Renaming “Releases“ to “Packages“

Topics

Overview

In order to navigate to the board administration, click on the "Settings" button in the top right corner of the release board.

The board configuration screen consists of 3 tabs:

• General - it allows you to configure basic board parameters, add or delete projects and share the board with other users.

• Versions workflow - this tab helps to define custom versions workflow by adding, changing or removing columns. Also, define a binding between Jira "Released" / "Unreleased" built-in statuses and custom columns on the board.

• Packages workflow - this tab helps define custom packages workflow by adding, changing or removing columns.

General tab

On the General tab an administrator can:

• change the board name

• add or delete board administrators

• add or remove projects from the board

• configure board appearing properties

The updated values are saved without page refresh after the edited field loses focus.

Projects in the board

You can add projects to the release board or remove them. Versions from selected projects are displayed on the board. 

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Project picker should only show the projects where the current user has Browse project permissions. In the opposite situation, the project should be hidden in the list. The same logic is applied to all projects in the board which have  already been added to the board by other users.

Permissions management

There are two levels of board permissions: Administration and Browse permissions.

Board Administration permission

Board administrators are able to browse the board and change its configuration. It is possible to add multiple administrators to the board by mixing individual users and groups. 

Global Jira administrators have Administrative access to each release board. It doesn't matter if they are explicitly added to the board as Administrators, or not.

The board administrator can delete themself from the list of board administrators. In that case, a warning dialog will be displayed, and after receiving a confirmation prompt, and clicking Confirm, the user will lose administrative permissions.

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Board Browse permission

Browse board permission is granted by using the "Share board with" feature. Board administrators and global Jira administrators have board browse permissions by default.

If the user has Browse 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:

There are 3 options to share the board:

• Users of projects in board - this option grants View Board permission to all users who have permission to view projects added to the board. 

• Users of projects- View Board permission is granted to all users who have permissions to browse selected projects. 

• Users and groups- share the board with specified users and groups by granting them View Board permission.

Other "General Board" properties

In addition to the above you can configure some of the general board properties, namely

• Disable "Projected Release Date" to remove the field from versions/package summary and reports

• "Estimation statistics" to select a field for stats calculations (Issue Count, Story Points and Original Estimates are available options)

• "AND/OR Filtering" to select what condition will be applied if multiple board filtering selected

• "Default version in package synchronization" to specify what configuration will be used by default for Versions Sync functionality

Manage packages workflow

On the Packages workflow screen the board administrator can:

• Customize packages workflow by adding or removing columns to the board.

• Rename and re-order columns.

• Opt-in for package versions bulk status update

• Transition restrictions

A new column is added to the bottom of the columns list. 

Manage columns

It is possible to perform the following operations with columns:

• Update column name.

• Delete column.

• Change column order.

• Enable nested versions status update on package status change

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.

Checkbox “Update version status” enables automatic update of nested versions status in package in a bulk. If the feature is enabled for a particular column, the bulk status update dialog will be automatically shown in when a package card will be moved in the column.

Read more details about this feature in the “Bulk status update of versions in package” chapter.

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 would need to move all packages from the column before taking this action.

Column & Transitions restrictions

Before App version 3.5.6 (Column restrictions)

Before App version 3.5.6 the board administrator can only apply "column" restriction to allow only specific users or groups to move the package into a particular column.

The restriction could be configured for each column separately by click on  button.

After the button click following configuration dialog will appear:

By default, user and group selector is empty. This means that everybody can move the package to the selected column.

If user or/and group will be selected, then the only selected user or/and groups could move the package to the column. All other people will receive "Insufficient permission" error message.

App version 3.5.6 and above (Transitions restrictions)

After version 3.5.6. board administrators can define restrictions on "transition" level. To do so, click on "Manage" button close to column transitions to open up "Edit Transition Restrictions" dialog

By default "All columns can transition to <Column>" is selected with Empty Restrictions field. You can change that by specifying only specific users and groups that are allowed to do so (empty means everyone can do it). This functionality is equivalent to what we had in versions prior to 3.5.6.

Now you can also specify allowed transitions from this <Column> and users/groups that are allowed to make this action. The rest of the users will be restricted.

Bare in mind that in order to apply restrictions from current column to destination you also need to remove "All columns can transition to <Column>" for the destination column or adjust users/groups accordingly.

Automated bulk version status update 

You can now synchronize package status update (move into specific column) with associated versions status update. To do so click on Board settings\Package workflow.

Select a column you would like to move versions into upon package move.

On Packages tab move any package into the column you configured for "automatic versions move". A dialog will popup where you can amend version status you want to use as well as adjust a list of versions you would like to move.

Amend Release Date on package transition 

You can now configure to force release date update.

Just turn on the toggle for the respective Column. Upon move the dialog will show up with request to specify release date.

If you click "Cancel" transition will be aborted.

Manage versions workflow

On the Versions workflow screen, the board administrator can:

• Create/update/delete version workflow statuses (columns).

• Change the mapping between columns and built-in Jira version statuses.

A new column is added to the bottom of the columns list.

Manage columns

It is possible to perform the following operations with the columns:

• Update column name.

• Update mapping to Jira built-in status.

• Delete column.

• Change column order.

• Apply column restrictions

Change name, status or delete a column 

Column name or mapping to Jira built-in status could be changed using in-place editing in the table. The changes will be automatically saved after finishing the update.

The column will be deleted by clicking on the "Delete" button.

Restrictions

The following restrictions on column update apply:

1. 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).

2. It is not possible to change the column status or delete default columns, marked by icons:  and 

Reorder columns

Re-ordering of Columns can be done using drag-and-drop.

Column & Transitions restrictions

Before App version 3.5.6 (Column restrictions)

The board administrator can apply column restriction to allow only specific users or groups to move the version into a particular column.

The restriction could be configured for each column separately by click on  button.

After the button click following configuration dialog will appear:

By default, user and group selector is empty. This means that everybody can move the version to the selected column.

If user or/and group will be selected, then the only selected user or/and groups could move the version to the column. All other people will receive "Insufficient permission" error message.

App version 3.5.6 and above (Transitions restrictions)

In App version 3.5.6 and above you can not only restrict incoming transitions from other columns for specific user and groups but also so do the same for individual outbound transitions.

Click "Manage" button close to Transitions to activate "Edit Mode"

App version 4.4.0 and above (Permission + additional JQL restrictions for Transitions)

In App version 4.4.0 and in addition to permissions restrictions you can define additional custom JQL restrictions. The classical use cases could be the following:

• move version to "Ready for development" if most of Epics are defined as "Ready for development" 

• move version to UAT if there're no open bugs

• move to "Ready for release" if deployment tasks are created

• etc.

Web Hooks

For web hooks section of Board Settings navigate to Web Hooks.

Custom Properties

For custom properties section of Board Settings navigate to Custom properties for versions and releases.

Version defaults

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 kind 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 …