Managing Versions on Release Board

Any Tab/View … Same Version

We have different tabs/views in the App to outline versions and versions are depicted also differently, namely

But apparently this is same version an clicking on it will open up same Version Details dialog

Type of Versions

Please refer to https://releasemanagement.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/RMC/pages/2504458297 section of this documentation to understand different type of versions we support. In the rest paragraphs of this section we will treat version as one of Fix Versions, Cross Project Versions or Virtual Versions (Epics, Sprints and JQL Versions). If we do not make difference the logic/functionality applies to all types. In case some logic/functionality is limited to specific version type we will outline it explicitly.

Board View

Board view is designated to manage versions and track progress according to versions workflow defined. It’s organized by Columns (Statuses / Workflow Steps) and Swimlanes (optional). Read more below what are capabilities are there for you to manage versions.

Common Operations with Versions

Creating & Editing Version

Please refer to https://releasemanagement.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/RMC/pages/2504458297 section of this documentation to understand how to create different type of versions.

Archiving Versions

Right click on any version to choose Archive. Or click on any version to open Version Details dialog, scroll to bottom to find Actions menu and choose Archive.

Archiving is just a flag to show that version is probably very old and you do not need any more on your screen so the loading time is improved.

Deleting Versions

Right click on any version to choose Delete. Or click on any version to open Version Details dialog, scroll to bottom to find Actions menu and choose Delete.

  • Deleting Fix version permanently deletes it from App and Jira.

  • Deleting Cross-project version permanently deletes the aggregate from the App and all encompassing Fix versions from the App and Jira (upon confirmation).

  • Deleting Virtual version based on JQL just drops it from the App

  • Deleting Virtual version based on Epic/Sprint drops it from the App while coresponsinding Epic/Sprint won't be deleted in Jira

Tagging versions

Read more about

Merging versions

Only for Fix Versions and not supported for Virtual Versions.

You can easily merge version into another. To do so right click on the version you want to merge

or click on it to find “Merge“ in actions menu

You will be asked to select a destination version

Versions for the same project will be suggested only.

Upon confirmation all the issues will be reassigned to destination version and the source version will be deleted.

Versions Workflow

Configure versions workflow

You can configure custom versions workflow in the board configuration.

When you create a new board it goes with 3 “default“ statuses which are displayed as board columns:

  • Todo

  • In Progress

  • Done

You can add your own status (e.g. UAT) and define its position in the workflow sequence

For more details please navigate to section of this documentation.

Change versions order and/or status

With the drag-and-drop you can move versions to another column to update their statuses.

Each board column is mapped to version's standard Released or Unreleased status.

  • Unreleased is usually used for Todo, In Progress, Integration testing and UAT, etc.

  • Released is usually is used for Done

Mark version as Released/Unreleased

When you move a version to another column the version status is automatically changed to released or unreleased based on the destination column mapping.

When version is released due to its status change the Release version dialog is displayed:

You can specify a release date and oversee all the version's unfinished tasks in this dialog.

Version Details dialog

Summary tab

By clicking on a version on the release board the Version Details dialog is shown. By default, “Summary” tab is displayed. For all the future occurrences the system will remember your last tab and navigate you to it.

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

 

On the top`right corner of the dialog you can see an icon to copy deep link for the versions to use externally. also ability to zoom in/out dialog if you have a lot of data.

Projected release date (PRD) & release delay duration

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

When version is delayed the “Release date” is highlighted with red color and the delay duration in days is displayed next to it.

Version PRD

Version PRD is calculated when all conditions below are met:

  • SD is not empty

  • SD is in the past

  • % of done work >=30%

  • Version is unarchived

  • Version is unreleased

Version delay status

The version is considered as delayed in two cases:

  1. RD is not empty and RD is in the past

  2. RD is not empty and PRD is calculated and PRD > RD

Version delay duration

Version delay duration in days is shown if the version is delayed (see above) and ReleaseDate is not empty.

if (RD < today)

{

    return (PRD !=null && PRD > today) ? (PRD-RD) : (today-RD);

}

else

{

    return (PRD > RD) ? (PRD-RD) : 0;

}

Scope statistics

Issues statistics is a “Progress Widget” that shows the number of issues by corresponding statuses - To Do, In Progress and Done - as they defined in issues workflows.

For calculating data for the widget we took the same approach as Atlassian calculating Version Statistics Page in Jira Releases. So you should expect to see pretty much the same data.

By clicking on any of the statistic numbers you will be automatically redirected to “Issues View“ with the appropriate filter applied to review corresponding issues list.

