Best Practice

Releases / Versions

Jira swaps "release" and "version" depending on the page that you are looking at.

By tagging issues with a release, we can get a list of items that are released within a version. But, as after we release a version, we can then use the “affected version” field to attach defects and bugs. This then becomes a measure of quality - too many defects against a release may show us a slip in practice or that something was missed. If nothing else, it shows that something can be improved.

Naming Convention

Prefix: Identifier (Where prefix is either Release or Milestone.)

If “release”, then the identifier should indicate either a version, a month, or a change request number.

If “milestone”, then the identifier should indicate what the milestone represents.

Examples

“Milestone: Funding Approval”

“Release: V1.0”

“Release: September 2022”

“Release: CR-39034”

Components

Using the component field for system components allows for quick change management.

The component page shows how many issues are assigned to each component, giving us an idea of how much change is occurring within the area.

The description can be a URL linking to a confluence page - unfortunately, the URL is not shown as a hyperlink, but Chrome/edge gives the ability to open by highlighting and right-clicking. The confluence page is a good idea as it can provide much more details, diagrams, links to other pages and, resources and reports.

Jira shows all issues assigned to the component - unfortunately, it shows all items, not just open items, but clicking on the issues link presents the search field where status can be added to the filter. A confluence page can easily be set up to provide this information also.

Component lead is a great shortcut to knowing who the “go-to person” is for a given area. And the “default assignee” field allows for newly created issues identified within the component to be automatically assigned to the right person.

Naming Convention

System - Container (xN) - Component

Examples

Apparel 21 - ERP - Database

For more details, see The C4 model for visualising software architecture.