Planning and Forecasting in Jira: Part 5

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Let’s set up an example Jira project, and add some sample issues, so we can see the roadmap in action.

Jira Scenario

For this scenario create a software project called “Company Rebrand” to store all the tasks for a organization’s rebrand project. Follow the steps in upcoming sections to build the scenario in your test application.

Creating Projects

If you’re a Jira administrator, create the project in your test application by clicking the “Create” button at the top right of the page. Give the project a unique name (ex: Company Rebrand) and a unique key (ex: REBRAND).

Jira Project Templates

There are several software development project templates to choose from. I like the bug tracking template simply because its workflow includes a testing step.

If you don’t have Jira admin permissions or don’t want to create a new project, see if there’s a test project that already exists in your application. You can use it or any other existing project to try out this use case.

Now that there’s a Jira project, we need to create some sample issues to plan and track. First, think of all the work required when a company changes its logo and colors. Before creating issues, make a list of all the potential items.

Tip: I recommend building any Jira scenario on paper first. When all the details are worked out, then start creating and modifying configurations.

Here are the steps. Each shows an image of a hierarchical diagram. The diagram evolves as steps are completed.

Step 1

Instructions: Update Web Materials - we’ll need to update the entire website. That sounds like a lot of work, so let’s break it down into more manageable chunks.

Step 2

Instructions: We’ll update all the logo files, the site styles, and make some changes on individual web pages. Let’s break these medium-sized items down, once more, into even smaller pieces.

Step 3

Instructions: We’ll update the main logo files, the little icon that appears on a browser tab, and other co-branded logos.

Guess what? This little listing exercise just determined our issue hierarchy in Jira!

The large body of work is the epic, the medium items are the tasks, and the small items are the sub- tasks.

Step 4

Instructions: Let’s create one more epic and set of tasks and sub-tasks. Now we have a list of all the materials we’ll need to provide.

Part 6: Jira Issue Structure and Importing