Using Jira for non software teams - help!

[James]

so we have started using Jira in the company, it's working well in the software team but the other 'board' (please excuse my terminology, I am writing this as a layman) which captures hardware and mechanical tasks is not working.  There is a backlog and 2 week sprints are planned but the burndown chart doesn't get any better and the daily scrums are weak.  Hardly anyone raises blockers etc etc.
Has anyone had any issues using Agile/Jira for non software team?  
What issues have you come across?
Were you able to resolve them?
How did your team excel in using Jira/Agile? 

Also, someone raised the question of reporting on tasks not completed in a sprint, can that be done? 

[Jack Brickey]

Hi @James ,

this is really difficult one to answer given the limited understanding of your teams and environment. However let me provide some guidelines or opinions based on my personal experience using scrum for non-software teams.

• First let me say that it can be rather difficult to use agile with non-software teams.  While this isn’t always the case, my point here is that often the teams you’re trying to apply agile methodology’s to may not think that way. So to overcome it you need to find teams that are willing to and able to learn the agile methodology.
• you need to understand what the teams normal duration cycle should be for agile. Don’t try to fit a short cycle to a team that just doesn’t work that way. Consider how quickly the majority of the tasks can be completed. If a task typically takes 4 weeks to complete most tasks then set your cadence to that.
• consider if the team will have “releases” or not and how that answer might apply to how do you run the team.
• definitely leverage postmortems. I find these help new teams better learn how to adopt agile methodologies.
• bottom line - develop a process and methodology that works for the team rather than trying to make a pure software agile methodology work.

[James]

Thanks Jack, that certainly makes sense, the adoption of Jira with this team seems to have been taken by someone based on their theory that it can work with non software teams.  We do not have enough data to understand how long normal durations may take with these teams.  It seems to be working well with the s/w guys so I take your point that going back to the drawing board would be beneficial when it comes to the non s/w team.  I just need a guru to bounce these ideas off of :-) being serious though, I think keeping things as simple as possible, keep the drum beat going but I cannot see us relying on the reporting functions in Jira for the non s/w team. 

[John Funk]

Hi James - Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

This sounds like mostly an education issue. Also, why are you having non-software teams do Scrum? They are probably more suited for Kanban or something fairly simple. Can you describe the workflow the non-software teams use - as in what types of statuses? 

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @James -- Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

Yes, and...to what others have suggested:

You note that there are software development teams in your company.  If those teams have coaches (e.g. Scrum Master, Agile Coach, Lean Coach, Business Process Analyst, etc.) perhaps they could help you discuss with the team how the team works, their goals and needs, and how learning/experimenting could help with their value delivery.

Kind regards,
Bill

[James]

@John Funk @Bill Sheboy Thanks! I will look into the Kanban suggestion, this might be the way forward.  The decision to adopt SCRUM with the non s/w team was taken before my time and I am just trying to understand the reasoning. 

When you say what types of statuses, could you explain more? 

[John Funk]

The steps in the workflow

[Jose Luis Gaitan]

Hello, @James and welcome to the Community.

You can use Jira in every project you want, not necessary software ones (for example, I did it for a non profit organization). I used to work with task or epic (it depends of the duration of the task) .

You can use Jira in Agile projects with no problem.

If you have doubts, do not hesitase to contact with us.

[James]

@Jose Luis Gaitan I'd like to ask you a bit more on this, let me know how, thanks 

[James]

@Jose Luis Gaitan Hi - How do I get in touch with you?