JIRA Concepts
Internal
Project
- Administering a Project https://confluence.atlassian.com/jiracorecloud/administering-a-project-765593096.html
A project is a collection of issues.
Operations:
Component
- Organizing work with components https://confluence.atlassian.com/jiracorecloud/organizing-work-with-components-765593655.html
A component is a way to group issues within a project. They can be seen as sub-sections of the project. They are used to group project's issues into smaller, more manageable groups.
Components do not have dates assigned to them.
Components can have a component lead who could be a subject matter expert. Once an assignee is set for a component, it will override the project's default assignee for issues that are created within that component.
Operations:
Work Management
Sprint
A sprint, also known as an iteration, is a short period of time during which the development team implements and delivers a discrete and potentially shippable application increment. The deliverable can be a working milestone version. A typical sprint is two weeks. It's long enough to get something accomplished, but not so long that the team is not getting regular feedback. Sprint-based work organization is fundamentally different than Kanban, where the results are delivered continuously. Every sprint starts with a planning meeting, where the team commits to deliver a set of stories that are pulled from the top of the backlog.
In Jira, sprints can be monitored from a Scrum board associated with the sprint. Each project has an "Active Sprints" link.
More details on monitoring a sprint:
Issues can be assigned to sprints. The sprint is associated with the issue via the issue's sprint field.
Active Sprint
The JQL logic that selects active sprints is:
sprint in openSprints()
Kanban
Kanban is based on continuous delivery of work. Rather than planning iterations, the flow of work is constantly monitored to endure that there are always tasks being worked on. When the tasks are completed, new tasks are pulled into work-in-progress.
Board
A board is a view that renders issues from one or more projects. There are three types of boards. A project may have several boards associated with it. Usually, there's a scrum board and a kanban board. Boards are driven by the board filter. All boards for a project can be accessed from a drop-down box associated with the project.
Board Types
Scrum Board
A Scrum board is a board used to manage sprints. The board must have ranking enabled to use sprints.
Kanban Board
Next-gen Board
Board Elements
Board Filter
Boards are driven by filters, which can be accessed as ... → Board Settings → General and filter → Filter. The filter is a named query, and the query can be viewed with "View Filter Query". The board filter determines which issues appear on the board. It can be based on one or more projects, or custom JQL.
Board Column
"TO DO", "IN PROGRESS", "IN REVIEW", "DONE"
Board Swimlane
Board Quick Filter
Board Operations
- Go to a specific board for a specific project
- Poject the active sprint on the board
- Project the backlog on the board
- Project an epic on a specific board
Dashboard
The dashboard is the main display you see when you log in Jira. Multiple dashboards can be created. A dashboard contain gadgets. To navigate to your dashboards. go to the Jira top-left icon → Dashboards.
Default Dashboard
All changes made to the default dashboard will also change the dashboards of all users currently using the default dashboard.
By the virtue of a mechanism I don't understand, the "default" Dashboard automatically shows a named, private dashboard I have created, instead of the system one. To clarify.
Gadget
Available Gadgets
Assigned to Me
Filter Results
Renders a saved filter.
Dashboard Operations
Issue
- Working with issues https://confluence.atlassian.com/jiracorecloud/working-with-issues-765593800.html
- Creating issues and sub-tasks https://confluence.atlassian.com/jiracorecloud/creating-issues-and-sub-tasks-765593815.html
- Customizing the issues in a project https://confluence.atlassian.com/jiracorecloud/customizing-the-issues-in-a-project-765593617.html
An issue is a unit of work that need to be done. The issue is the building block of any project.
An issue can have sub-tasks that can be assigned and tracked individually.
Operations:
Types
Story
- JIRA glossary - Story: https://confluence.atlassian.com/agile/glossary/story
A story is a software system requirement that is expressed in a few short sentences, ideally using non-technical language. In JIRA Agile, a story is represented as an issue, and individual tasks within the story are represented as #Sub-Task#sub-tasks.
Task
- JIRA glossary - Task: https://confluence.atlassian.com/agile/glossary/task
A task is a unit of work contained within a story. In JIRA Agile, individual tasks are represented as sub-task issues, and stories are represented as parent issues.
Bug
A bug is a problem which impairs or prevents the functions of the product.
Epic
Epic Operations
Sub-Task
- Creating a sub-task https://confluence.atlassian.com/jiracorecloud/creating-issues-and-sub-tasks-765593815.html#Creatingissuesandsub-tasks-CreateSubtaskCreatingasub-task
A sub-task can be created for an issue to either split the issue into smaller chunks, or to allow various aspects of an issue to be assigned to different people.
Once broken down into sub-tasks, an issue cannot be resolved until all its sub-tasks are resolved.
However, if it is becoming obvious that a sub-task is holding up the resolution of an issue, that sub-task can be converted to an issue, which can be worked on independently of the original parent issue. The reverse is also true: if it is becoming obvious that an issue is really just a sub-task of a bigger issue, the issue can be converted into a sub-task of that issue.
Fields
Also see
asignee
updated, updatedDate
You need to be careful when using 'updated' in queries, as its semantics is actually "last update timestamp". If the issue was updated multiple times, only the last update timestamp is retained and counts in the query.
Relative time comparison. "Find issues that have been updated during the last day"
updated >= "-1d"
timeSpent
sprint
Designates the sprint the issue is associated with.
summary
summary ~ "BrowserTest"
status
status = Open
resolved
Search for issues that were resolved on, before, or after a particular date (or date range). Note that if a time-component is not specified, midnight will be assumed.
Formats:
"yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm" "yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm" "yyyy/MM/dd" "yyyy-MM-dd"
resolved > "2011/01/15" and resolved < "2011/01/16"
Ranking
Ranking assigns a relative importance or urgency to an issue, compared with other issues.
Time Format
Also see Time Functions.
Absolute Time Format
'yyyy/MM/dd HH:mm' 'yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm' 'yyyy/MM/dd' 'yyyy-MM-dd'
Period Format
10m 10h -5d 2w 2d
Backlog
The backlog is where sprints are planned.
Backlog Operations
Filter
Filter, named filter, custom filter.
Custom Filters
Filters can be named and saved. To access saved filters: Diamond -> Issues and filters -> View all filters -> Filter by Owner dropdown box.
Examples of custom filters: