Using jira for issue management

user experience agency

Duncan MinchinDigital Producer

[email protected]

Using JIRA for issue management; good, bad, ugly

Research

What is JIRA?

What is JIRA?

• JIRA is a project tracking tool that is used to track bugs and defects, link issues to related source code, plan agile development, monitor activity and report on project status.

• JIRA is used for issue tracking and project management by over 14,500 organisations in 122 countries around the globe.

In computing, the term issue is a unit of work to accomplish an improvement in a data system. An issue could be a bug, a requested feature, task, missing documentation, and so forth. The word "issue" is popularly misused in lieu of "problem." This usage is probably related.

- http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Issue+%28computers%29

An issue definition

Research

What makes JIRA good for issue management?

What makes JIRA good for issue management?

• Simplicity

• The ability to track everything

• Link issues to source code

• Advanced Search and Reporting

• Personal Dashboard

• Bug - A problem which impairs or prevents the functions of the product.

• Epic - A big user story that needs to be broken down.

• Improvement - An improvement or enhancement to an existing feature or task.

• New Feature - A new feature of the product, which has yet to be developed.

• Story - A user story.

• Task - A task that needs to be done.

Understanding different issues

Evaluate

The good...

The good...

• Detail, detail, detail –Adding detail takes time initially; however the issue will be resolved much more efficiently.

1. Description – An easy to follow and detailed description that includes the steps leading to the error and an exact description of what error is occurring is crucial. Below are the important questions you should answer:

• What happens?• Where it happens?• When does it happen?• How does it happen?

2. Screenshots – Allows the developer to view the issue immediately and be a lot more efficient in fixing the issue.

3. Video – Capturing the exact actions that caused the error (For more complicated errors).

4. Assigning to the correct developer. A management task, but assigning the bug to the best person to deal with the error based upon their expertise is an important step in resolving the issue quickly.

Example:

1. Appropriate type and priority level

2. Correct version affected

3. Component and Environment completed

4. Detailed description with screenshot and link to the exact location of the error

Good Example

1.2.3.

4.

Evaluate

The bad...

The Bad...

• A bug that’s not a bug

• Short Descriptions

• Everything is a high priority

• Environment and components left blank

Understanding levels of priority:

1. Blocker - Blocks development and/or testing work, production could not run.

2. Critical - Crashes, loss of data, severe memory leak.

3. Major - Major loss of function.

4. Minor - Minor loss of function, or other problem where easy workaround is present.

5. Trivial - Cosmetic problem like misspelt words or misaligned text.

Everything is a high priority

Bad descriptions:

“The icon on the left hand side has not shown up on my computer, yet it shows on my colleagues?”

“RSS feeds have not yet been included on the website.”

“Can you please reduce the spacing on the footer. It seems excessively long.”

Bad examples

Evaluate

The dam ugly issues!

The dam ugly...

• Logging a bug which is in fact a change request

• Linking two separate errors together into one issue• Logging a bug which is actually a request for assistance

Two functions to help organise your efficiency

• Organise the to do lists in priority order for your developers

• Design your workflows to match your development process

Summary

Summary

• After looking into what makes good, bad and ugly issues its important to follow the simple steps in slide 10 and to avoid the bad and the ugly points. This will improve your efficiency, productivity and most importantly, the quality of the software you produce.

Duncan MinchinDigital Producer

[email protected]

Thank you!