Release represented on multiple projects

Question

We have set up our Jira as follows: 1 project (we call it PLAN) that houses all epics. Each of our product teams have their own projects (probably upwards of 20 different projects). Each project team houses their user stories that get associated to one of the epics in the PLAN project. When a story completes, the release gets associated to a story. There could be several stories from the same project associated with the epic in PLAN or stories from several different projects associated with the epic in PLAN. It's possible that some or none of the stories will have a release on it depending on if the release on the epic speaks for everything associated with it.

We are struggling with how to manage and report the releases with the set up we have. We have looked into advanced roadmaps, but not sure that is a solution for us or not. Any ideas are welcoming.

Yuri Lapin _Release Management_ · Answer

Hi @Sonya Petkunas

Trust you are well.

Yeah. I understand the challenge.  I presume you use company-managed projects so Epics could accommodate stories from multiple projects. This is also a proper use case. With releases you can't do it as they are bound to project only.

Two suggestions here:

* use cross-project releases in Advanced Roadmaps (since you are on premium plan you should have it). There you can a single release that will be span through all associated projects. Practically it will be same release created in all the projects. But you will save on creating one by one, calling it the same and change it again when required. Cross-Project release will do it for you.
* might look into our Release Management App where we have flexible Release Taxonomy. We also support cross-project releases plus ability to package things into meta-Releases. Thus you can create a Package of cross-peoject release plus couple of Epics you plan to deliver and track how you progress towards the goal.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Yuri.

Danut M _StonikByte_ · Answer

Hi @Sonya Petkunas,

Please take a look over these articles from our blog:

* How to track multi-team or scaled-agile projects (such as SAFe®) in Jira with Great Gadgets app 
* Cross-teams release burndown chart in Jira with Great Gadgets app

As you can see, with our Great Gadgets app you can track the progress and do reporting at both the global release level and at the team level.

Release Level. Assuming that you have a release in which one or more epics from PLAN are included, you can create a Jira filter that includes all the stories within these epics (from all the projects). Then configure the gadgets by using this filter. This way, you will have overall Release Burndown Chart and global Velocity Chart, for your release/epics.

Team Level. Assuming that you have teams that work on one or more projects, and they have their own agile boards in Jira, they can configure a dashboard for tracking their team progress. This includes for example, Sprint Burndown or Team Velocity.

I hope this helps. If you need any help, please don't hesitate to contact us as support@stonikbyte.com.

Thank you,

Danut Manda