Use releases on board



Releases are containers for versions (by analogy from Agile methodology: Epic = Release, Story = Version).

You can organize and manage complex releases with multiple versions from various projects within.

Releases have their own configurable workflow.

You can perform the following actions on the Releases tab:

  • explore all releases on the board

  • view released details

  • create/update/delete releases

  • change status of the release using drag-and-drop

  • archive/unarchive releases

  • search releases by name

  • search releases by Archived status

  • search releases by Delayed status

  • sort releases in the column using drag-and-drop

Releases are displayed as cards with the following information:

  • name

  • start date

  • release date and delay status

  • release issues progress statistics

Create release

Click  "Create release" button to open a new release dialog:

  • Name - release name is the only mandatory field.

  • Description, Start date, Release date are optional.

  • Projects in release - add multiple projects and versions to the release. You can add existing and new versions from multiple projects to the release.  Learn more about "Projects in release".



After clicking "Save" button the new release is added to the bottom of the first board column:

Change release status and order

You can drag-and-drop releases between columns to change their status and reorder inside one column.

Release summary

If you click a release card on the board the Release Details dialog is displayed with the active Summary tab by default.

You can view and update the following release fields using inline editing:

  • name

  • description

  • versions

  • status

  • start date

  • release date

In addition to release properties the following information about the release is available:

  1. issues statistics

  2. projected release date

Release comments & transitions

Users can view/add all comments and edit/delete own comments.

Comments are displayed in the "Comments" tab sorted by comment create date. The newest comments are displayed on top of the list:

All release transitions are tracked automatically and are displayed on the Transitions tab of the version details.

Each transition includes the following details:

  • The user who changed the release status

  • Date and time of the status change

  • How long the release was in the source status

Issues statistics

Issues statistics is a progress widget which shows the number of issues in the release grouped by issue status category: To Do, In Progress, Done

The issue statistics widget data are calculated the same way as on Version Statistics page in Jira Releases.

In addition to issues by status category the number of flagged issues is also displayed.

You can browse issues of any status category and flagged issues using statistics number link.

Projected release date

Projected release date and the release delay duration in days is calculated based on version start date, release date and issues statistics.

You can find the details on projected release date, delayed status and delay duration calculation logic in the FAQ section.

Manage versions in the release

You can add multiple Fix Versions and Virtual Versions into release.

Virtual Versions

You can add only existing virtual versions to the release. Just click on the lokup to add items from dropdown:

Fix Versions

All fix versions already added to the release are displayed as grouped by their projects.

You can add new version from those projects or select a new project to add its first version to the release.

You can also create a new version in any project and add it to the release provided that you have Project Administrator permissions in that project.

Synchronizing versions in the release

One of the use cases for the "Release" functionality of the App is by-passing Jira limitation of version being tied to a single project only. Thus clients with our "Releases" simulating  single release going through all the projects selected. With this regards the expectations are to have # of fields synchronized, namely

  • Name

  • Description

  • Start date

  • Release date

Therefore, we created "Synchronize versions" functionality for the release. To enable it click on "Synchronize versions" toggle while Editing the Release

As a result all the included versions names, descriptions and dates will be aligned. From this moment on all the changes to Release details will be automatically propagated to all the included versions.



In case two versions in the release are selected from the same project we will use "_1", "_2", ... "_N" suffixes to differentiate them.

Customize synchronization

In case you want to sync only sub-set of the fields please click on configuration icon close "Synchronize versions" toggle to specify exact fields you want to sync now and alert on being "not-in-sync" 

Alert for versions not-in-sync

If "Synchronize versions" toggle is turned on the App will identify any change happening to corresponding versions and notify you next time you open Release dialog about versions not being in Sync.

Once you click on "Synchronize " all the versions will be yet again synchronized.

Release issues

You can browse all release issues on the Issues tab of Release details dialog.

Release issues are issues of all its versions. That's why overall Issues functionality is the same as for versions.

There are however some differences too because release can contain versions from different projects.

Filter issues

In addition to filtering options available in versions you can filter versions by projects in releases.

Add existing issues

Scope

You can add issue only into Fix Versions that's in scope of the Release. This functionality is not applicable for Virtual versions as they are filters by JQL or Epic key.



In the opened Add issues dialog you can search for and select one or several issues.

You also need to select one of the release version the issues to be added to.



Add new issues

Scope

You can add issue only into Fix Versions that's in scope of the Release. This functionality is not applicable for Virtual versions as they are filters by JQL or Epic key.

Users with Create Issue permission can add new issue to the version using simplified Create issue form with three fields:

  • Version - Create Issue permission for a project of the selected version

  • Issue type

  • Summary

Use Create another checkbox if you need to create more than one issue. In that case Create Issue dialog will be reopened automatically once the new issue is saved.

Code View

Please see details about code view in Track source code changes chapter.

Bulk version actions in the release



Bulk version status change

User is able to update status of multiple versions in release (it means to move them from one column to another one) in bulk.

This feature could be called from the release editing screen:

Alternatively, Trough popup menu by right click on release card:

On the “Move versions” dialog the user can choose:

  • New destination column for all versions to be moved

  • New versions release date. This option will appear if Jira versions status will be changed from Unreleased to Released during the status update

  • Tailor a set of versions to be updated. User can remove from the lists, the version which should be excluded from the bulk update.

In case, a user doesn’t have permissions to update legacy Jira version status, such versions will not be moved to the new destination column. Those versions will be shown in a separate section of the dialog.

Bulk versions start/release date change

User can update start and release dates for nested versions in release in a bulk. In order to do so, choose “Schedule” option on Release details screen or in popupmenuby right-clicking:

The dialog allows to update start or release dates for releases, and all nested versions in release; automatically apply release dates to all versions.

Version dates will be greyed if a user doesn't have permissions to edit versions. Also, in such cases, a release date will not be set for versions when “Apply to all versions” checkbox is checked.

Bulk version archived status change

User can archive or unarchive nested versions in releases in bulk. Such an option will appear automatically while attempting to archive or unarchive a release that has nested versions:

In the dialog box, the user can tailor a set of versions to be archived.

A bulk archive or unarchive dialog will not appear in the following cases:

  • Release does not have any nested versions.

  • User does not have sufficient permissions to archive/unarchive any nested version in the release.

  • All versions with sufficient permissions have already been archived or unarchived

Milestones

In addition to custom workflows for versions and releases, Release Management app allows to create intermediate milestones for both that could be

  • either linked to accomplishments of certain steps in workflow

  • or other important check-ins, not necessarily connected with workflow steps

Once specified for versions and/or releases, milestones will be outlined on Roadmap view (incl. Gadgets) as well as become input parameters for Burnup and Trends Reports (incl. Gadgets).

For more details please navigate to Milestones "on the way" section of this documentation.

Commits 

Please see details about Commits tab in Track source code changes chapter.

Tags

Tags functionality is similar to labels functionality in Jira. The major difference is in context: Tags are applied on a release level in contrast to labels which are applied on issue level.

User can assign multiple Tags to each release. In order to do so:

  1. Open release details screen

  2. Start typing in the Tags field

  3. User will be suggested to add existed labels or create a new one

Filter by Tags

User can filter by tags using Tags filter:

Archive release

The user can archive and unarchive releases from the  popup menu, by right-clicking:

The releases on the board may be filtered by Archived property:

In a situation where both archived and unarchived releases are shown on the board, archived releases will be "greyed" and an “Archived” label will appear in the right top corner. Archived releases may be moved to another column or edited without any restrictions.

  1. Archived release

  2. Unarchived release

Delete release

A user can delete a release from the board. In order to do so, right click on the release and choose the "Delete" option: