In order to navigate to the Board’s Admin Page, click on the Settings button in the top right corner of the release board or select Settings from the actions list on the Release Boards Page.
On the General section an administrator can:
change the board name
manage Administrators list (at least one should be specified)
add or remove projects from the board
outline visibility of the board for different users and groups
toggle on/off Projected Release Date (PRD) functionality
configure Epics Scheduling (if required)
defined color coding rules
The following sections outlines this in details.
You can add projects to the release board and/or remove them. All Versions from selected projects are displayed on the board.
Project picker outlines only the projects where current user has “Browse project” permissions. Otherwise, the project will not be available from the list. The same logic is applied to all other projects on the board that have already been added to the board by other users. |
The toggle turns on/off Projected Release Date and Release Delays functionality.
Read more details about how this functionality works here:
We operate we a number of release entities (types) and Epic is one of them. FixVersions/Versions/Releases as well as Sprints have predefined start/end (release) dates that we use through the App. Unfortunately, Epics do not, therefore Advanced Roadmaps and other 3rd party roadmapping products are using different custom fields that are not aligned.
To give our clients ultimate flexibility and let use Release Management together with other Apps we allow to choose Custom Fields for Start and Release dates.
You can automatically hide releases that have not been update for sometime. The following time intervals are supported:
You can configure color coding for cards on the board and bars on the Roadmap and Calendar. Most of options are based on release workflow state or release scope progress.
The rules are the following:
Version (Fix Version)
By Board Column Status (Default)
Blue - Unreleased
Green - Released
By Progress
Green >90% are Done
Yellow >20% are Done
Orange >5% are Done or “in progress” !=0
Grey - 0% done
Custom (see below)
Grey by default
with option to select custom color coding for individual Fix Versions
Epic
Board Column Status (Default)
Blue - Unreleased
Green - Released
By Epic Status
Status Category (Todo, In Progress, Done )
By Progress
Green >90% are Done
Yellow >20% are Done
Orange >5% are Done or “in progress” !=0
Grey - 0% done
Custom (see below)
Grey by default
with option to select custom color coding for individual Epics
Sprint
Board Column Status (Default)
Blue - Unreleased
Green - Released
Sprint Status
Grey - Not Started
Blue - In Progress
Green - Done
By Progress
Green >90% are Done
Yellow >20% are Done
Orange >5% are Done or “in progress” !=0
Grey - 0% done
Custom (see below)
Grey by default
with option to select custom color coding for individual Epics
Virtual Version
Board Column Status (Default)
Blue - Unreleased
Green - Released
By Progress
Green >90% are Done
Yellow >20% are Done
Orange >5% are Done or “in progress” !=0
Grey - 0% done
Custom (see below)
Grey by default
with option to select custom color coding for individual Epics
Package
Board Column Status (Default)
Grey - Todo
Yellow - In Progress
Green - Done
By Progress
Green >90% are Done
Yellow >20% are Done
Orange >5% are Done or “in progress” !=0
Grey - 0% done
Custom (see below)
Grey by default
with option to select custom color coding for individual Epics
If you select Custom in any of the dropdowns all the release items of selected category (Fix Versions, Epics, Sprints, JQL versions) will be color by default in Grey. But this turns on the flexibility of coloring individual release items with the pallet you like (similar to Epics in Jira).
To do so click on release item to show details popup. Close to the name you will see a pallet with an option to pick up a custom color.
There are three levels of Apps permissions, namely
Global Permissions,
Board Administration,
Board Manage & Readonly Permissions.
Global permissions are created automatically when installing the App. There is ongoing issue with Atlassian when on some sporadic cases Global permissions are not properly populated. In this cases, no one can access the App and Jira Global Administrators need to configure it manually.
If you do not see the App in Apps menu please contact your Jira Global Administrators to configure Global permissions manually to add you or/and group you are part of to the settings.
Coming soon |
Global permissions are good to decide who can view/access the application. But once you can view/access you can create any Release Board with Projects that are available to you in order to manage releases. Some companies want to restrict such flexibility to have a limits subset of approved release boards. Therefore, we created a special permission - [Release Management - New Release Board Creation] - that allows to specify users/groups that could create boards in Application.
In Jira by default Components belong to Projects and could be managed by Project Admins only. This overcomplicates cross-project component management. Therefore, most of the Partner Apps that have a functionality for cross-project component management are making all the changes in App-context allowing to override Project Admin permissions.
To give Jira Global Administrators control over it we created a special permission - [Release Management - Global Classic Component Management] - that allows to specify users/groups that could change Components from Release Management w/o being Admin for corresponding Jira Projects. The scope of such permission applies only to the projects listed for the board.
Board Administrators are able to manage the board and change its configuration. It is possible to add a number of Administrators to the board by mixing individual users and groups.
Global Jira Administrators have administrative access to each release board by default. It doesn't matter if they are explicitly added to the board as Administrators, or not.
The Board Administrators can delete themselves from the list unless there is at least one active Administrator remaining in the list. If user tries to delete the last remaining Administrator of the list the warning message will appear preventing this action to happen.
Manage & Readonly board permissions are granted by using the "Permissions" section of board configuration. Board Administrators and global Jira Administrators have board manage permissions by default.
If the user has Manage & Readonly board permission but does not have Browse Project permission - versions from those projects will not be shown on the board. In that case, the user will see a warning next to the board name:
The difference between Manage & Readonly board permissions is the following:
Manage means you can manipulate versions, packages, environments, release notes templates on the board (aka creating, changing, add/remove scope, deleting, archiving)
Readonly means you can only view versions/packages on the board without ability to process them thru the workflow, change scope, assign environments, etc. But you can generate release notes using existing templates, view environments the versions deployed to, get insightful reports, etc.
There are three way to assign Jira Users Manage, Readonly permissions
Users of projects in board
This option grants Board Manage, Readonly permission to all users who have permission to view projects added to the board.
Users of projects
Board Manage, Readonly permission is granted to all users who have permissions to browse selected projects.
Users and groups
Board Manage, Readonly permission is granted to specified Jira Users and groups.
On the Package workflow screen the Board Administrator can:
Customize a package flow by adding or removing columns on the board.
Rename columns.
A new column is added at the bottom of the columns list.
It is possible to perform the following action with columns:
Update column name.
Delete column.
Change column order.
Change name, status or delete a column
Column name may be changed by using in-place editing within the table. These changes will be saved automatically after finishing the update.
The column will be deleted by click on "Delete" button.
If a column contains at least one package it will not be possible to delete it. In order to delete the column, you will need to move all packages from the column before taking this action.
You can also trigger automatic release notes generation for package upon move to specific column
To do so click “Manage“ for the column and turn on “Trigger Release Notes generation“. You would need to pick up one of the Release Notes templates for packages.
If you want to move all corresponding packages into specific column upon package move you can select this option in “Manage“ popup.
You can restrict transition from one column to another by specifying two additional checks, namely:
Outline only specific users and/or groups that are allowed to make the move. E.g. only Compliance team can move packages from “Ready for Compliance Review“ to “Ready for Delivery“.
Define a custom JQL that will be executed upon issues comprising the package and specify conditional clause from transition. E.g. all Epics should be “Ready for Development“ before package moves to “Ready for Development“. Or there should be Zero bugs before package moves to “UAT“.
Once configured Properties can be used in Restrictions definition, namely you can include custom properties in JQL you are using to define restriction. For Packages Workflow only Properties with type=Package could be used.
You can also restrict transitions by validating some properties
While you are validating by property upon transition you can ask for property to be populated if it’s empty.
You can now define custom error messages on workflows restrictions. You can also segregate it between permission restrictions and JQL restrictions.
On the Versions workflow screen, the Administrator of the Board can:
Create/update/delete version workflow statuses (aka columns).
Change the mapping between columns and standard Jira version statuses.
A new column is added at the bottom of the columns list.
Columns represent statuses of release version workflow. The following actions are allowed upon Board Administrator permissions:
Update column (status) caption.
Update mapping to Jira standard status - Released/Unreleased.
Delete column.
Change column order (sequence of steps in the release process).
Change name, status or delete a column
Column name or mapping to Jira standard status could be changed using in-place editing in the table. The changes will be automatically saved after completing the update.
The column will be deleted by clicking on the "Delete" button.
Limitations
In cases where the column contains at least one version, it will not be possible to change the column status or delete it. In order to delete or change the column, please move all versions from the column before implementing this action (Deletion).
It is not possible to change the column status or delete default columns, marked by icons: “blue” and “green” I-icons
Reorder columns
Re-ordering of Columns can be done using drag-and-drop.
Columns are equivalent of steps in your Release Management process, so by changing the order of the columns you automatically changes the sequence of the process steps.
You can also trigger automatic release notes generation for version upon move to specific column
To do so click “Manage“ for the column and turn on “Trigger Release Notes generation“. You would need to pick up one of the Release Notes templates for packages.
You can restrict transition from one column to another by specifying two additional checks, namely:
Outline only specific users and/or groups that are allowed to make the move. E.g. only Compliance team can move version from “Ready for Compliance Review“ to “Ready for Delivery“.
Define a custom JQL that will be executed upon issues comprising the version and specify conditional clause from transition. E.g. all Epics should be “Ready for Development“ before version moves to “Ready for Development“. Or there should be Zero bugs before version moves to “UAT“.
Once configured Properties can be used in Restrictions definition, namely you can include custom properties in JQL you are using to define restriction. For Versions Workflow only Properties with type=Version could be used.
For versions only you can also configure restrictions by Environments. Thus, you can check whether the version was deployed where you expect it prior to move.
You can also restrict transitions by validating some properties
While you are validating by property upon transition you can ask for property to be populated if it’s empty.
You can now define custom error messages on workflows restrictions. You can also segregate it between permission restrictions and JQL restrictions.
By clicking on Release Automation you will see a table with all Automation rules configured/created.
The following rules characteristics will be depicted:
Rule name
Scope (Version/package)
Status (Active/Suspended)
List of Triggers
List of Conditions
Latest History status (Success/Failed)
To Create rule click on “Add rule“ button. To copy or delete rules select appropriate action items on the right.
For more details about Automation navigate to designated section of this documentation: Release Automation.
(Deprecated) Outcoming WebHooks
Custom Properties for Versions and Packages
You can configure version defaults so all your new versions created will be pre-populated with default naming convention, some basic description and list of predefined milestones.
Click on board settings and open “version defaults” section
Here you can defined default name. This a good fit if you use some common naming conventions across the org. Also basic description could be added or some kinf of template for description that people need to fulfil.
Also you can add a list of pre-defined milestones if you have some standard ones for your versions workflow management. Milestones dates are set as +/- offset from the start date of the version to be created.
Once configured the date will be pre-populated when you create a new version …
We also have “Package defaults” in a form of Templating & Templates.
We also have “Package defaults” in a form of Templating & Templates.
You can configure what standard fields you want to show on the card for Versions and Packages. Here’s a list of fields to turn ON/OFF.
Appropriate toggles will be applied to both Versions and Packages apart from Environments toggle that is specific to Versions only. |
You can also define what custom fields you want to show on the card for versions and packages separately. Please find more details at https://releasemanagement.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/RMC/pages/2464579589/Custom+Properties+for+Versions+and+Packages#Card-layout.
Coming soon |
You can define what default columns (standard fields and/or Custom Properties for Versions and Packages) will be shown on List view.
You can define what default columns (standard and/or custom fields) will be shown on Scope tab. You can do it for Versions and Packages separately.
Once user makes changes on the scope tab to create own preference … default configuration will be overwritten for that specific user and stored in his/her storage.
Good to propagate some custom fields and/or additional taxonomy onto scope tab.
In “Non-working Days“ section of Board Configuration you can setup backout periods.
To create one put the name you would like to use in the hints, start/end date and one of suggested colors from the pallet. The periods could not be overlapping.
We support inline editing so to amend click on any property of existing period in the grid to change.
To delete period click on delete button on the right. You would need to confirm before blackout period will be permanently deleted.
Once configured in board sessions backout periods will be shown on Calendar and Roadmap view using the shades of the colors picked up. Once you put the mouse on the day caption a tooltip with backout hint will be show.
Same functionality is available in Roadmap and Calendar gadgets.