Where are my dependencies? You're only a board away

[#1]

Do you find that your teams are getting blocked mid-way through a Sprint because they're waiting for something? 

… Maybe they’re waiting for designs from another team.

… Maybe they’re blocked by a technical environment being down.

… Or maybe it’s an unexpected delay that slipped through the cracks.

Whatever the reason, keeping on top of multiple teams is not only difficult, but time consuming, especially when working with physical boards. To claw back some of the hours in your week, enter JIRA.

You can automatically pull all dependencies across multiple projects into a single board in JIRA. No manual updates. No inconsistencies. No excuses.

To do this, simply:

• First, make sure on your existing project boards you are flagging dependencies (i.e. linking issues) by doing the following: more (...) > Link > JIRA Issue > Choose issue link type ‘blocks’ or 'is blocked by'.
• Create a saved filter which cuts across all the projects you want visibility on and that it is filtering dependencies: Issues > Search for issues > Enter filter query.
• Example filter (you will need the ScriptRunner add-on for this): (project = X OR project = y OR project = z) AND issueFunction in hasLinkType("Blockers")
• Create a new board: Boards > View all boards > Create board > Create a Kanban board > Board from an existing Saved Filter > Choose the filter you created above.
• Map the statuses for these projects to columns on your team board: Board Settings > Columns.
• Voilà!

With this dependencies board, key team members across all of your teams can gather around to see what needs some help or what to watch out for, all in real time.

For this to work effectively, you’ll have to make sure to keep this board transparent and to synchronise at a regular cadence. I’ve found getting people around the dependency board once or twice a week to be the sweet spot.

How do you keep your dependencies in check?

[Alfred Tan]

Hi,

Kindly direct me to the relevant Community if I am asking in the wrong one.

1) How can we search for issues in "Project A" for 2 disciplines? (EE and ME)

[Monique vdB]

Hi @Alfred Tan, and welcome! Here is a link to ask a question directly in the Jira collection, which should get you a good answer.

And here's a link to the Jira collection for future reference as well.

[Chris Blyth]

I can't see from that screenshot how it tells you want is blocking what....showing the blocks is good...but should show what is being blocked too right otherwise it's useless information....

[Gerry Claps]

@Chris Blyth - good point. Portfolio for Jira has a dependencies report which shows this more clearly, however in Jira Software, you'll have to drill into the individual card view and look at the 'Link' section.

[Deleted user]

I get an error Function hasLinkType does not exist

[Juliano Acauan]

@[deleted]You should have ScriptRunner add-on as stated.

[Alex Nie]

@Gerry Claps - Could you tell me the name of the add-on to show dependencies on the board, I created a Kanban with Script Runner JQL Function, but didn't see the shell view of dependency on it.

[Bas Jan]

@Gerry Claps Thank you for sharing your dependencies board. 
For me it seems like that both the blocking issue and the blocked by issue are found in this filter. If the blocking issue is resolved, the blocked by isn't blocked anymore. However it still seems to be on the board. Did you find a solution for this?


FYI for others: my versions worked with  issueFunction in  hasLinkType("Blocks")

[Debra Jones]

@Bas Jan 

I'm looking for exactly that query too

Issues that are dependent on another where that dependency is not yet resolved.

Does anyone have any advise - trying with Issuefunction

[Bas Jan]

@Debra Jones 

This is the query I currently use

• Only blocked issues which are across teams
• Only blocked issues where the blocking issue is not solved
• The teams field is a custom field

project in (Project 1, Project 2) AND issuetype = Story AND (issueFunction in hasLinks("is blocked by") AND issueFunction in linkedIssuesOf("status != Done", "blocks") and ((issueFunction in linkedIssuesOf(Teams = 'Team 1'") and ("Teams" != "Team 1") or (issueFunction in linkedIssuesOf("'Teams' = ‘Team 2'") and ("Teams" != "Team 2" AND status not in (Done, Closed, Resolved, Released, Verified, "Release Successful", "Scheduled for release", "Schedule for release") AND sprint in futureSprints()