Jorge Iglesias

Tag: Jira

  • Jira WTF: My Rollercoaster Ride from Screenshots to Spreadsheets

    Jira WTF: My Rollercoaster Ride from Screenshots to Spreadsheets

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    Hello, tech adventurers and spreadsheet enthusiasts! Buckle up, as I take you on a rollercoaster ride that’s part coding saga, part comedy show, and 100% a journey into the heart of tech creativity. It’s the story of how a simple screenshot sparked an epic quest, filled with laughs, gaffes, and a whole lot of ‘aha!’ moments.

    There I was, facing a digital mountain of Jira tickets. Like a modern-day Hercules facing his labors, I had my task cut out for me. But, in a stroke of what I’d like to call genius (and others might call laziness), I decided to bypass the traditional download and instead snapped a screenshot. Why? Because sometimes, the road less traveled is paved with pixels.

    Armed with nothing but my wits and a trusty Python script, I set off on my coding quest. This wasn’t just a battle against lines of code; it was a testament to human ingenuity (and perhaps a bit of stubbornness). The goal? To transform that image into a neat, organized spreadsheet.

    But, as in any great tale, our hero (that’s me, by the way) faced challenges. My first attempt at running the script was like expecting a drumroll and getting a kazoo instead. Error messages popped up like uninvited guests at a party, with a confusing array of ‘command not found’ and ‘DeprecationWarnings’. It was like trying to solve a Rubik’s cube that changes colors every time you blink.

    Undeterred, I dove back into the fray. With each line of code, I was Sherlock Holmes, and the bugs were my Moriarty. The script was a puzzle, and I was determined to crack it. Through perseverance, some creative thinking, and maybe one too many cups of coffee, I began to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

    Finally, after what seemed like an eternity (or just a really long evening), success was mine! The script worked its magic, and the screenshot transformed into a beautifully organized spreadsheet. It was a ‘Eureka!’ moment, a digital victory dance, a high-five from the universe.

    So, what did I learn from this adventure? Coding is more than just typing commands and squashing bugs. It’s about thinking outside the box, facing challenges with a smile, and sometimes, just going for it even when the path seems a little unconventional.

    To all my fellow tech enthusiasts grappling with your own coding conundrums: keep pushing boundaries, keep finding the humor in the chaos, and most importantly, keep coding. Because at the end of the day, every problem is just an opportunity for a great story.

    Until next time, keep your spirits high, your code clean, and your spreadsheets organized. Who knows what kind of adventure your next screenshot might lead to?

  • Streamlining Release Management with Jira Automation

    Streamlining Release Management with Jira Automation

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    As project managers, our goal is to maintain a smooth and efficient workflow, especially when it comes to release management. Merging tasks into the master branch is a critical part of the software development lifecycle, and ensuring that these tasks are part of the upcoming release—or identifying when they are not—is essential for a coherent release process. With Jira’s automation features, we can streamline this process. Let’s explore how to set this up step by step.

    Setting Up Your Jira Automation Rule

    Step 1: Create a New Rule Go to your Jira project and select ‘Project settings’. Under ‘Project settings’, find ‘Automation’ (you might need to have admin rights to access this feature). Click on ‘Create rule’.

    Step 2: Choose a Trigger For our use case, we want to act when a pull request is merged. So, select ‘Pull request merged’ as the trigger.

    Step 3: Define Issue Field Conditions After a pull request is merged, we need to check if the merge is related to an issue that should be in the upcoming release. To do this, add a new component ‘Edit issue fields’ and select ‘Merged to Master’. Make sure to create this custom field in Jira.

    Step 4: Set Up Conditional Logic We need to compare the fixed versions of the issue with a regular expression to see if it matches the pattern expected for the release.

    For tasks expected in the release, use the condition: {{issue.fixVersions}} contains regex(A[0-9]{1,2}-9[0-9]{1,2}(\.0[1-9]|\.1[0-2])|(\.0[1-9]|\.1[0-9]|\.2[0-9])$)

    If this condition is true, you will ‘Send Slack message’ stating: “A ticket that is in the release has been merged into master. Please confirm.”

    Step 5: Handle Exceptions For tasks that are merged but are not expected in the upcoming release, set another condition to catch these instances: {{issue.fixVersions}} does not match regex(A[0-9]{1,2}-9[0-9]{1,2}(\.0[1-9]|\.1[0-2])|(\.0[1-9]|\.1[0-9]|\.2[0-9])$)

    If this condition is true, you will ‘Send Slack message’ stating: “A ticket that is NOT in the release has been merged into master. Please confirm.”

    Step 6: Finalize Your Rule Give your rule a name, such as “PR Merge to Master Marker”, and set the ‘Scope’ to the relevant project. Assign an owner who will receive notifications if the rule fails, and choose an ‘Actor’, which is usually ‘Automation for Jira’.

    Step 7: Test and Activate Before activating, test your rule to ensure it works as expected. Once confirmed, activate the rule by toggling the ‘Enabled’ switch.

    Why This Matters

    Automating this process:

    • Reduces the manual effort to track which tasks are part of the upcoming release.
    • Minimizes the risk of deploying features that are not ready or have not been included in the release notes.
    • Notifies team members promptly, allowing for quick action if something has been merged incorrectly.

    Conclusion

    Automations in Jira are powerful tools that can significantly improve your team’s efficiency and accuracy, especially when managing releases. With the above steps, you can set up a robust automation rule to monitor and notify about the state of issues in your master branch. Embrace these automations and let them take over some of the heavy liftings in your project management processes.