Improving Team Collaboration with Time in Status Reports: Product Version Release

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What timeframe do you choose most often to evaluate your team's performance? A week, a month, a sprint is how most managers answer you. What metrics do you choose most often? The ratio of estimation to the fact, the number of worklogs, the amount of money spent on development, etc. There are many options. The main thing is that you get a high-quality assessment result, get valuable insights, and improve your workflow.

Today, let's try another rather attractive analysis option. Let's choose the time period it takes to develop one product version and use the popular Time in Status metric to analyze the team's productivity.

What is version in Jira

In Jira, versions are used to track different iterations of a project or product. A version can represent a major release, a minor update, or a specific milestone in the development process. Each version is associated with issues, which can be viewed and managed on the version's page.  

Versions can be used to:

• Plan and track the progress of a release
• Schedule and prioritize work for a specific release
• Track changes and fixes made to a release
• Report on the status of a release 

To create a version in Jira, follow these steps: 

1. Go to your project.
2. In the project menu, select "Releases."
3. Click on the "Create version" button.
4. Enter the version's name in the "Name" text box. You can also schedule a start and/or release date and add a description.
5. Click "Save."

It is common to name versions using numeric values such as 1.0 or 2.1.1. Alternatively, you could use an internal codename.

The number of versions you create is entirely up to you and depends on your project's needs. You might choose to create several versions to plan ahead or only need one or two versions for now.

Once you've created a version, the Affects version and Fix version fields will become available on your issues. 

The Affects version field allows you to indicate which version a bug or problem was found in. While this field can be useful for tracking issues, it's not commonly used in Jira.

The Fix version field, on the other hand, is where you can specify which version a feature or bug fix will be released in. Jira widely uses this field for release planning, monitoring progress and velocity, and reporting. It's likely the field you'll use most often.

Setting up the Time in Status app to analyze team productivity by product version

Now that we've figured out what versions are and how to configure them let's see how to work with them in the Time in Status app.

First, install the app mentioned above. Next, go to the Jira filter and create a selection for a specific version.

Then, go to the app and create reports on the saved filter.

Time in Status Report

Interpreting the results of the Time in Status report in Jira requires an understanding of the data presented in the table and the ability to identify trends, patterns, and areas for improvement. 

Here are some tips for interpreting the results of the Time in Status report: 

1. Look at how much time issues are spent in each status to identify bottlenecks or areas where they get stuck. For example, if issues take a long time in the "In Progress" status, it could indicate that the team is struggling to complete the work or is more complex than initially anticipated.
2. Consider the context of the data when interpreting the results. For example, if the team was working on a particularly complex or high-priority issue, it might have skewed the results of the Time in Status report.
3. Use the insights you've gained from the Time in Status report to make data-driven decisions about improving the team's performance in future versions. For example, adjust the team's workflow to eliminate bottlenecks, provide additional training and resources to team members struggling with certain types of issues, or prioritize high-impact issues to improve the team's velocity.

Use the Pivot table feature to group the data by criteria such as issue type, assignee, or priority. This can help you identify trends and patterns specific to certain types of issues or team members.

For example, you can create a filter for two versions and generate a report in the pivot table showing the number of hours spent in statuses broken down by Assignee. This way, you will see how the amount of time developers spend working in different versions differs and be able to analyze these differences qualitatively.

You can also estimate the total time in statuses by version in a tabular report or chart view.

Average Time in Status Report

This report shows the average time for each status. The metrics allow you to divide the development period into days, weeks, and months and get average values accordingly. This way, you can identify whether the development process was stable, whether there were any days when there were delays, etc.

Status Entrance Date Report

With this report, you can illustrate each task's timeline and see which days it changed status. This way, you can ensure that you are planning releases correctly (considering the size and complexity of the issue), that tasks are moving through each workflow stage on time, and so on.

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By setting up the Time in Status app in Jira and creating reports based on specific versions, you can identify bottlenecks, trends, and areas for improvement.

The Time in Status, Average Time in Status, and Status Entrance Date reports can help you understand how much time is spent in each status, the stability of the development process, and the timeline of each task. Additionally, using the Pivot table feature can help you identify patterns specific to certain types of issues or team members.

Take action now and install the Time in Status to analyze your team's productivity and improve your workflow.