Have a single backlog (project) with multiple teams - how can i run sprint for each team?

Pamela Ross June 29, 2017

I have having a difficult time with JIRA -- it will not let me have more than one Sprint for a Project, even though I have multiple boards (teams) -- How can I make this work -- as I all of the teams work is 'blobbed'together now and metrics and reporting will be impossible!

Is this possible?

So far, not very impressed with Jira .... so please if someone can help me understand the madness -- spreadsheets were so much simpler - even stickies!

1 answer

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Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
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June 29, 2017

Sprints do not belong to projects, they are associated with boards.

If you have three boards looking at the same project, this will work fine, *but* you'll want to set up the boards so that they only look at the issues related to the team.

Once you've got the hang of that, then you might want to look into enabling multiple active sprints.

Pamela Ross June 29, 2017

OK -- that is what I had assumed -- however, after I set up the first board - and assigned the sprint -- the other boards were not allowed to start a sprint -

Is there a specfic setting I need to set at the project level to allow multiple boards?

Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
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June 29, 2017

It's nothing to do with the project.  You need your boards to select separate sets of issues.

Pamela Ross June 29, 2017

Ok -- I have the teams select different STORIES -- is that what you mean?

 

Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
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June 29, 2017

No, your *boards* need to select different issues.

Like board 1 looks for "component = X" and board 2 is for "component = Y"

Pamela Ross June 29, 2017

Oh.....  So I have to group the stories for each team by using 'component' then  -- that we cant assign just by story -- but by component / story --

Let me experiment more -- getting used the the JIRA component - which is not really a feature

 

Thanks

Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
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June 29, 2017

No, I should have used a stronger word than "like".  The use of components was an example.  You could do it by issue type, custom field, date, anything.

Your boards need to select different exclusive lists of issues.

Pamela Ross June 29, 2017

oh man, this is not fun  -- how do i filter out the stories then -- and where is that defined?

All I want to do is have a backlog with 10 stories -- and team 1 works story A; team 2 story B etc. --

But on every board, it will not let me create a new sprint -- until the current sprint is over

Could this be my version of JIRA that will not let me have more than 1 sprint on a project?

JIRA v7.3.8

IRA Agile v7.3.0-DAILY20170523023608

 

Copyright © 2002 - 2013 Atlassian Corporation Pty Ltd.

The use of this plugin is subject to the terms of the Atlassian End User Agreement, unless other specified therein.

This plugin includes software developed by the Apache Software Foundation.

 

This plugin includes the following libraries covered by the GNU LGPL license:

  • ColorPickerbyDHTMLGoodies.com(Unspecified)

 

This plugin also includes code written by other third parties.

 

 

Do I need to add a specific plug-in? I cant believe i am missing this

Pamela Ross June 29, 2017

Just had a thought -- Will each team need to have it's own 'psuedo' backlog that is filtered in some way? -- for instance a 'label' that specifies that specific team -- 

 

Pamela Ross June 29, 2017

So when you go to each board, they can only pull from that list --

 

Pamela Ross June 29, 2017

UGH! getting an Error becuase the blog will not let me use the same words as JIRA uses --

if i go to the project configuration page -- and set the filter quiry

Pamela Ross June 29, 2017

some reason I am struggling to use inappropriate language or spam -- - so to finish my thought

 

Pamela Ross June 29, 2017

haveing a hard time writing this, as my english does not work well with JIRA _- keeps erroring saying I have inappropriate language or spam

Pamela Ross June 29, 2017

1 board that is at project level

Pamela Ross June 29, 2017

each team have thier own backlog that is filtered --

Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
Community Leader
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June 29, 2017

No.  You're missing the point of Scrum.

With a Scrum, you have a backlog of things that need doing.  You break up your work into sprints (blocks of time)

To start a sprint, you commit to doing a set of things in the backlog, and then start the sprint.  You do not run more than one sprint off that backlog.

That's the basics, and of course, most people have variations.

There are two ways to have a single backlog and multiple sprints:

1.  Have boards that completely exclude issues that are on other boards

2. Enable parallel sprints

(p.s. Yes, the spam filters can be quite aggressive, it's not your English, it's their settings)

Like Edina Toric likes this
Pamela Ross June 29, 2017

so if i have a project -with 3 teams i will have 1 backlog - and 3 filtered backlogs

Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
Community Leader
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Community Leaders are connectors, ambassadors, and mentors. On the online community, they serve as thought leaders, product experts, and moderators.
June 29, 2017

No.  You mean board.  Projects do not have a backlog.

If you create a Scrum board that includes all the issues, you will find that the sprints clash, because you've got a board including more than one sprint.

Either don't do that, or enable parallel sprints (see https://confluence.atlassian.com/jirasoftwarecloud/using-parallel-sprints-797737030.html )

Pamela Ross June 29, 2017

COOL ! parallel sprints -- that is the setting -

I do understand Scrum -- and I appologize for attempting to use the JIRA terms instead of the Scrum terms that I am familier with -

Let me attempt the paralele sprint - I hope that will work -- otherwise i will just make do

Pamela Ross June 29, 2017

WOO HOO!!!! This will work !

 

Thanks so very much for your patience and assistance here -- it is very much apprieciated!

Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
Community Leader
Community Leader
Community Leaders are connectors, ambassadors, and mentors. On the online community, they serve as thought leaders, product experts, and moderators.
June 29, 2017

I'm glad I got you to a solution.  

Looking back over the conversation, I was struggling to explain myself (I'm going to try to partially blame a long busy day), and I really think I wasn't translating my "how JIRA thinks" into "how it applies to Scrum" well at all.

I should have realised that you get Agile a lot earlier and then emphasised the "parallel sprint" thing better.

I can't accept thanks for the patience - you were the one with the patience, having to explain more and more until I grasped it all!

Nik Pharo March 26, 2018

@Nic Brough -Adaptavist- Sorry to bring back a dead thread but I'm running into a similar situation. You mentioned:

There are two ways to have a single backlog and multiple sprints:

1.  Have boards that completely exclude issues that are on other boards

2. Enable parallel sprints

Is it possible with either of these methods to keep track of sprint velocity for each separated sprint? I can resort to manually calculating velocity for each team but i'd like Jira to do it for me. EX: Team 1 works on one area of the app and Team 2 works on another and I'd like to track their velocity separately

Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
Community Leader
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March 26, 2018

Both of them do!

Nik Pharo March 26, 2018

On my testing with Parallel sprints velocity calculation was one of the features you lost if you turned on parallel sprints (because Jira didn't know which sprints to link together to figure out velocity). I found a different way of handling it via Portfolio:

  • 2 Scrumboards for one project filtered by "Responsible Team"
  • Set up separate teams for each board
  • Use velocity from Portfolio to see each team independently

 

Thanks for the help!

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