Program Capabilities Backlog View
In SpiraPlan version 7.7 we introduced the Scaled Agile artifacts for managing program backlogs - capabilities and milestones. These new program artifacts let you define key program initiatives and map them to high-level deadlines. You can then associate product backlog items such as requirements, epics, features, and user stories to these capabilities (from multiple different products). The initial view that was released was a hierarchical grid, similar to those we have for product requirements:
This is a great view for defining new capabilities, establishing a hierarchy of needs and filtering the backlog hierarchy by priority, type, status, progress or any defined custom field. The progress field lets you see the % complete of the product requirements associated with the capability. However this view was not ideal for visualizing all of the capabilities in a milestone, and moving capabilities between priorities, statuses, types or milestone meant editing the fields. So with that in mind, we are excited to announce that we now have a program board view designed specifically for managing the program backlog:
Program Capabilities Board View
Using the new agile boards introduced in Spira v7.9, we have added a board view to program capabilities. This new board lets you visualize the capabilities as "cards" on the board. In the default view shown below we are displaying the capability cards on a board with the different capability statuses as the columns:
Now you can easily drag and drop the capability cards to change the status of the capability. The capability cards display the name, ID and status of the capability, with the assignee's avatar shown in the bottom-right.
Board Display Options
However this is not the only display option, if you click on the card features icon, you can see the different display options that are available:
If we change the display to include the capability type, priority, progress, and requirement indicators, the same board will now look like:
Now we can see the priority of each card by the colored circle in the bottom right (next to the user avatar). You can see the capability status displayed next to its ID (under the title). We also have colored bar-charts that display the % completion of each capability.
Program Capabilities Progress Tracking
Each of the program capability cards can display a colored bar chart that shows the % completion of each capability. This is the Req. Progress indicator and it aggregates the % complete of each of the products requirements associated with the capability. When all of the product requirements associated with the capability are completed, the bar will show 100% green. When it shows less than 100% you will want to drill down and see which requirements are incomplete. That is where the small colored circles next to the bar-chart come in:
When you hover the mouse over the requirement circle it will display the name and ID of the product requirement as well as its individual requirement status. Clicking on the circle will open up the requirement in question (in the appropriate product):
Program Capability Inline Editing
The program capability board includes full inline editing functionality - if you click on the card it will popup a dialog where you can edit any of the fields:
When you click the + button to add a new capability, the same form is displayed, allowing you to quickly and easily add new capabilities to the program backlog.
Program Capability Board Views
The capability board features multiple different view options that allow you to use it for all the stages of the program management lifecycle. Initially you will want to use the priority and status rows/columns to prioritize the different capabilities by business value:
Then once they have been prioritized, you can use the milestone view to assign the capabilities to different program increments and milestones:
This can be done by simply dragging the capability cards into the appropriate program incident / milestone as desired.
What's Planned Next?
We hope you like the new program capability board. Now that we have revamped all of the product boards and added the new capability board, the next stream of work in our roadmap is to refresh the existing program planning board to use our new board design and display the product requirements against the capabilities/milestones.
How Do I Get the New Version?
Download customers can get the latest version right away by going to the secure Customer Area of our website. Cloud customers will have already been updated during the April maintenance window. If you have any questions about the new version, please contact support@inflectra.com. The full release notes can be found on SpiraDocs.