When Your JIRA Standards are Too Low

Have you ever felt like your backlog on JIRA has turned into a hot mess? Missing descriptions, no components, or maybe some issues are a year old! If this is the case, your JIRA standards are too low and it is time to set some higher standards for you and your team. Routine backlog grooming can help with prioritization of issues but when there is list of junk on the backlog it can get overwhelming. JIRA is a simple issue-tracking, and project management tool. Enforcing data standards in JIRA will help in the long-run with reporting, and also saves time when you need to figure out what was completed, and the result of the work. Below, are few ideas for you to try today to clean-up your backlog and set higher standards.

Set Mandatory Fields
Set mandatory fields such as ‘component’ or ‘description’ and ‘Estimate’ fields so that the issue can be reviewed at a later time without any question as to what was completed and what the level of effort may be. It may seem obvious to put a description but some may feel a title filled with acronyms is enough. On top of that, I have also witnessed completed issues without an assignee, so anything is possible.
Remove Issues
It is okay to remove issues. If the issues are no longer needed, or even worse, they no longer make sense then it is time to remove it from the product backlog. If anything, the issues can be reopened. However, keeping a long-list of unwanted features, or bug tracking tools, can make it appear as if there is more work to do than necessary.
QA regularly
Set some time each week to review items on the backlog. This is a work-in-progress, so it may not be perfect right away. Is there a description? Does it make sense? Is there acceptance criteria, or a definition of done?
Clear Purpose
Ensure that your team understands the purpose of JIRA. If you have multiple teams or projects, I recommend having the team leads reinforce these standards. With multiple teams or projects, it may become difficult to manage if the purpose is not defined from the beginning.

Above are just a few steps to cleaning up your backlog on JIRA and setting some standards. It is not too late to start developing new standards for your team moving forward.

Good luck.

Sorry To Hijack Your Meeting

If you ever catch yourself saying something like, “sorry to hijack your meeting” then you are rude, inconsiderate, and disrespectful. Stop taking over meetings. Just wait your turn. You may feel as if you are being polite by apologizing but all you are doing is wasting the time of someone who took the time to set the meeting up. You are also wasting the other attendees time. Whoever facilitated the meeting took time out their work make sure there was a call-in number, the right people were invited and carefully crafted an agenda! Take the time to schedule your own meeting, if you have something important to discuss.

Yours sincerely,

A Meeting Facilitator

Jump Right In

Not a fan of starting my blog posts with a typical vague introduction. I kind of prefer to just jump right in. The less I try to be like other bloggers, the more fun blogging gets. Writing freely without worrying about form, SEO, a targeted audience, or sticking to a theme is actually quite enjoyable.

When I did follow the templates and guides, I still wasn’t making any money or getting any views. So why suppress your real style? If writing is something you enjoy, then simply write.