Jira & Confluence
Jira and Confluence are tools used by many divisions within FAS-IT that help teams more fully implement Agile in their operations, from the high-level strategy all the way down to the day-to-day. Review the resources below for information on how to best leverage Jira and Confluence.
Agile Topics & Concepts
Overview
Jira is a powerful platform that combines issue collection and agile project management capabilities into a single application that aids in planning and organizing tasks, workflows, and reports for Agile teams. Jira projects provide insights to support decision-making and supply teams with historical references to inform future work, manage estimates, and make adjustments increasing delivery predictability.
Confluence allows teams to store content related to large projects collaboratively. While Jira is more focused on tracking projects over time, Confluence serves as a wiki-based collaboration tool that keeps track of the essential documents associated with a project. These documents may include performance of work statements, system requirements, strategy documents, meeting notes, product documentation, and so forth. Its main features include content organization and permissions management. Confluence is an effective companion product to Jira by nature of its document storage capability that allows user stories from Jira to be tied back to specific requirements and business processes all in one place.
The sections below provide helpful context and guidance on how FAS has invested in and implemented the use of Jira and Confluence across the organization.
Leveraging Jira & Confluence within FAS-IT
Jira Apps & Add-Ons
See the apps that can be added onto Jira and provide enhanced functionality in the list below.
| App Name (Link to Documentation) | Description |
|---|---|
| Advanced Roadmaps for Jira | Connect strategic goals to development realities with a single, accurate view of business initiatives linked to engineering work across teams and projects. Automatic scheduling, capacity planning, and the power to easily react to change in real time. |
| Automation for Jira | Save time and stress by automating Jira. No need to write or manage custom scripts. Anyone can configure powerful automation rules easily with Automation for Jira's visual rule builder. |
| Better Excel Reporter for Jira | Powerful Excel exports to XLS/XLSX formats. Spreadsheet reports with functions, formulas, charts, pivot tables and pivot charts. Custom Business Intelligence and analysis for Microsoft Office and Google Spreadsheets in a simple and flexible app. |
| Better PDF Automation for Jira | Automatic PDF exports, reports and emails for Jira. Schedule customizable PDF documents as a CRON job, or generate them on issue events and workflows. |
| Better PDF Reporter for Jira | Powerful PDF export for issue lists, invoices, timesheets, Burn Down chart, Gantt chart, Requirements Specifications, Release Notes, story cards, custom business reports and document types! Share, print, email, archive and report issues quickly and easily. It works with single issues, JQL searches, saved filters, Jira Software Scrum and Kanban boards, Jira Service Desk queues, and Jira dashboards. |
| Checklist for Jira | Checklist offers a more powerful alternative to the standard Multi Checkboxes custom field. Checklist allows you to add items either globally or at the issue level and is thus perfectly suited for enforcing Definition of Done or Acceptance Criteria lists. |
| Dependency Map | Dependency Map visualizes relationships between JIRA issues. |
| Elements Connect | Connect Jira fields to external data sources. Contextualize your queries based on Jira issue attributes. |
| Enhancer Plugin for Jira | Plugin that adds valuable custom fields, workflow utilities, tab fields, KPI metrics, gadgets and reports. |
| Jira Misc Custom Fields | An assortment of Custom Fields for Atlassian Jira. |
| JQL Tricks Plugin | Extend JIRA s search capabilities to a whole new level. |
| JSU Automation Suite for Jira Workflows | JSU Automation Suite for Jira Workflows is an essential add-on for every Jira customer. JSU includes additional workflow conditions, validators, preconditions, post functions and custom fields. |
| Power Scripts for Jira | Includes extra post functions, conditions and validators for Jira, (and more!). |
| Structure | Issue Hierarchy - multi-level, cross-project, hierarchical lists of issues with time aggregation, status rollup, synchronization with Links and Jira Agile, and more. |
| Sub Task Manager (STM) | The Sub Task Manager plugin allows you to create sub tasks, linked issues, or epic issues using templates. Issues can be created manually or automatically when creating or transitioning an Issue. |
| Table Grid Next Generation | The table grid plugin is a JIRA custom field plugin allowing you to view and edit database data in a tabular fashion. |
| Xray Test Management for Jira | Native Test Management. Built for every member of your team to plan, test, track and release great software. |
FAS Jira Working Group
The FAS Jira Working Group provides governance for updates to the FAS Jira Project Template (FJPT) configuration and other Agile Lifecycle Management tools. The group is chaired by OST, Dara Logan (dara.logan@gsa.gov), and includes representatives from the FAS Business Lines, GSA IT and integrator offices. The group maintains and updates the baseline configuration for Jira and Confluence projects and tracks the migration of legacy projects to the modernized structure.