Atlassian has recently (Spring’23) introduced Related work functionality for Releases (versions). In a nutshell, this is a look up of different activities associated with Releasing the versions that could be connected to some external links as well as Jira Issues. Read more details here.

If this is smth you use we seamlessly support it in our App.

Click on any Fix version …

.. under the packages section you will find Related work.

You will see existing related work added either in Release Management App or in Jira’s Release Hub. You can also add new items.

Comments

You can leave comments for any version in rich text format to share some details or insights with your team.

You can also Edit it if you made some typoo or delete completely.

History of transitions

You can see an audit trail of all transitions, namely who and when made the move.

Changes history

Similar to transitions history “changes history“ tab outlines all the changes performed to version, the date and the user performed the action.

Actions

From version summary view you can trigger certain actions, namely:

  • View on roadmap. You will be redirected on roadmap view and your selected version or package will be highlighted.

  • Release Notes. You will be redirected to release notes screen to select appropriate template for your version and generate your notes.

  • Reports. Choose one of the reports you want to generate for your version.

  • Actions

    • Convert to package - allows to convert virtual versions into package. This will create appropriate fix versions in all the effected projects and re-assign issues to those fix versions. Plus all the versions will be licked to new package.

    • Archive

    • Delete

Milestones Tab

In addition to custom workflows for versions and packages, 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 packages, 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.

Dependencies Tab

Navigate to section of this documentation to learn more about Versions inbound and outbound dependencies.

Scope Tab (former Issues)

You can browse all Jira issues assigned to the selected Version | Epic | Sprint | JQL Version on the Scope tab of Version details dialog.

Fields (Columns) configuration

The following Jira issue fields are delivered with Application by default:

Field

Details

Field

Details

Jira issue type

Issue type icon with the issue type name in the tooltip

Jira issue key

Link to issue page opened in the new browser tab

Summary

Issue summary

Status

Issue status

Priority

Issue priority

Assignee

Issue current assignee

Fix Versions

Versions of “fixVersion” issue field

The default view could be changed in board settings:-

If you want to change the fields to display (including Custom Fields) or the order please click on “Fields Configuration“ button to do so. This will create a Custom view.

To switch between Custom and Default view you can use the following toggle.

Actions

The following actions are available on the Scope View:

  • filter and sort Jira issues

  • view all or selected issues in Issue Navigator

  • edit issues versions

  • add/remove Scope

Filter Jira issues

Issues can be filtered by the following issues fields:

  • summary - text search filter

  • JQL like search

  • issue type - multi-select filter

  • status category - multi-select filter with “ToDo”, “In Progress” and “Done” options

Sort issues

Issues can be sorted by all displayed fields clicking on the field name. Another click is changing the order of the sorting.

Altering Fix Version for issues

Users with “Edit Issue” permission can alter fixVersions property of the issues assigned to the version as well as add new or remove existing.

If you are viewing issues of a particular version and you remove this version from an issue then the issue will disappear from the list when you click Refresh button in the toolbar:

Add existing issues

Users with “Edit Issue” permission can add existing issues to the version. To do so you should click “ + Existing” menu item.

In the “Add issues dialog you can search for issues you want to add click Add. You can add multiple issue at a time. To do so just continue typing in search input.

Create new issues

Users with “Create Issue” permission can add new issue to the version using simplified in-line editing at the bottom of the screen with just two fields:

  • Issue type

  • Summary

If issue type that you are trying to create demands few other mandatory fields we will show Jira standard “Issue Creation“ dialog to try again.

Compass

If you use a notion of Component versions and use Atlassian Compass following section of this documentation. Classical (project bound components) will be supported shortly.

Commits/Deployments

Environments

To understand to witch environments the current versions is deployed please navigate to Environments section of this documentation.

Swimlanes for versions

Swimlanes functionality on the board view are aligned with Swimlanes on the Roadmap view and Groups on List view.

You can group version per project, tag or issue type. Few sorting options are also available.

But the most widely used case is grouping by packages.

If the same version is added to several packages and “Package swimlanes” are enabled then it will be displayed in every package swimlane.

Automation for versions

Read more about to create automation rules for versions with various triggers, conditions and actions.

But there are also some hard coded rules in the App, namely:

Move unfinished tasks to another/new version

If you release the version with some unfinished tasks we will detect it to offer you move them to next/upcoming version if it exists or create a new one

Multi-select and bulk operations

With Ctrl+ users can select multiple versions on the board. Thus they can move them to destination column all together:

Once multiple versions are selected right click on any of them provides a list of available bulk operations. At the moment we support:

  • bulk archive

  • and bulk delete

  • assign environments for multiple version

  • create package our of versions

More ideas sits in our backlog, but please reach out our support if you want another bulk operation to be prioritized.