Project set up

[Teja]

Hi, I've a major confusion in setting up projects. I wanted to know how to start.

For example: I've a project called BMW . 

It requires  different departments to work to built a BMW vehicle.

1.Software

2.Hardware

3.Mechanical

4.Electrical

5. Testing 

6. Procurement

7. Production

As my current project plan which was done in ms project. How can I fit into Jira.

In softwares , we have individual project for each project. What is standard way to continue further. For Hardware, Mechanical & Electrical we have different software project, Testing as different project same for Procurement and production.

I wanted to know what is the standard way , how it can tied up with issue types . We follow Initiative, EPIC , Story & Task.

I wanted to have standard procedure to get on with Jira 

[Fazila Ashraf]

Hi @Teja 

Jira is flexible at certain level for you to adjust on your way of working. But here is how i have handled these in my setup.

1) Built a central project to store initiatives. That gave us opportunity to define what standardise fields and workflows for initiatives and easy to pull reports. 

2) Team/squad projects work with types Epics, stories and subtasks. This gave the flexibility for the teams to do their scrum/kanban for the implementation of the work.

Initiatives can be parent of epics in any of the jira projects and Epics can be parent of standard issue type of any of the projects. 

We also create 'Teams' to denote which team is responsible for those line items to allocate capacity and try out different scenarios at plan level. At the implementation level, the teams can query on the tickets for each teams and manage assignment to members. 

You can find more details in https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/guides/advanced-roadmaps/overview#what-is-advanced-planning 

Is there any particular problem you are stuck with the jira plans adoption?

[Teja]

Hi Fazila,

Thank you for this valuable information. However, I require additional information.

1. Built a central project - You mean name this as BMW with only one initiative as issue type. What would be the initiatives according to the project plan. Is it project phases as initiatives.

2.  Team projects : Different software as different projects now. In these project the issue types be EPIC , User stories & Sub tasks.

3. As project manager, in project plan each phase as got estimated timings and resources. How can I replicate in Jira.

For Example: A central project stores all the projects as initiatives. Correct me if I'm wrong. If I'm working with BMW and VW project. My central project name = Global projects. In this I will create 2 initiatives call them as BMW and VW.

PM starts creating a project plan for BMW. It got 5 phases working with different departments. 

Each department as team managed project.

I will take a excel sheet will you please help how can I represent the structure in Jira.

I wanted to know who will responsible to create initiatives , epics in project levels. Is it PM or Tech lead of particular project.

[Teja]

[Teja]

@Fazila Ashraf  

The above attachment we can use it as example. 

[Fazila Ashraf]

Most of question's answer fully depends on your ways of working. 

But initiatives are not best used to be just place holders for BMW or VW.  You can have BMW / VW as components? 

I also usually use a house construction as an demo example to explain the product usage. Here is a snapshot. It only uses epic and tasks though

You could choose to move the Epics in this example up in the level as initiatives and story to epic level and free up story level for the teams to break down the work finer..

[Teja]

That's fantastic @Fazila Ashraf 

For example in the epic DH-21 Imagine it is a software epic and software team is involved. But each software as got dedicate project. If team lead decides this will be feature and he create a epic in software project followed by stories in his project. How it can be aligned with your structure. 

I wanted to know what will be base project name.  Do you want me to create base project as BMW and each phase as initiatives and drop as epic and story and sub task will in different team managed projects.

How will a project manager knows the capacity of a resource working on all the projects?

[Fazila Ashraf]

If it is the same team working on multiple real world projects (BMW, VW) that follows the same structure and work, then you can choose to have a central project for all initiatives. 

But If you have an option to have dedicated projects, i would recommend to have the BMW initiatives in "BMW initiatives" project and likewise.

Structure wise, as except subtasks, all other types can have parent in a different project, An e.g., linkage could be: 

BMW-1 => Initiative in BMW project and parent of SW-2

SW-2 => Epic in SW project and parent of story SW-3

SW-3 => Story in SW project

SW-4 => subtask of SW-3

The owner of the plan should know the capacity allocation before hand from every team or atleast a guesstimate to configure the team capacity in the plan. refer to https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/guides/advanced-roadmaps/overview#how-do-i-manage-team-capacity 

[Teja]

Your solution is great !

I think I require training to implement these structure in our current system.

[Fazila Ashraf]

All the best! :) 

[Teja]

@Fazila Ashraf 

If I raise a support ticket do they able to demonstrate the product and how it can be used. How it fits to our purpose.

[Fazila Ashraf]

@Teja , The atlassian support team is usually responsible for technical issues in the product. And from my experience, i have seen them give best effort support and  redirect users to KB/training material and external solutions partner.

But you can always try :)