One product backlog - multiple clients and releases

[Fredrik Holmberg]

Hi peeps,

I am a Product Owner managing a single product backlog. This product is actualized in 3 different clients: Web, IOS and Android.

Around 75% of the features will be made available for all of the clients, though some features will be client specific.

The features included in customer facing releases will be different for each client - both in content and prioritization. They will not have the same roadmap or features released at the same time. 

I am using a product management tool outside JIRA to manage and organize the Product Backlog.

We are trying to figure out the best way to manage the development process of this product and clients in JIRA.

One approach which we have been looking at is to have 3 projects in JIRA for which contains the Development Backlog for each client. 

So a capability which we want to develop (say, Register Using Facebook) will have 3 work items in JIRA - one for each client. 

We would then have an additional project where backend tasks which will support the release of the features for each client will be handled. 

Dependencies between backlogs (say, IOS and Backend) will be managed by linking features between projects.

This approach is good for me as PO in that i can see the development status of each feature for a story within a specific client. Also, it gives some flexibility in prioritization of a backlog in Sprint Planning. 

Another approach on the table is that we have a single project in feature, and will split into 3 or 4 diferent boards / views. So, "Register via Facebook" only has 1 Story in JIRA and tasks relating to actualizing it in different clients. It is not clear how we would track the progress of this feature for a specific client yet - which bothers me. 

It would be great to hear how people in similar situations have solved this kind of process before. 

[Craig Nodwell]

I've gone singular project multiple components.  gives me the flex I need while bringing it all together when I have to.  Although you could have 3 projects and bring them into a singular board, allowing for each one to have control of its own components which you would still leverage to further refine.