Useful files for setting up Drupal projects in JIRA
This collection of files assumes use of Atlassian JIRA for project management.
If you've setup a new project in JIRA before, then you know it'd be nice to have a lot of things setup or pre-entered to make things easier when entering in new user stories. Two key things I use in projects - and would use more frequently if they were in the project to begin with - are epics and components. The files and this README provide a method to load these quickly and easily into your projects.
Some benefits by using a standard starting point include: consistency among your projects, and easier initial organization of user stories per project.
If Epics are preloaded into your new JIRA project, then you immediately have a means of organizing tickets and stories as you add them. Rather than repeating entry of the same list of epics over and over, I've collected some of the most often used ones here. Feel free to add your own to make your own custom Epics list.
Download the BulkCreate-Sample_Epics and Sample_Epics_list files. Using
JIRA's Issues > Import issues from CSV feature, upload the
Sample_Epics_list as the data source (required) and the
BulkCreate-Sample_Epics as the settings file (not required, but easier)
If uploaded correctly and your JIRA instance is compatible, you should see:
You will still need to specify into which project these Epics should be imported.
Once the import is completed, when you return to your project Backlog view:
One of the most under-used and under-appreciated tools in JIRA, Components allow users to organize and tag Stories and tickets. For Drupal projects, a natural extension is to use Content Types, and Regions to catalog work and identify connections among tickets, during testing or QA, for example.
If you're not already familiar with Postman (https://www.getpostman.com), I encourage you to do so. It's a great tool for testing and using with API endpoints. There is a Chrome app as well as a standalone app.
Unfortunately, it's not as easy to import Components into a project in JIRA.
You can import stories and epics with associations to components, but they
need to be already existing. We'll get around this by leveraging JIRA's REST
API and the Postman app to import our list of Components. This list is the
JSON file components_description.json with Titles and Descriptions. Edit
this file to your liking.
Once you have downloaded and set up Postman, set up your first Collection. For this Collection, you'll need the URL of the JIRA instance you'll be importing the Components into. First, in the Authorization tab, use Basic Auth along with your username and password for the JIRA instance, to create a base-64 encoded Header for all requests. You'll need this in the next step.
To shortcut this, you can import the Collection preset, and update this
appropriately. Use the Add Components.postman_collection.json file, but
update:
- JIRA instance URL -
http://YOURJIRAINSTANCE.atlassian.net - JIRA project shortcode -
[PROJECTCODE]
Next, add your username and password to access the JIRA project. Postman will convert this to a base64 encoded string. In the Authorization tab, use Basic Auth along with your username and password for the JIRA instance, to create a base-64 encoded Header for all requests. The Header will be added automatically.
Once imported, check the Collection header's settings:
In body, use the following settings to allow us to leverage the data file.
To connect these variables - the title and description - we need to
assign the variables:
Once your collection is set up, next go to the Collection Runner, to
connect it with the data set of Components.
For more information about using Postman to run multiple datasets: https://www.getpostman.com/docs/multiple_instances
In most projects with only a few people, a simple workflow such as To Do -> Doing -> Done is sufficient. However, once a dedicated QA resource, multiple developers and a diligent product owner are involved, then it's time for an appropriate workflow.
The workflow provided here, Agile Drupal Workflow.xml represents a good
place to start with your projects.
Developers pick up tickets that are marked as Ready to Select and move them
to In Progress. Once completed, they're submitted for Code Review, by way
of a Ready for Review queue state. (This queue state is repeated throughout
the workflow) Once merged and deployed to a development environment for
testing, it goes to QA (by way of Ready for QA) and then to a Ready for
Staging queue. Once a Staging deployment is done, tickets move to Staging
Review, and that marks the end of our development workflow.
When creating a project in JIRA, you can import this Workflow and apply it to all ticket types, or just Bugs and Stories, for example.