Are You the Puppet Master or the puppet?

Jira, love it or hate it? Either way, for a lot of organisations it’s necessary; it’s the main tool that development teams use to (1) track their work and for (2) stakeholders to understand whether the company is delivering the right value.

If your company is doing both of those things, in a way that’s not burdensome to the teams  - and - in a way that is both simple for stakeholders, then you don’t need to read this article.

Rate yourself using the Jira20 below and see what your total score is. If you score more than 15 you may need to call us.  If you score more than 45 you may need to call a doctor.

You create powerpoint presentations to update stakeholders with data that you get from Jira	+5
Some users are overwhelmed and confused about how your workflows flow	+4
Making changes to one team’s workflows can have a negative impact on a different team	+5
You structure your teams around your Jira setup	+10
You build workflows and change them on the fly without having a plan of how work should “flow” through the system	+5
Scrum Masters spend a lot of their time “managing” Jira	+5
Stakeholders never log in to Jira	+5
New team members need more than 30 minutes training to use your Jira instance	+4
You use advanced workflows with your software development teams (eg triggers, transitions, conditions)	+8
Each development value stream team has tailored fields and issue types	-5
Each development value stream team has a tailored workflow	-3
There has been more focus on the tool than the underlying Agile processes.	+12
You’ve customised your Jira instance so much that people are scared to make changes	+10
You regularly seek feedback from users on how to improve the flow	-5
You can track detailed tasks, issues, and progress, with visibility into the state of Sprints and overall roadmap health in real-time	-15
You have integrated with GitHub (or alike) to streamline code reviews and provide traceability between code changes and the original requirements	- 6
You integrate Jira with BIGAGILE to have a reliable long term roadmap across all teams and value streams	-10
18. When users want to make a change to their workflow they have to get permission from the Jira police	+8
19. Your use of Jira is mainly for backlog management and team planning rather than utilising the inherent reporting and dashboards to monitor actual value delivered	+11
20. Some teams use the kanban setup because it’s easier than Scrum	+3

People often overlook how important a good Jira setup is to a value stream.  Set it up well and it can help with your flow of delivery, set it up badly and it can be a massive hindrance.

Agilicist brings a pragmatic approach to help you:

KISS: We’ll keep your configurations as simple as possible, to enable team members to navigate the system without confusion.

Alignment with Processes: We’ll setup Jira to align with your preferred processes and Agile practices. Jira should support the way the team works, rather than forcing them to adapt to the tool.

Training: Team members, stakeholders and admins can be trained on how to use Jira effectively. This includes understanding how to create and manage workflows, use dashboards, and interpret reports.

Customisation: With simplicity as the overriding factor, we can customise Jira to meet the specific needs of the team or value stream.

Integration: We’ll help you integrate Jira with other tools and systems used by the team, such as GitHub, Confluence, BigAgile, or CI/CD pipelines. This creates a seamless workflow and reduces the need for manual data entry.

Dashboards and Reports: We’ll set them up to provide valuable insights into team performance and project progress. They are used to track key metrics and identify areas for improvement.

If you need practical help with Jira to get the balance between usability and simplicity then have a chat with us for more information queries@bigagile.io