadget for all of our product releases, including releases that include multiple Jira projects, each with their own fixversion.

However, one key feature missing from the burndown gadget is the ability to click on one of the lines and link that to issues in Jira. For example: we would like to be able to see what issues were added to the scope when we see the scope line jump on one specific date/sprint.

[donhames]

@David Wuth, I just built a Dashboard using the Release Burndown Burnup Chart gadget, created a filter to pull all the releases for the cross-project release, and it works perfectly! I created a Plan Cross-Project Release that included the same releases that the filter captures. I know it's more for visualization than tracking, but it's nice to have the Cross-Project Release and Release Burndown Burnup Chart gadgets reporting on the same issues.

I do agree that the ability to click on one of the lines and see the issues behind it would be ideal. But this has allowed me to move farther down the street than I was before, so thank you again.

[Benjamin]

HI Don,

Once upon a time, I was tracking releases through a Kanban board for multiple projects by adding a JQL query to capture multiple projects. Then tagged them accordingly to their release, so I view which tasks were for what release. All the other projects would work within their own projects with a scrum board.

There are other tools out there that would provide more capability and flexibility. However, at that time, we were limited on tooling based on budget and company needs.

Here's a post that cover marketplace add-ons that may address a solution to your needs.

https://community.atlassian.com/forums/Jira-Cloud-Admins-discussions/Release-management-across-different-jira-projects/td-p/1432145

All the best!