Tracking my Project Management and Program Management tasks needed for Scrum and Waterfall projects

[Marc Moroz]

I am involved in multiple projects as a Scrum Master, Project Manager, Program Manager.  Some projects are Scrum and some are Waterfall (business projects).

There are tasks that I'm either responsible for or want to make sure are getting done.  Some examples:

• "Put Retro notes from last sprint into Confluence" - Scrum Project
• "Figure out how to structure new project in JIRA" - Upcoming Scrum Project with vendor involvement where I have to track tasks for my team, vendor team, and tasks for me and the vendor PM
• "Review the roadmap for the project and identify dependencies" - Scrum Project
• "Pull projects a/b/c together into a program in Big Picture" - Personal task outside/above specific projects
• "Develop a 'Design Review and Approval' process" - Waterfall project

I want a way to track all of my work within JIRA.  I believe in working out of 1 system.

So I have 3 areas that I need to handle and want to run by you:

• My Waterfall projects will be created as waterfall projects in JIRA and any tasks that need to go out to other will get assigned.  (should be a no-brainer but I want you to have the full picture)
• My personal tasks that don't tie into a specific project can be managed with a JIRA task list project.
• Scrum projects, where I have things I need to do, will be one of the following:

1. Create an Admin story in each sprint and add in my subtasks as needed
2. Create tasks in the backlog and work them out of there

Then I can create a board and dashboard that pulls all of this in so I can keep track of what I need to do across everything.

[Piotrek Romanczyk [SoftwarePlant]]

Hello Marc,

This is a very detailed inquiry indeed with many in-depth project management use cases. I just wanted to let you know that our team at SoftwarePlant is aware of this thread and along with @Dastin Kuwałek [SoftwarePlant] we will make sure to provide you with comprehensive answers first thing - upcoming Monday.

EDIT: Due to unplanned absence, we had to postpone this to Wednesday (15/11/2017). Our apologies. 

Thank you for your patience. Please stay tuned!

Regards,

Piotr of SoftwarePlant

[Piotrek Romanczyk [SoftwarePlant]]

Hello again Marc,

Apologies that it took awhile, though over a past few days me and Dastin didn't have a chance to sit together to go through your ideas together.

Here's how we see it:

Some examples:

• "Put Retro notes from last sprint into Confluence" - Scrum Project

As far as we are concerned, this can be achieved only in Confluence by adding a new Page Template – Retrospective. Since Jira is a Project Tracker (and so is BP and BG), this cannot be applied to the environment’s rules. As we understand your concept, the idea behind it is to create a reoccurring task which would reflect the nature of a proces (not a project).

More information on Sprint Reports, Creating Confluence Pages and Creating Retrospective Blueprints can be found in linked Atlassian Confluence Documentation Articles (sadly we were not able to link them here).

• "Figure out how to structure new project in JIRA" - Upcoming Scrum Project with vendor involvement where I have to track tasks for my team, vendor team, and tasks for me and the vendor PM

We would recommend creating ‘Team’ Custom Field in Jira. This recommendation is based on experience brought by majority of SoftwarePlant’s customers. From their perspective using such ‘Custom Field’ to track which team executes which task within project gives a great value and complete insight into the workflow. Such an approach if generally perceived as most efficient.

[ Good for reporting, creating dynamic queues for team’s workflow etc.]

• "Review the roadmap for the project and identify dependencies" - Scrum Project

 This description perfectly fits BigPicture’s Roadmap module description. In our Roadmap sprints can be synchronized with BP’s Cadences (small team mode). After such synchronization, all task dependencies are visualized on the Roadmap as cross-team dependencies

• "Pull projects a/b/c together into a program in Big Picture" - Personal task outside/above specific projects

This is the core idea behind BigPicture's concept of a Program.

• "Develop a 'Design Review and Approval' process" - Waterfall project

The first thing that comes to our mind would be to create an ‘Artificial Task Template’, meaning to create a Program in BigPicture with Artificial Tasks that would rather describe project’s structure than the scope.

Once you know what the structure should look like, you may nest it with Artificial Tasks in your Program and create a tamplete which with one button will load them in desired sequence. Of course, there are few alternatives to this approach though we found this one to be the easiest and most efficient in Waterfall model, which can be achieved at this time.

I want a way to track all of my work within JIRA.  I believe in working out of 1 system.

 As you've noticed, in some cases you might need to use Confluence.

So I have 3 areas that I need to handle and want to run by you:

• My Waterfall projects will be created as waterfall projects in JIRA and any tasks that need to go out to other will get assigned.  (should be a no-brainer but I want you to have the full picture)

To be frank, we find it hard to imagine what you would like to achieve in this case.

• My personal tasks that don't tie into a specific project can be managed with a JIRA task list project.

This Is an amazing idea because your Personal ’Jira Task List’ project can be included in the scope of your business Programs.

• Scrum projects, where I have things I need to do, will be one of the following:
• Create an Admin story in each sprint and add in my subtasks as needed

Good approach, as when your admin stories are assigned to sprints, they can be a good reference while creating a Gantt chart. 

• Create tasks in the backlog and work them out of there

Sometimes such an approach is desired and can be found beneficial, though please bear in mind that when your tasks are in Backlog, they are not included in the sprint report. What would be convenient in your case?