Introduction
All views and information are immediately accessible via the Agile Hive menu in the Top Navigation Bar.
The Agile Hive menu updates itself automatically based on the settings made in the project hierarchies, which are maintained by Jira administrators.
Usage
Click on the Agile Hive menu so that the fly out appears.
Here you can directly access the views provided for each SAFe level. The layers use different colors for better differentiation. These colors can also be seen in the context tab of your Story.
The illustration shows a full SAFe configuration with four levels. To access a team drill down to the Team Level and select the desired team.
Introduction
The Agile Hive Team Reports show an automated view of all relevant information about a team in a specific PI.
Usage
You can access the reports in the following ways:
- Select the desired team in the Agile Hive Menu
- Within a team project, click on the Agile Hive icon in the project sidebar
The Agile Hive Team Reports consist of a PI Selection dropdown and the following five tiles which are described in more detail below:
- Team Members
- Overall Team PI Progress
- PI Sprints
- Team PI Objectives
- Team Risks
PI Selection
The information within the tiles is based on your PI selection. You can access PIs via the dropdown at the top right.
As soon as you select a different PI, all information within the tiles is updated based on your PI selection.
The Team Members and Team Risks tiles remain unaffected. You can also filter for PIs using the search field.
The current PI is always displayed automatically.
Team Members
The Team Members tile introduces all team members with avatar, name and role.
Clicking on the respective avatar takes you to the Jira profile view of a team member.
You can add new team members by hovering over the tile and clicking the pen that appears in the upper right corner.
This opens the editing dialog. Here you can add new members using the "+ Add team member" button.
Of course you can also edit oder remove existing members.
Overall Team PI Progress
This tile shows you five easy-to-read metrics and their progress (except velocity).
Velocity
Based on the last five completed sprints, the average number of SPs completed per sprint is calculated. It doesn't matter whether a sprint is in a past PI.
The specific calculation is: Sum of the burned Story Points of (up to) the last 5 completed sprints (can go beyond a PI) / number of sprints considered.
SP Burned (Story Points burned)
Comparison between planned and completed story points. The progress is also shown in percent.
Days Passed
Shows how many days the PI has in total and how many have already passed.
Business Value
The generation of the business value is calculated on the basis of the planned and the actual business value of the Team PI Objectives.
Load vs. Cap (Load vs. Capacity)
Comparison between scheduled story points and team capacity.
PI Sprints Overview
Display of all sprints within a PI. Each sprint is represented as a single tile.
The status of a sprint can be recognized by the color of the progress bar at the bottom:
- Green: Completed Sprint
- Blue / Gray: Current Sprint
- No bar visible: Future Sprint
Issues planned by the team are shown indented (for example HONEY-15, 19 or 24). The respective higher-level issue (for example, a feature of the Agile Release Train named "PRO-5") is shown above.
If issues do not belong to a higher-level issue, they are categorized in the "Issues without parent" group.
Completed issues are crossed out and the story point value is colored green.
The overall progress is visualized in the footer as a colored bar. The values for capacity, planned and burned story points are displayed below.
Team PI Objectives
In this widget, issues of the type "Objective" that have been assigned to the selected PI are displayed. (Agile Hive 3.48.1 and older: Only Objectives that have been linked to a scheduled Team issue in the selected PI using the "Belongs to Objective" link will be shown.)
A distinction is made between Planned and Uncommitted Team PI Objectives. This is important because only the "Plan Business Value" of Planned Objectives is summed up.
This information as well as the plan and actual business value are set directly in the objective issue.
Team issues like stories can be linked to a Team PI Objective using the "Belongs to Objective" link. The "Story Points" column shows how many story points an objective consists of and how many have already been completed.
Team Risks
Regardless of the PI selected, all identified and open team risks are displayed here.
In the following, we will show you the four specific risk drop-downs with their options:
- #1 Impact / #2 Residual impact
- Unspecified
- Catastrophic
- Major
- Moderate
- Minor
- Insignificant
- #3 Probability / #4 Residual Probability
- Unspecified
- Almost certain
- Very likely
- Likely
- Unlikely
- Very unlikely
Impact and probability are combined as exposure for better readability. Same goes for residual impact and residual probability which are combined as residual exposure.
| (Residual) Impact | |||||||
Unspecified | Catastrophic | Major | Moderate | Minor | Insignificant | ||
| (Residual) Probability | Unspecified | INTERMEDIATE | INTERMEDIATE | INTERMEDIATE | INTERMEDIATE | INTERMEDIATE | INTERMEDIATE |
Almost certain | EXTREME | HIGH | HIGH | HIGH | HIGH | ||
Very likely | INTERMEDIATE | HIGH | HIGH | HIGH | HIGH | MEDIUM | |
Likely | INTERMEDIATE | HIGH | HIGH | HIGH | MEDIUM | MEDIUM | |
Unlikely | INTERMEDIATE | HIGH | HIGH | MEDIUM | MEDIUM | MEDIUM | |
Very unlikely | INTERMEDIATE | HIGH | HIGH | MEDIUM | MEDIUM | LOW | |
Introduction
With the help of a team's Scrum board, the respective team is able to plan, start and close their sprints as well as hierarchically link stories with a feature of their Agile Release Train.
The sprints are created automatically and no longer have to be created manually on team boards (manually created sprints are not supported by Agile Hive).
Kanban teams that are working with Kanban boards are not supported by Agile Hive yet.
Navigation
A team's Scrum board can be easily accessed via the Agile Hive menu in the top navigation bar. First, click on the respective team in the Agile Hive Menu. This opens the Agile Hive Reports. Next, click on the Backlog icon in the left project sidebar.
You can view the active sprint using the "Active sprints" icon below.
Link Stories to Features
In the backlog view of a Team Board, you can hierarchically link stories with features from the corresponding ART using drag and drop.
To do this, click on "ART" in the panel column to open the ART panel. This panel shows the features and all other configured issue types of the ART. Now you can drag and drop your stories onto a feature to set the hierarchical link.
Then the relation is shown in the story (AVO-30) as Lozenge (Refresh gentle Ceph...):
If you have linked to the wrong feature, you can simply drag the story again to the correct feature.
Of course, you can still link issues using the standard link button.
Context
If issues have been linked hierarchically, this can be seen in the respective issues via the context tab.
All parents are shown and at hover also the SAFe levels.
Print Stories & other Jira issues
Every Jira issue can be printed with Agile Hive - either individually, in sprints or based on a JQL.
This function is used both during PI planning for the analog ART board and in teams that generally want to work with analog boards.
Print individual story
Open the desired story and click on the InstaPrinta button on the right.
In the InstaPrinta Print Wizard, select "Agile Hive Story" as the template and either click "Save as PDF" or, if set, click "Print".
Print the active sprint
Open the "Active sprints" view of the desired team and click on the InstaPrinta button on the right.
In the InstaPrinta Print Wizard, select "Agile Hive Story" as the template.
In the selection field you also have the option to print only issues that are in a certain status.
Finally, either click "Save as PDF" or, if set, click "Print".
Print multiple sprints
Open the "Backlog" view of the desired team and click on the InstaPrinta button on the right.
In the InstaPrinta Print Wizard, select "Agile Hive Story" as the template.
In the selection field you also have the option to select which sprints you want to print.
Finally, either click "Save as PDF" or, if set, click "Print".
Print issues based on a JQL
Open the Jira search, insert your JQL and click on the InstaPrinta button on the right.
In the InstaPrinta Print Wizard, select "Agile Hive Story" as the template and either click "Save as PDF" or, if set, click "Print".
Introduction
The following Jira issue types for teams are delivered with Agile Hive by default (of course, Jira administrators can edit the standard configuration):
- Story
- Enabler
- Bug
- Objective
- Risk
- Improvement
- Impediment
Creation
To create one of the above issues, click on the "Create" button in the top navigation bar. Make sure in the "Create Issue" dialog that the desired team project is selected.
Based on the issue type selection in the dropdown "Issue Type", the fields displayed in the form below may vary.
Example: Only risks contain typical risk fields such as impact or probability.
After the issue has been created, it can be found in the team's backlog view.
Introduction
Follow these steps to open the Team Breakout view:
- Select a team from the Agile Hive menu in the top navigation bar which will display the Agile Hive Team Reports.
- Now click on the View Switcher which currently display "Team Report" and select "Team Breakouts" from the dropdown
This view is designed to facilitate a conversation between two or more teams, working out how best to schedule work based on the desire to fulfill the Feature outcomes of the Interval.
Setting Sprint Capacity on the Team Breakout Board
The planned and set capacity can be found beneath each Iteration's name.
To set the capacity for each Sprint, click on the ( - ) bubble and type your capacity for the Sprint.
Adding estimates to stories planned in a Sprint will roll the total number of Story Points planned to the top of the Sprint.
Assignment of ART issues (ART issue lanes)
Open the sidebar to view all unplanned Team & ART issues through tabs:
Team tab
- All unplanned team issues of the corresponding team are displayed here as white cards.
- The issues are sorted by the backlog rank.
- The issues can be filtered using quick filters. Users can create or edit those quick filters in the corresponding Jira board.
ART tab
- All unplanned ART issues of the corresponding ART are displayed here as blue cards.
- The issues are sorted by WSJF so that the most important issue is always at the top.
- The issues can be filtered using quick filters. Users can create or edit those quick filters in the corresponding Jira board.
The ART issues can be assigned to the team via drag and drop and will be displayed as ART issue lanes.
In the background, this has the effect that in the ART issue itself, the fields 'Teams Involved' and 'Planning Interval' are automatically filled with the corresponding values by Agile Hive.
Other teams can still assign these assigned ART issues to themselves in their Breakout Board. A "teams involved" indicator is then displayed.
