The JIRA way of handling a release

eric_gorr August 19, 2019

I am having some trouble figuring out the best way to use JIRA to handle the release of a new product. The manual process currently being used is:

 

1. Declare a new release should be done

2. Person A prepares a release (bumps version, packages software)

3. Person B does some final testing on the packaged release

4. Person C does the distribution

 

One thought I had was to create a new issue type called “Release” and then create workflow that would take the process through the stages mentioned above.

 

However, since this process should a common one (but maybe it isn’t) and there doesn’t seem to be direction and default support for it in JIRA, I figure I am over thinking things and there is a way that JIRA should be used to manage this.

 

Any and all comments are welcome.

 

 

1 comment

laralg
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August 19, 2019

Hello @eric_gorr ,

I work as a consultant and I have seen this done in multiple ways. As always, it dependes on your process and your organization.

In Jira the way to store the release is usually with the version, where you can put start date, release date, and a status and little info. For small companies this is usually enough to handle the release information.

But, with big organizations, or complex process (i have seen it done a lot developing services rather than products) they need to store more information, or have status. Thats when a lot of people create the "Release" issue.
Atlassian does not have this by default, but, it does not have a lot of things by default, and your are free to create the issues you need.

I have created the Release issuetype (hell, I have even seen the Sprint issuetype) So you can store more information, have more dates, and keep it in a board for when its going life. It is a good idea specially if this relase process goes through a lot of teams/people so you can keep track of which stage it is. You can even then use the calendar gadget for jira so everyone can see when there is going to be a release and in a kanban board check in which stage it takes more time.

Hope my comment is usufull for you :)

eric_gorr August 19, 2019

Thank you. This was very useful....at least to indicate to me that I am not wildly off-track by considering a new issue type. 

 

The one other thought was to create a release Epic, but that would seem to be overkill as a release doesn't have user stories, etc. associated with them. Plus, I am not certain one could create a release epic template which would have the 3-4 default tasks mentioned above with the dependencies setup between them.

 

Just random thoughts going through my head as I think about how best to solve the problem.

laralg
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August 20, 2019

If you want it to make it part of the Epic, maybe you could do it with subtasks, since they do not have to be part of the user stories.

I have worked for some companies that do not have versions, everytime an Epic is finished it goes into production Epic = Version. Maybe adding status to the Epic as the release stages works for you.

As I said there are a lot of ways of doing this.

Some more thoughts in case they help you.

Jira only lets you store information at issue level, anything you want to detail of keep track of, would need to be an issue.

Think about the reports you want to obtaing later in the development process, sometimes thats a good way to know how things should be set up ( Ej. If you want to meassure how long an Epic and a Release  take to be Done, maybe it is not a good  idea  to have them together, cycle time).
Everything does not have to be in the same place, you can have a kanban board for releases, and the another kanban for development etc...

 

Write down the whole process, draw it and get everyone involved so you are sure about the stages and what you need to be issuetypes and what should be status.

 

Best of luck :)

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