Task visibility into multiple boards & projects

[Nacho Cortes]

Hi!

We do have múltiple teams working on the same product.

Each team has its own JIRA Scrum Project, and Sprints are syncronized among all the teams. 

Each team has ownership of their own tasks, but some of them have dependencies. 

The way we work right now is creating a Task with sub-tasks so that we can split all the work to be done and assign it to several people where some of them can be from other projects.

We've created a label so for each specific project so that by changing the board filters, I can display tasks coming from other JIRA Projects i they contain that label.

The problem appears when we are about to Close the Sprint that's where conflicts occur.

We can't close the Sprint from project B (the one with dependencies) if the Sprint A (the owner of the task) hasn't been closed before.

Any thoughts?

[Bill Sheboy · Accepted solution]

Hi @Nacho Cortes 

When supporting multiple teams using Scrum, it may be better to eliminate dependencies rather than try to manage them, procedurally or with Jira tooling.  Otherwise each team does not own their own sprint plan and ability to meet their sprint goal...potentially blocking multiple teams in a chain and slowing value delivery.

Can the dependent work between two teams be transferred / owned by one team, eliminating the dependency?

If not, using subtasks for dependent work may create additional challenges for Jira boards and Sprint features.  Consider instead using standard issue types (i.e., Story or Task) for each team's work item, and using issue linking to reflect dependencies.  Then each team could evaluate during sprint planning if all dependent work is completed before committing to work on something in the sprint.  This approach will incentivize teams to develop ways to eliminate dependencies in the future.

Kind regards,
Bill

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @Nacho Cortes 

I'm not sure if I have fully understood your scenario.

What exactly happens when you try to complete the sprint in Project B? Do you get a message of some sort? What is the message?

With regard to Tasks and Sub-tasks:

The sub-tasks' inclusion in a sprint is inherited from their parent Task. Sub-tasks are not included in sprints separately.

If you attempt to complete a sprint that has some sub-tasks in the right-most column, but the parent of that sub-task still has other sub-tasks that are not in the right-most column, then you should get a message about the parent having incomplete sub-tasks. A parent Task with incomplete sub-tasks will be considered incomplete. All sub-tasks under an issue have to be in the right-most column of the board to be considered complete.

Given that information can you provide a more detailed explanation of the status of the issues involved and their inclusion in the project B sprint vs. "Sprint A"?