JIRA Kanban Board

[Benjamin Hindman <be...@gmail.com>]

Hello!

I love seeing the number of committers, issues, and reviews grow! But so
too does the complexity of the project: who's working on what, what needs a
shepherd, what needs to get reviewed, etc.

To help, we've slowly been getting around to improving our use of JIRA.
Some of you are already power-users of JIRA today. But for those of you
that aren't, please read on.

I know some of you might not be the biggest fans of JIRA, but I'm
surprisingly excited to tell you how I think JIRA can improve all of our
lives. Just like I love seeing new abstractions created in stout and
libprocess in order to simplify the code in Mesos, I think that we'll find
JIRA (and in particular their Rapid Boards) will simplify our development
and review processes.

In this email, I'll be focusing on our recently cleaned up Kanban board
found here
<https://issues.apache.org/jira/secure/RapidBoard.jspa?rapidView=1>. (For
those of you looking closely at the URL, the Mesos project was the first
Apache project to use the JIRA Rapid Boards, so we're Rapid Board #1. ;-)
Thanks to Chris Lambert for that.)

The Kanban board is broken into four columns:

*Backlog (Accepted)*: These are issues that have been triaged by a
committer and are ready to be worked on. These issues may or may not be
assigned to anyone just yet. If they're not assigned, they're the thing to
work on for the project if you have free time. The expectation is that
assigned issues will be worked on by the assignee within days or a maximum
of a few weeks. (Ultimately all issues in the backlog will have a shepherd
assigned so no issue gets worked on that doesn't have someone that can help
it get committed, i.e., help with any design, reviews, etc.)

*In Progress*: These are issues that are actively being worked on.

*Reviewable*: These are issues that have outstanding reviews on Review
Board.

*Done <4wks*: These are issues that have been resolved or closed within the
last four weeks.

If you're logged in it should look something like this:

[image: Inline image 1]

Cool, that's what's happening in the project right now. Now comes the fun
part:

*Want to find a new issue to work on: Click the 'Unassigned' "Quick Filter"
on the top of the board:*


*[image: Inline image 2]*

The issues are sorted in a global priority order, so issues higher up in
the columns are more important (as determined by a committer; if you think
an issue should be higher in the backlog please reach out to one of the
committers or me via IRC or via email). Find an issue you like? Contact the
shepherd in order to figure out next steps. Again, all issues in the
backlog should have a shepherd, but if you find one that doesn't just send
a note to dev@mesos.apache.org.

*Want an unassigned issue that's also for a newbie? Click both the
'Unassigned' and 'Newbie' filters:*


*[image: Inline image 3]*

(Oops, looks like we need to get more newbie issues available for folks.
I'll be following up with another email about JIRA subscriptions so that we
can make sure we get feedback on things like "too few unassigned newbie
issues".)

*Want to know what the community thinks you're working on? Click just the
'Assigned To Me' filter:*


*[image: Inline image 4]*

Now I can see what I'm planning on working on ('Backlog'), what I'm
currently working on ('In Progress'), what I have out for review
('Reviewable'), and what I've recently finished ('Done'). When I start
working on my next issue I can just drag it from the 'Backlog' to the 'In
Progress' column. And once it's ready to get reviewed I can drag it over to
'Reviewable' (and add a comment that points to the review on Review Board).

*Want to know what the community thinks you're shepherding? Click just the
'I'm Shepherding' filter:*


*[image: Inline image 5]*

Looks like the only think I'm accountable for that needs a review is
Thomas' Python modules work. Since I just reviewed that tonight I guess I
won't have any other reviews to do! ;-) Expecting a review from me? Make
sure I'm marked as the 'Shepherd'!

*Want to know what you're working on that doesn't yet have a shepherd? Tisk
tisk. Click on both 'Assigned To Me' and 'Missing Shepherd':*


*[image: Inline image 6]*

Don't expect it to get reviewed unless you've found a shepherd!

*Want to know which issues you're shepherding were recently updated, i.e.,
issues where the assignee might have recently left a question or request
for feedback? Click both the 'I'm Shepherding' and 'Recently Updated'
filters:*

[image: Inline image 7]

Note that the 'Recently Updated' filter is currently for any issues updated
within the last day.

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

That's all I've got for now. Please share feedback, suggestions, etc with
me. The goal is to make this painless and helpful, not a drag and
unproductive. While we might make some basic tweaks to the Kanban board
(for example, we'll probably add more 'Recently Updated' quick filters),
the general workflow will remain the same. As the frequency of those tweaks
settle down we'll also capture all of this as part of the project's
documentation too.

Happy hacking,

Ben.

P.S. We're just three weeks out from MesosCon, don't forget to register
<http://events.linuxfoundation.org/events/mesoscon> and join us in Chicago!