One User Story, Multiple Projects and Activities

Question

Hi Everyone,

I am working with the Development team at my firm to better manage an implementation in Jira. I have made several observations based on how things are currently structured:

* While Epics exist in Jira, User Stories do not
* Detailed Requirements are being tracked as Issues
* Detailed Requirements are spread across three projects, each of which represents a different function of the Development team (e.g., User Experience, User Interface)

The solution I have proposed to Development is the following:

* Add User Stories into Jira
* Convert Issues into Sub-Tasks
* Combine all three projects

The feedback I have received from the Development team so far is that by combining the projects and converting the issues into sub-tasks, the team will have a challenge with assigning and deploying tasks effectively (i.e., everything is jumbled up together).

Does anyone have thoughts on this? Perhaps some potential workarounds that will meet the needs of all stakeholders?

Thanks in advance!

unknown · Answer

Good luck @James Edmond

James Edmond · Answer

Thanks, Danny. This is helpful. Your point about the project running on team tasks rather than focusing on the end user is spot on. I think it would be more effective for the groups to be product-focused, but I think this will be a complete culture shift, which will be a huge part of the discussion. Nonetheless, I am glad we are on the same page.

Hope to come out of this with good news!

unknown · Answer

Hmm, difficult question as you want to change certain mindsets and how teams work. My advice would be to look at the following;

* Make sure your organisation agrees on some working standards; people want to do work their own way without thinking about the bigger picture: this results in more overhead.
* Make sure each team has a clear process. Test the process by asking, “After an issue is created, what do you do?” If team members have different answers, it proves they did not have a process. Teams need define their process for you to be able to give them what they need. If the process sounds similar to the other teams this could be an opportunity to condense the teams into fewer projects.

It sounds like the projects run on a basis of tasks for the team, not products for end users. Would collaboration, and the resolution of issues, on products and their sub-tasks be more effective using a product-based approach rather than team-based tasks?

Does each project have quality control? How is quality control handled when integrating products? If you have quality control running on each project separately is this not a waste of effort when each aspect of the product needs to be integrated, since integration of work causes issues that may have not been present before.

Does this cause more work for users working across multiple projects?

Hope this helps.