FAS Jira Working Group (FJWG) Charter Mission:
The FAS Jira Working Group is responsible for the adoption and overarching governance of the FAS Jira Project Template (FJPT) and Agile best practices/tools.
About the FAS Jira Working Group:
- Launched in September 2020
- Chair: Dara Logan dara.logan@gsa.gov (OST)
- Membership: GSA IT Jira Admins, FAS Jira power users, OST, Agile coaches, and Business Line POCs
- Purpose: (1) provides governance for updates to the FAS Jira Project Template (FJPT) configuration and other Agile Lifecycle Management tools. (2) maintains and updates the baseline configuration for Jira and Confluence projects and tracks the migration of legacy projects to the modernized structure
- Governance process partnership with Agile Coaches, GSA IT Jira admins, and FAS Jira WG
- Support for migration to FJPT, evolution of template includes updates and changes to baseline FJPT configuration and local instances
- Provide POCs to coordinate FAS Business Lines migration activities
- Community of Practice and resource as FAS transitions work and process to Agile Lifecycle Management tools (Jira, Confluence, etc.)
If you would like more information about the FAS Jira Working Group and/or to be included in additional communications, please contact the chair, Dara Logan (dara.logan@gsa.gov), and/or your Agile Coach.
Requesting a New Project
Please work with the FAS Jira Working Group, your OST Product Manager or the Agile Coaches to request, set up, and configure new Jira Projects and Confluence Spaces. Requests for Jira and/or Confluence accounts and access may be submitted through your project administrator, Confluence and Jira accounts can be requested through the Atlassian User Support Portal, or email gsa-jira.support@gsa.gov.
Please note when submitting a request through the Help Desk Portal that the FAS Jira Project Template (FJPT) configuration should be used as a baseline. GSA IT Jira is the required software for all vendors to plan, track, and release software.
Community Resources: Agile in Action
The FAS Agile in Action Community of Practice serves as a helpful forum for teams across GSA to share experiences and questions about their respective Agile journeys. The community holds sessions every quarter to present on specific Agile practices. These sessions cover a wide variety of topics including risk management, Jira tools, and many others. Visit the sections below to learn more about these topics and how you can continue to improve your team's Agile implementation.
Customer Experience (CX)
Visit the Agile in Action session below where several Agile leaders showed how Agile is capable of supporting the customer experience and the digital experience through aligning with the cyclical timelines for change management and design.Jira for Agile Practices & Ceremonies
Jira also has many useful tools for supporting Agile ceremonies including standups, sprint planning, PI planning, retrospectives, and so forth. For additional information on implementing Jira for these use cases, visit the Jira Training page.
Recording Questions & Responses Presentation Slides
Managing Risks in Agile Projects
There are several tools and frameworks available for analyzing probability and impact of potential project risks and prioritizing them accordingly.
Jira for Reporting & Testing
Explore the recent Agile in Action session, which showed how Jira can fulfill several use cases for carrying out product testing and creating reports to communicate the results.
Jira Training
The trainings below are grouped by topic, covering overall use cases, work breakdown, risks and issues, and the layout of Jira and Confluence. For additional information on Jira and Confluence, please contact the FAS Jira Working Group via Dara Logan at dara.logan@gsa.gov.
FAS Jira Project Template (FJPT)
The training linked below offers a full walkthrough of the FAS Jira Project Template (FJPT) and illustrates how Jira has been used within FAS-IT to simplify the process of implementing Agile principles.
FAS Jira Training
High-Level Overview
These trainings cover general use cases for Jira in an Agile environment, including sprint planning, standups, PI planning, and so forth.
Risks and Issues
These trainings provide tips on documenting and structuring issues and risks in Jira.
Risk Issue Type Link Issues in Jira Jira Issue Dependencies Search Issues in Jira
Exporting Issues Parent - Child Links
Work Breakdown
These trainings offer guidance on creating and structuring different types of work in Jira, including epics, stories, and subtasks.
Creating Epics Creating Stories Creating Subtasks
Jira Logon and Layout
These trainings outline general navigation tips to keep in mind while using Jira.
Logging into Jira Top Bar Menu Sidebar Menu
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