Workflow and Backlog/Sprint View in Jira
Hi Everyone,
I was wondering if people working with mature teams closely following Scrum and using Jira could share with me two things:
(a) what do your workflows look like for the various issue types? Story, Task, Bug for example. ie. are they simple with only “open”, “in progress”, and “done”? or does your team have 5-10?
(b) does your team typically work from the backlog view where work items are listed horizontally, or from the sprint view where work is listed vertically, with each column containing work items in that state of the workflow?
Thank you,
Katherine
Hi Katherine,
For me the workflow is ToDo, In progress, Test/review, Done.
The view is the verical sprint view.
a = all a matter of what fits your organization and Definition of Done i guess
b = personal preferences i guess
I coach that there is no difference in workflow based on object type and everything should be treated equally. The board workflow is determined by the teams. Some use the basic 3 columns while others will do things a little more in line with Kanban and map out real workflow of an item. I honestly have never had 2 teams that had the same workflow. They all usually start with the basic 3 columns but they always change to something else. And in fact, columns will be added, changed in order or removed on the boards over time as the team experiments with what they find useful.
As for what view do they use? Both. Usually individuals like to use each view for different purposes depending on whether the focus is on the Sprint Backlog or the Product Backlog. Usually the "board" view is used daily for the Sprint work and the list view is used for Product Backlog grooming or ordering.
Hi Katherine,
a) For me the workflow is
ToDo, In Progress, Completed, Validation, Done.
I try to encourage shared responsibility for validation. I noticed that it reduced dependency within the team over the period and encouraged others to learn. Also, I found (empirically for me) if you keep the columns to an odd number, the teams found it more helpful. I guess it is something to do with our brain that it registers odd numbers easily.
b) It is a personal preference. Generally, I advise my team to use Sprint view during the sprint for better visibility.
Thanks