Release process of a Kanban board

[Marcelo Richter]

Hi...we are a small electronics company that are evaluating JIRA to organize our tasks in hundreth products (developing, revisions, ...). We choose to use an Kanban board that fits better in our process.

I create a master kanban board that has all issues from all projects. So I, as a project manager can prioritize and assign work for everyone in one place only. As time goes, cards move to DONE column as expected. My question is how to remove cards from DONE column? Using Release command i need to create an version to all of these cards, but it makes no sense, because we have issues from several projects involved.

By now, i'm going in each project page and creating an individual release. Is there a easy form to do that? Like dragging card off-board? How to remove a card from kanban board without creating an release for project?

[Mohamad Khalife]

You can simply hide them after certain period (20 days in the example below), you need to change the Kanban filter to be something like the below:

project in (A, B, C) and not (status in ('Rejected', Done ) and updated < -20d)

[Peter T]

Moe,

this way from the board will disappear and things not started and in progress that haven't been updated for 20 days.

[Mohamad Khalife]

It will show everything except the done requests that are not updated for 20 days. I'm already using this query.

[Peter T]

Is something happening with the cards after they are moved to DONE?
Is the only problem that they become too much in the done column and you want them disappear?
Can you describe with a few words your release process post DONE.

Cheers,
Peter T

[Marcelo Richter]

Peter: the problem is that cards accumulate on DONE column. I need an easy way to get them removed.

Some software/hardware projects has normal release process (create an version and close them), but we have several issues (documentation, etc) that doesnt has an version associated.

For "normal" release process, i'm going in each project and closing version. But some big projects leave a lot of cards in DONE column before release. 

What i want is a easy way to remove cards from DONE column (maybe creating a status like 'waiting release' that not shows in board). Any tip?

[Peter T]

You are spot on - you need a status that is not showing up on the Kanban board. The only problem with this is, as there is no status on the board, you cannot make this transition from the board using drag and drop. The details view hides the transition buttons as well so you have to go to "Other Actions" or you have to use the regular issue view screen to click the transition button.

Another question that I have is related to the multiple projects that you are managing. Are they independent or part of the bigger initiative which you decided to manage in multiple projects? Some people might use the work program, others release to describe such larger initiative?

Cheers,
Peter T

[Peter T]

Marcello,

the simplest thing will be a quick filter that hides only the done stories which haven't been updated in the last lets say 10 days.

status = Done and updated < -10d

[Phill Fox]

If you want to retain the method of working with a single Kanban board you could name your releases on a regular calendar cycle so it was not related to a specific project but to the point in time in which the work was completed. 
For example
March release - would be marked at the end of the month

WW9 - would be marked at the end of this week. 

An alternative is to give each team the responsibility to manage the release for their product within their project space.
 

Whilst it is possible to create a status that is not on the board and move tickets in bulk to this status this can have unexpected impacts upon your Agile reports.

[Marcelo Richter]

Phill, regular releases does not make sense. We're not working in one project, but several projects, revisions, etc. I'm going to each project and creating a release from that, but this seems not so practical.

I'll try a status that is not on board. By now, i'm not using Agile reports.

[Phill Fox]

Hi @Marcelo Richter

If you can define a quick filter for your items that do not fit in the normal release process you could still use my suggestion above to have regular releases. But this would only be used for the issues that meet the criteria of your quick filter. 

But as you said moving issues to a status outside the Agile board could also work for you and so you would need the JQL for that as well.