How are dependencies done in JIRA Agile?

[Jim Drewniak]

I am new to the products because I am performing an evaluation.  I apologize if I am user the wrong terms to describe my need.   I have a need to establish and track dependencies from a user story (US)in one project to another one in a different project.  We have many projects in flight at one time. 

Is there a demo / walk through that is available that will show me how this is done?

I saw some discussion about dependencies between Epics.  I want to focus on the US for now.

[Jason Hayman]

Late to the conversation here, but in case others come along like I did.

We also need to indicate dependencies and found:

1. an option to show dependencies via Portfolio
2. the option to use Issue Linking

Issue linking does not have a dependencies option by default. So, we created one. You can do this by going to Settings (global, not project or board) -> Issue Linking -> Add New Link Type. We set it up as follows:

1. Name = Dependent
2. Outward Link Description = a dependent of
3. Inward Link Description = is dependent on

I hope this helps someone else.

[Jody Anderson]

This was helpful to me, as we just started to get into a space where teams will have dependencies on each other.  We're going to consider:

• Creating this new link type
• Using Parent and Child links, which are in our Cloud version of Jira
• Or using the Blocked link type recommended by Jack in this discussion https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Portfolio-for-Jira-questions/JIRA-Dependencies-tracking/qaq-p/824228

Atlassian folks - if you have a current recommendation, appreciate your input.  

[Elizabeth Akagla]

Hi Jim,

JIRA may have the ability to extract this information, and there may be plug-ins that enable filters to obtain information on linked issues, release dates, and sprint end dates from JIRA.

Release dates are managed through fixVersions and we use a code name to designate a release.

Iterations and iteration end dates are managed through the Agile Boards; we use the Sprint identifier, e.g. ProjectNameSprint99 to signify the iteration. The team is aware of iteration start and end dates.

Story state is available from JIRA.

For an issue, project ABC, number 123: ABC-123 would be linked to ABC-144 (typically we used "blocked by" or "relates to" or "duplicates" which may be a customisation of the standard implemenation). It provides visibility of dependencies on an issue by issue basis.

Kindly,

Elizabeth

[Greg Carpenter]

Thanks.

"Blocked by" is too heavy a hammer for dependencies for us. For us it means "I'm working on a story in the current sprint and I'm blocked by ..." Similar to using a red "Blocked" label in Trello and tagging cards with it.

Dependencies describe an order in which things need to done.  At a minimum I want, when I try to drag a story (or task) x into a sprint and story x depends story y being "Done", I'm told that I can't do that before story y is done. And if I try to drag story y above story x in the backlog, I can't do that either. It's deviation from pure Agile where the relative order of cards in the Backlog is assumed to tell the whole story.

We'd be happy with "Depends on" as a type of issue link if it came along with "you can't do that" as described above.  We do think some about  dependencies when prioritizing the backlog up front before we start sprinting. 

[Brian Walsh]

Greg, How did you end up on this? We're you able to find a work around, add-on, or other solution? I am having a similar issue. We use MS Project and Jira but all my dependencies are in Jira at a story level, not at an Epic level. 

[Jim Drewniak]

Elizabeth,

Thank you for you information.  This was very helpful.

Regards,

Jim

[Jim Drewniak]

Elizabeth,

Interesting, You use the "linking" feature now. 

Do you have something that shows the Predecessor and Successor on the same row.

Maybe something like this?

Predecessor Project

Predecessor Story

Story State

Release Date

Iteration End Date

|||

Successor Project

Successor Story

Story State

Release Date

Iteration End Date

[Elizabeth Akagla]

Hello Jim,

As a JIRA user, my team has used the "linking" feature to track dependencies. I too would be interested in more ways to track dependencies in JIRA.

Best,

Elizabeth

[Jim Drewniak]

Arthur,

Thank you for your response.  I was able to create a board that shows the US of both projects.

Is there a demo / walk through that show how to create the Dependency itself?

Regards,

Jim

[Arthur Gonçalves]

Hi Jim,

I believe that you can take a look on this page from our documentation to accomplish this, as it details how to have a board showing stories from multiple projects (and, thus, creating some kind of dependency as you may note).

-- Arthur Gonçalves