Flexible Version Management via processes in Jira

Atlassian's process tracking program Jira offers standardized version management for Jira projects in the administration area, including the operations Release, Built & Release, Archive, Delete and Unrelease. A version therefore has a name, a description, a start or release date and an end date. catworkx has mapped a flexible version management variant that also allows more data fields to be offered for version management and the full workflow engine and flexibility of Jira to be used.

The solution approach is to raise version management to the process level, i.e. to define a new process type “Version” with an individual field schema. The standardized version management in the administrator area is also hidden.

The “Version Management for Jira” app developed by catworkx is a collection of post-functions that can be flexibly integrated into the workflow of the versioning process. If a version is created as a process via Create Version, a “real” version is automatically generated in the project in parallel by a post-function. If a version is then published, the version will also be released in the background of the project.

The versioning process and version can be kept synchronized operationally. Version management in a project can also be used to manage versions in other projects.

Versions as processes can be provided with an individual workflow.

Individual field schemas can be realized directly in the version via the process. All data that is required can be modeled directly on the version. A version can contain as many data fields and custom fields as required.

At process level, workflows can be controlled, modeled and queried via conditions much more finely, especially with regard to roles and authorizations. For example, a release manager who has responsibility and therefore authorization for a specific version can have operations carried out even though they are not a global Jira admin.

By managing versions via processes, no additional precautions for backup and restore are necessary.

The JQL query in Jira works at full capacity. This means that you can search for versions in detail in the standardized issue navigator. For example, date fields can be queried quickly in relation to escalation constellations.

Filter results from versions can be projected into a dashboard, e.g. in the case of global release management for several products. A program manager who is responsible for several products can build a higher-level dashboard. This gives them a quick overview of all products with their respective versions, progress reports, status, release dates or other important information.

In version management at issue level, post-functions can be configured further, for example for mapping specifications. A summary field can thus be mapped to the name of a version.