In an agile methodology, we deliver the project components and their fixes into several iterations and each such iteration has a number of issues or tasks associated with it. Each iteration when released to the production is given a particular release name known as version and such release is often called Project release version 1.0 and so on. In JIRA we can associate a number of issues with a version in JIRA and such issues after completed, they are delivered under the umbrella name of some version. The below screenshot shows the number of issues associated with Version 1.0 and under the “MFA Sprint 2” sprint which is about to get started.
In this tutorial, we are going to learn about version features of JIRA as follows.
Creating a version in JIRA:
In agile development methodology, requirements and changes evolve with time in self-managed and cross-functional teams. Therefore new requirements and changes in a project are released as iterations. Each such iteration with the set of new features and defect fixes release together as a single update to your application or product are termed as Project Release version. The release version is like a number e.g. 1.0, 1.1.0, etc.
Below are the steps through which we can add a version to an existing project in JIRA.
Step 1: Click the Agile link’s down-arrow in the top navigation bar, it will display the dropdown menu from which select the preferred board.
Step 2: Click Backlog to select the board.
Step 3: Click on the VERSION present on the left-hand side which will expand to give the full view of the VERSION feature on the board as shown in the below screenshot.
Step 4: Click on the link “Create version” which is present at the right top corner of the version. It will open up a dialogue box in JIRA as shown in the screenshot below, asking you to enter required version details for a project such as a name, description, start date, and end date for this version of the project.
Step 5: Enter name for the version (here Version 1.0), a short description (here version to my first project), start date, and end date. Make sure the start date is always less than or equal to the end date. After entering all such details click create button to create the version. A confirmation dialogue box will pop up as shown below.
Step 6: Created Version 1.0 will be visible on the VERSION panel at the left-hand side of the Backlog board as shown below in the screenshot.
Adding an Issue to a version in JIRA:
In the last step, we have learned to create a version but we haven’t added any issue to it. Below are the steps to add an issue to the Version.
Step 1: Click the Agile link’s down-arrow in the top navigation bar, it will display the dropdown menu from which select the preferred board.
Step 2: Click Backlog to select the board.
Step 3: On the left-hand side of the Backlog board, expand the VERSION tab. It will display all the versions created in the current project.
Step 4: Simply drag and drop the issue from either from the backlog list or the sprints to the intended version on the left-hand side version panel as shown in the below screenshot.
Step 5: In the above screenshot, we have added issue MFP-5 to the Version 1.0, therefore the version
1.0 has been successfully added to this issue as shown in the below screenshot.
Alternatively, the version can be added to the issue directly on the issue description page as given in the following steps.
Step 1: Click to open an issue (here MFP-4) either from the issue dropdown menu or from any board. The issue can be searched if you know the issue identification number.
Step 2: It will open up the issue description as shown in the below screenshot.
Step 3: In the Fix Version/s field type the version name, JIRA will start showing all the available version names matching the characters that you have entered (here Version 1.0).
Step 4: Click on the check button present below the field to commit the changes as shown in the below screenshot. Doing so issue MFP-4 will get associated with Version 1.0 and the same will be visible across all boards.
In JIRA, we can associate one issue with multiple versions. To do so, simply type another version name and repeat the above steps. This can also be achieved by drag and drop on the backlog board as we have learned before.
Removing an Issue from a Version:
Removing version from the issue is very simple and below are the steps.
Step 1: Click the Agile link’s down-arrow in the top navigation bar, it will display the dropdown menu from which select the preferred board.
Step 2: Click Backlog or Active sprint to select the board.
Step 3: In the Backlog board, drag and drop the issue onto the Issues without versions section at the bottom of the Versions panel as shown in the below screenshot.
Step 4: This will remove the version level from the issue (here MFP-5).
Tracking a release:
A release for a project can be tracked in a detailed form. Below are the steps to track a release:
Step 1: From the left-hand side panel click on the “Releases” icon. It will display all the versions of the projects which are in progress as shown in the below screenshot.
Step 2: Click on the link “Version 1.0”, to view the detailed summary of the project release version as well as the progress of issues that falls under this version as shown in the below screenshot.
Releasing a version (Kanban board):
In JIRA, we can create a Kanban board for a particular release version which helps in very smooth tracking of the issues associated with it. Kanban focuses on visualizing your workflow and limiting work-in-progress to facilitate incremental improvements to your existing process.
The below screenshot demonstrates the Kanban board which is created for version 1.0. It shows the progress of all issues which are clubbed together under version 1.0.
To create a Kanban board, we are going to learn in detail in the next tutorial of this series.
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1 thought on “Planning a version in JIRA”
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