How can I improve this Jira process? [closed]

Question

At the moment in Jira each developer has the following columns in its dashboard:

(developer dashboard)

TO DO       IN PROGRESS     IMPEDED     QA  REVIEW      DONE

Story 101 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
           Development

Story 102 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                              Development

Each developer can create a certain number of tasks for each story. One task for each story is created for testing and assigned to the tester from the beginning.

The tester has the following dashboard:

(tester dashboard)
TO DO       IN PROGRESS     IMPEDED     QA  REVIEW      DONE

Story 101 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 Test

When the story is ready for testing the developer move the testing task to the QA column (although he cannot see it from its dashboard).

(tester dashboard)
TO DO       IN PROGRESS     IMPEDED     QA  REVIEW      DONE

Story 101 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

                                       Test

The developer has to rely on notifications sent via email, when a test fail and the testing task is assigned back to "in progress" (the testing task is never assigned to the developer):

(tester dashboard)
TO DO       IN PROGRESS     IMPEDED     QA  REVIEW      DONE

Story 101 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

              Test

In addition to this, for reviews the process is not very linear, as the task is not assigned to the reviewer but just moved to the column REVIEW:

(developer dashboard)
TO DO       IN PROGRESS     IMPEDED     QA  REVIEW      DONE

Story 101 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

                                           Development

There might be multiple reviewers and the only way to know you have to review a story is to login to Bitbucket and see if there are any pull requests. When somebody leaves comments, you have to constantly check the pull request to deal with the comments.

Another problem here is that the tester not always waits for the review to be completed (approved by everybody in the pull request). In fact the "development" task can be in "review" state and at the same time the "testing" task can be in the QA state. The tester sometimes start testing before the end of the review because there are no other stories to be tested, but the consequence is that he has to test again if there are any changes to the code.

As you can see the process is quite convoluted and not linear. How can I improve the process? what are we doing wrong?

Answer 1

To me it seems you have a lot of process that actually hinders your progress.

Why don't you just create a single dashboard for all and if somebody needs to do something you assign the original ticket to them.

For example: When the developer is done he moves the ticket to the QA column. He then assigns a QA or assigns it to a QA pool where they pull from.

Answer 2

I recommend simplifying your process and using only 3 columns: To Do, In Progress and Done.

When it comes to subtasks, you can extend your existing subtask list and include the following:

• Develop (or implement)
• Review
• Test

Each of these will be assigned to a single person at a time and you can always synchronize verbally in the daily standups. e.g. When the developer is done with the "develop" subtask, he will move it to done. He will then assign the "review" task to the person who volunteered earlier. When that's done, the QA person can pick up "test" subtask and proceed with it. In case there is a bug, the "test" subtask will remain in progress, a separate subtask will be created for the issue and assigned to the developer. When the developer is done with the fix, he assigns the subtask for the issue to the QA person again for verification.

Any point in time, the status of the story will be visible.