How to use Jira to manage a software life cycle, dev/QA are already running Jira Sprint. How to handle Tech Pub, Mfg, Support, etc. I am currently using MS Project to manage the overall project schedule.

[Jeff Sun]

dev/QA are already running Jira Sprint.  How to handle Tech Pub, Mfg, Support, etc.  I am currently using MS Project to manage the overall project schedule.

[Asael Sepúlveda]

I see. For the Gantt chart, this one is apparently free for cloud instances: 

https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/eu.wisoft.gantt-ondemand

If you are using JIRA on your own server, you can use this plug in:

https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/de.polscheit.jira.plugins.gantt

Honestly, I think it's way easier to just schedule the deliverables on a specific sprint; but that's just my opinion (I'm not very fond of Gantt charts). For example, you can create an issue called "Elaborate support plan" and schedule it within a sprint that matched the estimated due date and also create a "monitor support plan elaboration" issue in each sprint before the final release so you can have visibility per sprint. This usually makes a Gantt unnecesary.

Also, you can create tasks for those activities and set a due date to them, then create a filter to have visibility of them and you can also use the "JIRA Issues Calendar" gadget.

 Hope this helps

[Jeff Sun]

Release life cycle I am tracking is beyond the engineering team.

I understand and not care too much about their sprint. I just need to manage their deliverables to meet the shipping schedule.

I also need the technical publication team to deliver user manuals, Support team to deliver support plan, Manufacture to deliver their plan, training group to deliver training plan.

Once all these are ready, we declare the software FCS and it goes to customer.

I do want to have a way to visualize the progress (Gantt chart view) to see which group/task is at risk of missing the deadline.

It seems like I can create Story/Tasks for all these and track the progress/schedule.  is there any plug in or add on product that is needed?

Thanks alot for the guidance.

-Jeff

[Asael Sepúlveda]

Depends on what you need. What exactly do you want to manage?

• Life cycle: If you are using sprints, then the lifecycle is pretty straight forward. If you have a particular life cycle, you can configure workflows for that.
• Project Schedule: Create the stories in JIRA and assign them to sprints or leave them on the backlog for later priorization
• Tech pub: you mean tasks for technical documentation? if so, you can create a "tech pub" issue type or make it standard procedure for development tasks to include it before resolving the issue
• Actual work: you can activate time tracking and create a Filter to have visibility on tasks that have deviated from original estimate
• Support: You can use JIRA Service Desk; but if you are willing to sacrifice SLA funcionality, you can use a kanban board exclusively for support issue types
  
  

I only use MS Project when clients make it a requirement, because it requires a lot of time to mantain it.

By the way, what do you mean by MFG?