Re: Using jira for documentation development workflows

[Janice Manwiller <jmanwiller05 -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

Our development and documentation teams use Jira for Agile backlogs and for bug tracking.

For development bugs and tasks, we've customized Jira to include Doc Reviewer and Doc Review Status fields. This ensures that all items get looked at by a writer. The doc reviewer then flags it as No doc impact (for a lot of bug fixes), Already documented (already knew about it and made the update at the same time), or Doc bug opened (created another Jira item to track the doc work).

There are also documentation bugs, usually created by Support, to fix issues found in released documentation.

For each product release, we use the Jira Agile feature to maintain a backlog of the documentation tasks, including content updates and release/publication tasks. Because development uses Jira as well, we can link our documentation tasks to development tasks from their backlog.

We can also add tasks to the development backlog for doc reviews by developers, to make it easier to pick up and track.

Janice


------------------------------

Message: 9
Date: Fri, 11 Jul 2014 13:04:42 -0700
From: Shawn <shawn -at- cohodata -dot- com>
To: "McLauchlan, Kevin" <Kevin -dot- McLauchlan -at- safenet-inc -dot- com>
Cc: "techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Subject: Using jira for documentation development workflows
Message-ID:
    <CALb0BCWSnwaMY_M_fGzKaMMH9B6vQNfRAHFcsCnaPL5sbS5WgQ -at- mail -dot- gmail -dot- com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8

Kevin (et al),

I noticed that you mentioned "Jira" and "documentation" in a single
thought. Kind of a rarity, it seems.

I changed the subject so that I am not hijacking the other thread. :)

Being the sole tech writer in a hard-core Linux engineering team, Jira is
pretty central to all the development work here. Unfortunately, the current
Jira configuration doesn't really meet my documentation workflow
requirements. Additionally, I have found very little about this subject on
the Web.

Can you/anyone offer advice (or web URLs) on how best to use Jira for
technical writing?

Thank you,
Shawn


On Mon, Jun 23, 2014 at 12:00 PM, McLauchlan, Kevin <
Kevin -dot- McLauchlan -at- safenet-inc -dot- com> wrote:

> Starting from a history of waterfall-ish development, and after more than
> two years in-progress, we are in water-agile-fall(**), trying to get to
> agile, and one outcome of that is that EVERY new thing I add to the docs is
> supposed to be captured as some kind of Jira issue (story, bug, task...).
>
> So, I never used to ask permission, and now I still don't, directly, but
> the indirect effect is that that's how it now works.
> I have (as we say around here) a whack of issues in my backlog that aren't
> assigned to any sprint, that aren't supposed to be implemented unless I've
> got nothing to do.  That doesn't happen, of course.
>
> In reality, they'll get snuck into a DOC sprint that we writers are
> assigning to ourselves, packed among structural and other sanctioned
> stories and issues.  But I thought I'd check which way the winds blow for
> the rest of y'all*.    :-)
>
> (*I'm not southern - I just like to say "y'all" sometimes)
> (**actually, some product teams, here, are frighteningly agile, while
> others are still getting onboard - I'm in two that are at different places
> along that spectrum; if I had rhythm, you could call what I do "dancing"...
> but no )
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: techwr-l-bounces+kevin -dot- mclauchlan=safenet-inc -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+kevin.mclauchlan=
> safenet-inc -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of Mike Starr
> Sent: June-20-14 6:39 PM
> To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> Subject: Re: What is not mandated is forbidden
>
> I never ask permission to put something into a document that can not only
> help the user but help reduce support queries. If you ask permission,
> you're just telling them to say no. Had you just put it in there chances
> are good it wouldn't have been flagged as "out of spec".
>
> Best Regards,
>
> Mike
> --
> Mike Starr, Writer
> Technical Writer   -    Online Help Developer   -   WordPress Websites
> Graphic Designer - Desktop Publisher - Custom Microsoft Word templates
> (262) 694-1028   -  mike -at- writestarr -dot- com   -  http://www.writestarr.com
> President - Working Writers of Wisconsin http://www.workingwriters.org/
>
> On 6/19/2014 12:14 PM, McLauchlan, Kevin wrote:
> > Does everyone subscribe to the notion that customer docs should contain
> only what is necessary?
>

-- 
*Shawn Connelly*
Technical writer

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