A restraint in JIRA making it impossible to add tasks to a sprint without story points?

Question

I know this is trying to fix an issue, which would probably be "easier" done just by doing the right thing. The issue is, that sometimes our developers need to make subtasks into main tasks and drag them into the sprint, as well as making new tasks on behalf of ongoing work with third parties. They're suppose to do ad hoc refinement and issue story points for these tasks, but once in a while they just fail to do so.

I have tried finding the answer elsewhere without much luck: Is it possible to make a restraint on sprints, so that tasks can not be dragged into them IF they do not have any story points on them?

Johan Agerlund Hansen · Answer

Thank you for the idea :-) If I were to do a brand new board that would probably work, but I have en existing backlog of 200+ items without points. The proposed solution would give us more work than "just" remembering to do it. I was looking for a quick fix restraint on the "sprint" more than an adjustment of the workflow.

Though I DO appreciate the answer and I might use it later on.

Tarun Sapra · Answer

There can be various opinions as to how to do it. But I will follow the simpler approach. Basically have first two steps in the story workflow as refinement and then on the 3rd step onward it should be the backlog on the sprint board and the dev team which can work on the stories. Add a validation on the second step that the story can't move to 3rd step (scrum backlog) until the story points field is present.

Thus, first two steps will constitute their own kanban like boards wherein the stories can be refined. I have implemented a 3 steps kanban board (open, in refinement, refinement done) and once the refinement is done then the story actually appears on the scrum backlog or the scum board. As this approach also give an opportunity to the POs to discuss and refine stories instead of pushing it directly down the throat of devs :)