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Why JIRA is best for managing tasks on larger projects

There are dozens of popular tools currently being used to help manage Agile projects. For managing tasks on large or complex projects, however, JIRA has proven to be a more useful tool than than Trello. This is for a number of reasons, which are not limited to the following.

  • Swimlanes – Trello does not have Epic, Assignee, Story, Query or any swim lanes
  • Column constraints – Trello does not have work in progress (WIP) limits or constraints on columns
  • Labels / Components – Trello has a limited number of coloured labels and does support components
  • Task types – Trello does not specify task types, e.g. Epic, Story, Feature, Task, To do, Bug, Subtask, Improvement, etc.
  • GitHub integration – Trello does not display related development branches, commits and pull requests from GitHub
  • Version control – Trello does not support Fix Version and Affects Version for build and release planning
  • IDs – the Trello ID extension is limited and cannot be exported to MS Excel
  • Parent tasks and subtasks – Trello does not provide subtasks
  • Status and transition workflows – Trello does not support workflows
  • Reporting – Trello extensions have limited reports that are not automated from custom lists

Perception versus reality
There are some perceptions that need to be addressed before JIRA can be embedded into a team or department that have been using Trello successfully, but are unaware of its limitations.

Perception Reality
Providing Detail JIRA is more work as more information is required. Developers should be coding, not adding information to tools. Many JIRA fields are optional and can also be hidden. However, most of the information should be provided in any tool or repository to improve planning, transparency, tracking and team collaboration.
Interface Trello has a much better interface and custom backgrounds. Everything is in one screen.
JIRA has lists and is confusing.
The dreaded list view is optional. Developers are only required to view three JIRA Agile screens:
1. ‘Scrum Board > Active Sprints’  – during a sprint;
2. ‘Scrum Board > Backlog’ – during sprint planning and backlog refinement;
3. Issue Edit – to view, edit or transition an issue (task).
Other screens are optional, but useful to advanced users and stakeholders.

JIRA configuration
JIRA is most useful when it is fully configured to how a team want to work, i.e. how they want to manage tasks and defects. In the project below, issue types, workflows (statuses and transitions), a Scrum Board (swim lanes and columns) and the Issue Edit screen were fully configured to the project team’s requirements. For reporting, numerous filters were created to feed into Dashboard Gadgets.

The Agile Scrum Board was configured to reflect the physical task board (used in daily Scrums) and the statuses created on the complex workflow (see below). Assignee swim lanes were configured to easily see who was working on what, as with the physical task board.

Developer Screen 1 - JIRA Agile > Scrum Board > Active Sprints
Multiple Epics were created to reflect the major task groupings of the project on the Scrum Board Backlog.

Developer Screen 2 – JIRA Agile > Scrum Board > Backlog

The issue editor was configured to hide fields that were not required until the later stages of the project, e.g. Priority, Affects Version, Fix Version, etc.

JIRA Trello


JIRA Edit Screen 2
Trello Edit Screen

The workflows enabled the series of activities required to complete a task to be easily stepped through and adhered to. A simple and complex workflow was created for non-technical and technical tasks respectively.

Simple Workflow – Non-Technical Tasks Complex Workflow – Technical Tasks
1. Standard Task
2. Standard Sub-task
JIRA Simple Workflow – Non-Technical Tasks
1. Story or Defect
2. Technical Sub-taskJIRA Complex Workflow – Technical Tasks

Finally, filters were created for each task grouping and Sprint to utilise Dashboard Gadgets that are refreshed at regular intervals. The use of JIRA Dashboards will be covered in a separate post.

In summary, when configured fully, JIRA is a very powerful tool for managing large and complex projects. Once a configuration has been used successfully for one project, it can be easily copied and tailored to other projects.  However, to avoid months of trial and error, we recommend an experienced JIRA administrator, who has previously configured and used JIRA in anger to deliver various projects, is brought in to efficiently configure JIRA to your team’s requirements.

@BarryAgile

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BY @BarryAgile IN Agile, Agile Tools, Case Study JIRA, Team, Trello
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