Team Workflows
Jira Statuses
Every team uses their own Jira workflows, which we need to abide by when possible, however, Red Hat enforces certain standards in Jira. The Red Hat Standards for Jira includes a set of issue types and issue type schemes that are available to all projects in Red Hat Jira.
The issue types form a hierarchy; there are 6 levels to it. Using the parent-child relationship, issues can be linked to one another, which allows us to connect work items to bigger efforts or goals. The top 3 levels are for strategic issues or strategic projects, and the bottom 3 levels are for execution (team) projects. Issue type schemes determine what issue types are available in a project–the scheme packages multiple issue types together.
Strategic Goal
Strategic Goals are the highest level issue type in Jira. Within Product Engineering, they only exist in the HATSTRAT project, lending to them being colloquially called "Hat-strats."
Outcome
Outcomes are where Product Management steps in. This level is where objectives should be focused on a measurable outcome.
Feature/Initiative
A Feature is a large product/portfolio goal or focus area that has clear start and completion criteria. It may capture multiple deliverables broken down as epics spanning multiple teams and potentially multiple releases.
An Initiative is a capability or a well-defined set of functionality that delivers business value.
Epic
An Epic is a big user story that needs to be broken down further. They group together bugs, stories, and tasks to show the progress of a larger effort. In agile development, epics usually represent a significant deliverable, such as a new capability or experience in the software your team develops. Epics are goal based and should be scoped to a single release.
Stories/Tasks
A Story is the smallest unit of work that needs to be done and is end user facing.
A Task is a unit of work that needs to be accomplished, but isn't user facing.
Sub-Tasks
A Sub-Task is a piece of work required to complete a Task. They're often used to break down tasks.