Portfolio for for JIRA : - defects or bugs how to handle them and put on the PoJ Plan

[Dipak Naokar]

Hi all,

Here is the use case.

Each software that is released to the customer will have the customer reported defects or bugs. (That is eminent and zero defect delivery is impossible).

My estimation method (unit) is "days"  not "story points".

The company releases new version of the product every quarter.

So, once I close all the "bugs" in the 1Q20 release, the customers will start reporting new bugs on the newly release version. That means, "backlog of bugs" will never be zero.

 Now there is a company that has 4 teams. One team is tasked with fixing the customer reported bugs (call them as fixer-team) and they use the kanban board. Other 3 teams are working on the fresh development (or enhancement). So other 3 teams are working on the story / epic. The first team is working on the issue type bugs.  For sake of simplicity, let us assume that we put "default estimate as 1 day for each bug).

I have seen the documents and videos , those are available for the Portfolio. And nowhere there is mention about handling the bugs on the "Portfolio" ( Plan, schedule, scope, reports etc).

These are the links that I have tried: ( I have seen several other,  but listing only few as below).

https://www.atlassian.com/webinars/software/get-started-with-portfolio-for-jira?_ga=2.201748369.1624200712.1578546594-2060746936.1576157715

https://confluence.atlassian.com/jiraportfoliocloud/portfolio-for-jira-home-715263250.html

Using PoJ, I wish to achieve the following.

Assume that , I have the huge product backlog , that will keep all my teams busy for next 6 months. ( Backlog - covers : bugs, stories and epics ) 

Create "One initiative" to cover the fresh development (or enhancement), and run 3 sprints in parallel using Scrum Board. Create "Second initiative" ,  with kanban board for "the fixer-team".  Assume each of my team has 9 members. So my capacity is 36 person-weeks (for each week).

I wish to see the "plan" from the PoJ that should cover all my capacity (36 team members) and all my scope bugs, stories and epics

Using all these 3 issue types ( bugs, stories and epics), I want to see my road-map for next 1 quarter (3 months). For simplicity , assume that my backlog of defects is 100 count as on today , and few more are  reported from different sources on daily basis. 

Questions:

Q1. Whether PoJ has this kind of facility ?

Q2. If yes, is there any standard document / training / how to video ?

If there is no such facility, then how to handle this "bug fixes" kanban board and show them on the capacity planning for the PoJ.

The senior management want to see the single view from the only source of truth, for all the team and all the work happening under this program. 

Regards,

Dipak

[Earl McCutcheon]

Hi @Dipak Naokar ,

I'd be Happy to take a look, and I am covering a lot of information so I broke your comments out into sections to make sure I covered all the points.  I am pretty sure I got it all but let me know if I missed something.

On the comment you had about how Bugs are handled:

I have seen the documents and videos , those are available for the Portfolio. And nowhere there is mention about handling the bugs on the "Portfolio" ( Plan, schedule, scope, reports etc).

In Jira a Bug is technically just another Story as the hierarchy is defined, the naming convention is for a human readable interpretation of the intention of the issue type and all standard issue types will be reflected at the story level in the hierarchy, as long as that issue types is defined in the project set for the plans source, and has not been mapped as an initiative.

There are only three issue types that can be configured: Epic, Standard (includes story, bug, feature, suggestion etc...) and then Sub-task.  As the Hierarchy is defined in portfolio the mappings will be like the following Noting the Story level is the Standard type, and there is just a naming terminology overlap to align with agile methodologies with these types:

• Initiatives (Standard issue type mapped to the higher level by portfolio using the Parent Link field)
  • Epic (Epic Issue Type)
    • Story (All Standard issue types)
      • Sub Task (Subtask issue types)

Next for your scenario you are looking to plan against:

 I want to see my road-map for next 1 quarter (3 months). For simplicity , assume that my backlog of defects is 100 count as on today , and few more are  reported from different sources on daily basis.

First, and correct me if I am reading this incorrectly, but to summarize it sounds like you are looking for a way to have the plan adjust the scheduling factors to align with a defined date range, EXE. set a completion date and all issues in the scope are confined to this timeframe.  Is this the correct assessment?

If so there is not a possibility to use constraints to define the variables, the variables must be set to define the schedule and there is not an option to confine all issues to a specific range but rather the scope will show all issues defined in the source and arranges them within the schedule based on defined variables covered in "Scheduling behavior".  This is so you can see what can be done with defined variables and adjust those variables, such as capacity (i.e. add more people to complete), or rearrange priorities etc. 

While you cannot make the plan tell you what the variables should be to fit a defined range you can adjust that various time range variables in the scheduling factor and reflect the outcome as overbooked to identify issues that need to be readressed. 

You can also adjust filters Such as the "Schedule range" Scope filter.  Setting the range visibility to show only issues that can be completed in the quarter.  This isolates the issues in the timeline to a specific focus area, but there will still be issues falling outside the scope when the filter is deselected.

Lastly, to address your concern over:

The senior management want to see the single view from the only source of truth, for all the team and all the work happening under this program. 

There is a Feature that would help you out here but it is not avaliable in the portfolio cloud version at this time, and is only released to Server currently as part of the improved interface and is not yet avaliable for JIra Cloud, The feature "Programs", is a collection of Plans grouped together for a higher level view and cross plan tracking.  Full Details on the feature for the Server Version of the application can be seen in this documentation.

We are tracking interest in this feature for Jira Cloud at the following link, noting it already has a high vote count and is flagged for future consideration, but Do make sure to add your vote as well to help influence a priority bump for implementation as covered in the "Implementation of New Features Policy" and add yourself as a watcher on the request to get updates on the features status:

• https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JPOCLOUD-1767

Regards,
Earl

[Dipak Naokar]

@Earl McCutcheon 

Thanks  for the detailed reply and do appreciate the same.

As my company has subscribed for the cloud based Jira and PoJ, I will be eagerly awaiting for the implementation of  

• https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JPOCLOUD-1767

Your next point (or assumption) as below:

but to summarize it sounds like you are looking for a way to have the plan adjust the scheduling factors to align with a defined date range, EXE. set a completion date and all issues in the scope are confined to this timeframe.  Is this the correct assessment?

The assessment is not very correct , my intention was to provide an example like :

"  I want to see my road-map for next 1 quarter (3 months). For simplicity , assume that my backlog of defects is 100 count as on today , and few more are  reported from different sources on daily basis."

In this example, I do not intend to put the "constraint on schedule"  (something like Microsoft project plan, "finish not later than" ) . In the other way round I wish to see the following: I will add the variables ( standard issue types and the foretasted estimates, teams with capacity, some guess estimated velocity) and expect the PoJ to tell me the  most likely date of completion for each release (or initiative )

My main ask was as below:

The senior management want to see the single view from the only source of truth, for all the team and all the work happening under this program. 

At present I can say that my question has been partially answered. (Rest is linked with 

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JPOCLOUD-1767 ) 

[Earl McCutcheon]

Hi @Dipak Naokar ,

Thanks for the clarification, and when it comes to Portfolio the views are going to be Project and board centric to break down the work for the team working in that view, with a high level of granularity per portfolio view within the initiatives with release planning where projects cross  but with your main ask being:

The senior management want to see the single view from the only source of truth, for all the team and all the work happening under this program.

Portfolio being more project focused is going to struggle to align the teams across those multiple projects, and track that break down in a Single view option.

There are some options In Portfolio where you can create a separate view that contains a wider view of projects using all shared teams shared teams within that view in a separate portfolio, but again portfolio is geared towards smaller teams and projects over a macro view of all projects and work and depending on the overall size of your organization this can overburden the application with a larger set of data.  I would suggest looking into Jira Align instead of portfolio for this use case, especially if the organization is working at a larger scale.

I would recomend looking at the Jira Align demo at the following link and it discusses this in detail right around the 20 min mark, but overall Align is designed with this in mind:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBeuH4Cl8Bc

As well as a really good blog post that cprime released highliting the main differences between Align and Portfolio at the following link:

• Jira Align vs. Portfolio for Jira vs. Jira Apps

Regards,
Earl

[Dipak Naokar]

@Earl McCutcheon 

Thanks for the detailed reply. I do like the answer.

I found that the new tool is better and to maximum extent it will meet the expectations of our management. 

The new tool has a price and we will have to evaluate the cost-benefit analysis. Compare the cost of "PoJ"  with new too "Jira Align"  (both tools in cloud subscription).

About the "portfolio for Jira"  I have few questions and I have posted them in the new thread"

Can you please check the new thread and share your feedback.

[Dipak Naokar]

@Earl McCutcheon 

Can you please review the above question and show the direction.