Move ART issues back into the sidebar
If you hover over an ART issue lane, a ... menu appears, with which you can move the ART issue back into the sidebar. This only works if the ART issue lane does not contain any planned child issues.
In the next step we break these ART issues down into team issues.
ART issue breakdown
There are two options for breaking down an ART issue into team issues.
Option 1 - Create new team issues in the Breakout Board view
In order to break the ART issue down into team issues, team issues can now be created within an ART issue lane.
- To do this, hover over a free cell in the desired iteration within the ART issue lane.
- Click on the '+ Add' button that appears and fill in the fields in the Create Screen as you wish.
- After you have clicked the Create button, the new issue is created, linked hierarchically with the ART issue and scheduled in the corresponding iteration.
Option 2 - Assign existing team issues from the sidebar
- Open the sidebar and switch to the "Team" tab.
- Now you can drag and drop the desired team issues into an iteration cell within an ART issue lane.
If a team issue is scheduled, its father is automatically scheduled and displayed as an ART issue lane.
Schedule team issues
Team issues that have already been inserted within an ART issue lane can either be moved to another iteration using drag and drop or even assigned to a different ART issue.
Sort ART and Team issues
You can sort issues on the Team Breakout View simply by drag and drop. Use this Feature to display your issues' priority, order dependencies or working order for example. This does not only apply to your Team issues (Stories etc.) but you can also sort the Feature lanes. Sorting a Feature lane applies to a single PI and to your Team, so, another Team can order their Features differently, without influencing your order.
Dependency Management
Agile Hive displays dependencies visually in the ART Planning Board and the Breakout View.
You can set dependencies with the Agile Hive Dependency Link:
- This link type links issues to dependent issues.
- It consists of the two link directions "requires" and "is required by".
- Link two issues with the desired link direction.
Understanding Dependency Health:
- A green line indicates the dependent issue is scheduled in a sprint before its dependency (healthy).
- An orange line indicates the dependent and dependency are scheduled in the same sprint (a risk).
- A red line indicates the dependent issue is scheduled in a sprint after the dependency (critical blocker).
You can filter the visibility of dependencies via the [...] button.
Filtering issues on the Team Breakout Board via JQL
At the header of the Breakout Board view, you will find a text input field that enables you to filter issues using a specific JQL query. It is an autocomplete field where you can enter any valid JQL statement.
- Sending a query filters the displayed issues on the Breakout Board.
- The JQL query filters the issues in all teams.
- It is also applied to the ART issues as well.
- If an ART issue is matched by the filter, all related team issues will be displayed unfiltered.
- If a query does not return any hits for a team, the team will not appear.
Shared Service Issues on Breakout Board
If there are any Shared Service Teams participating in developing the Features in your ART, these teams will also be displayed in the Team Breakout Board.
To display their work (below all other Teams of your ART), you have to follow these steps when planning the work for a Shared Service Team:
- The team's project has to be marked as Shared Service Team (Agile Hive - Getting Started)
- Use the Agile Hive Hierarchy Link to connect the team's issues to a Feature (i.e. Shared Service Issue is "Child of" ARTWIES-10)
- The Shared Service team issue must be planned within the timeframe of the current PI, either by
- Assigning it to a sprint that is timed within the PI
- Setting the Due Date on the issue within the PI timeframe
The swim lane for independent issues is currently not supported.
Introduction
There are two ways to open a ART Planning Board:
Option 1
- Select the desired ART from the Agile Hive menu in the top navigation bar which will display the Agile Hive ART Report.
- Switch to the "ART Planning Board" in the view switcher dropdown
Option 2
- Select a team from the Agile Hive menu in the top navigation bar which will display the Agile Hive Team Reports.
- In the view change dropdown select "ART Planning Board".
This view is designed to facilitate a conversation between two or more teams, working out how best to schedule work based on the desire to fulfill the Feature outcomes of the Interval.
ART Planning Board
The ART Planning Board is generated automatically on the basis of the PI planning. Teams are represented as swimlanes and herein you can view all planned ART work items, their dependencies and the time of the delivery.
External Dependencies
The ART Planning Board is also capable of displaying dependent issues that do not belong to the ART or its teams. We call them 'external dependencies'. This means that external dependencies are displayed of other ARTs, other teams or from other projects, that are completely detached from Agile Hive.
In order to achieve this, proceed as follows:
- Link an external issue from any Jira project (i.e. also from a Team, ART, Solution Train or Portfolio project) with either 'requires' or 'is required by' with an ART issue that has been planned in a PI.
- The external issue must be scheduled in the current PI using the "Due Date" or "Sprint" field.
a) Set a 'Due Date' for the external issue. (You may have to add the 'Due Date' field in the respective screen first.) The date must be within the PI period.
b) Alternatively, an iteration from the date range of the current PI can be selected in the "Sprint" field of the external issue.
This displays the corresponding project as a swimlane with the label 'EXTERNAL'.
Within the swimlane all the dependent issues are shown with their individual dependency line and their due date.
