How should I do backlog grooming when working in OnDemand?

[John Macleod]

I have a backlog that is currently unmanageable (>1,000 lines in Excel). I am choosing what management tool to move it into. I am concerned that OnDemand JIRA/Greenhopper will not allow me to do the following:

1. Build multi-level epic hierarchies to structure the backlog appropriately
2. Split stories as they are refined to an appropriate granularity for scheduling

Any thoughts on how JIRA/Greenhopper can best support these (and other) backlog grooming activities. I have seen the "Structure" plugin mentioned, but I don't think it's available for OnDemand (right?) and the UI didn't look that great...

[John Macleod · Accepted solution]

Have chosen JIRA in the end - working around the limited behaviour for Epics/Story hierarchies.

[Igor Sereda [ALM Works]]

John -

Structure plugin indeed solves that problem for other companies. But you're right, Structure is not available for OnDemand so far. It's Atlassian's call, which plugins to enable on OnDemand, so feel free to vote for https://studio.atlassian.com/browse/JST-3705 or ask your Atlassian contact about it.

We're constantly improving Structure plugin, so I'll be happy to learn what did you not like about Structure UI - feel free to write me to sereda@almworks.com or post to our uservoice forum / jira.

Igor

[John Macleod]

Thanks Igor. I voted for it.

If I get some time I will try and give some more constructive feedback on the Structure plugin user experience. Right now I guess I just didn't feel that it was intuitive. But I may just be being thick. Will give it some more attention soon and read through the available documentation etc.

[Igor Sereda [ALM Works]]

Thanks, John!

[Renjith Pillai]

Jira links, along with Link Heirarchy Plugin also helps.