Easy Agile Programs for JIRA - Sprint configuration?

[Brian Moudy]

I'm starting to play around with the Easy Agile Programs for JIRA addon for Server. At the surface it provides much of the functionality we've been looking for (easy way to see the work in a release across sprints for Sprint multiple in a single view). 

I have two minor questions:

1.  Is there a way to reduce the number of Sprints below five? I noted in the configuration the option was five or six. We typically have three or four sprints per iteration. This is far from a deal-breaker, but it will cause confusion with our team if we were to use this addon because they will assume if the sprints are there, they can be filled.

2. I'm having trouble sync'ing the Sprints. We create our sprints centrally and they show up on the team boards as tickets are added to them. This addon is creating sprints on each board and doesn't seem to pick up the created sprints. Is there a way to read from a broader set of sprints (or at least pick up the future sprints which have tickets on the board)?

Thank you.

-Brian

[Brian Moudy]

Hi Teagan,

Thank you for taking the time to reply to my inquiry. 

When it comes to the number of Sprints within the iteration, having more options would be a good step. For my team, we typically have three Sprints (two dev sprints and a integration / release Sprint). I appreciate this may be a shorter cycle than other organizations, but it's the way we run our iterations.

Most of our teams operate within the same JIRA project, and we segregate their specific work based upon the value of a team field. The filters behind our team boards is just all tickets in the project with the team field set to their specific value. We do centrally manage the creation of the Sprints and ask teams to adhere to that so we can centrally control the starting and stopping of the sprints, and more readily track the work. 

When I created the Easy Agile project, the Sprints didn't yet show up on the team board (because the team hadn't added any tickets to the sprint yet). However, even after I added tickets to the sprint on one of the team's boards the Easy Agile program didn't detect the sprint. 

It would be helpful if I could update the sprint in Easy Agile Programs by entering the Sprint ID I want to target. That would allow me to be specific in what I want to show up in the Easy Agile program plan. 

I have been looking at many different agile solutions for Release-level planning across multiple Sprints, both inside and outside of JIRA. What your team has put together is one of the easiest and most complete solutions for what I'm looking for. The fact that you're pulling in different team boards, including Epics is very intuitive. I love that you show the team's backlog in a singe view. It's a very compelling product offering overall. The sprint config piece is a bit frustrating, but mostly for my specific scenario; I wouldn't have even noticed if I had been running a single team sprint process.

Thank you!

-Brian

[Teagan]

Hi Brian, 

Really appreciate you taking the time to send through that additional context. I've made sure to add those comments to the story I created on our backlog for background info for our team.

The reason the Sprints are not showing up on the team boards (whether the Sprints have issues scheduled in them or not), is because we only show Sprints that have been created on that team's board. Because you centrally manage your Sprints i.e. they are created on a central board (not created on the team boards individually) and then the team's within the Project "pull them" into their boards, this is why you are currently not able to see them from the dropdown. I hope that helps to explain the current working functionality, although I know it's not ideal for your current way of working. 

Thanks for your kind words about Easy Agile Programs. I've sent them out to the team this morning, and it makes us really proud and committed to making the product even better! I'll continue to keep you updated with the Sprint configuration updates and improvements here. If anything else comes to mind, please feel free to either share it here, or email us directly at support@easyagile.com. 

Thanks again Brian!
Teagan Harbridge 
Product Manager - Easy Agile 

[Nick Muldoon]

Hi @Brian Moudy,

Nick Muldoon stepping in for Teagan here as she is at a conference this week.

Just a quick update to let you know that Easy Agile Programs 2.0.7 is now available and it provides more flexibility around sprint length and number of sprints in an iteration.

Thanks for your feedback and patience while we delivered this functionality.

Have a great day.

Regards,
Nick Muldoon

[Teagan]

Hi Brian, 

My name is Teagan and I am a Product Manager at Easy Agile. Thanks for reaching out on community and sharing your questions. 

1. Currently, the only Sprint configuration options are 5,6,10 or 12 Sprints. In saying that, we are currently working on making the sprint configuration options more flexible! In the next release of Easy Agile Programs (1.2.0), you will be able to select from 4-12 Sprints to make up your Increment. I've made a note on the story on our backlog to reach back out to you here when this will be available in product. 

2. Easy Agile Programs pulls on the Sprints from each of the team's individual agile boards within a Program i.e. any future Sprints the team has created on their board's backlog can be synced by the Program Increment, and all work scheduled in those Sprints will be reflected in Easy Agile Programs. When there are no pre-created Sprints on a Team's board, that is when Easy Agile Programs will automatically create them for you. 

It sounds like you are trying to pull in Sprints from boards that have been created in different Projects. Unfortunately this is not supported today, however I have added a story to our product backlog and included your vote and comments. I'll also make sure to reach back out to you here with when you can expect that functionality to be available in product.

For a little extra context on this, during the early beta stages of Easy Agile Programs, we created global sprints for all of the teams in a Program. We received a lot of feedback around teams wanting the ability to independently manage their own Sprints, and to be able to configure existing sprints within their Board for an Increment. 

I hope I've provided some clarity around your questions. If there is anything else I can share/explain further, please just let me know. 

Thanks Brian, 
Teagan Harbridge 
Product Manager - Easy Agile 

[Teagan]

Hi @Brian Moudy

Reaching back out today to let you know that we have just shipped Easy Agile Programs 3.1.0. 

This release includes support for using shared/global sprints for your Program Increment. Other updates in 3.1.0 include:

• pre-filling issues with components/labels when created on the Program to meet the board filter conditions
• more precaution around accidentally deleting dependency lines by popping a confirmation dialogue when the x button is clicked

This version is available for update by your Jira Admin now and you can find the full release notes here. 

A big thank you for your patience and feedback while we worked to bring you this functionality. We're looking forward to hearing your feedback!

Thanks Brian, 
Teagan Harbridge 
Head of Product - Easy Agile