Lesson 3 July 21st 2023

Lesson 3 Summary - AI Meeting Notes + Homework

We have covered the following topics:

Project Notifications:
The speaker explains how to manage project notifications in Jira. They guide the participants through the process of accessing notification settings, disabling or enabling email notifications, and setting up personal notification preferences. The speaker also highlights the importance of managing outgoing mail and user-based settings.

Course Content:
The speaker provides an overview of what will be covered in that day's course content. They mention that they will cover notifications in projects, issue types, screens and fields setup, workflows creation with classwork examples.

Notification Helper:
The speaker introduces a tool called Notification Helper which helps troubleshoot issues related to notification problems for users who are not receiving them as expected. The tool allows identifying where the problem occurs and how it can be fixed by checking whether email notifications are turned on or off for specific events such as updates or comments on issues.

Task Notifications: The team discussed the possibility of setting up automatic notifications for tasks nearing their due date in Jira. While there is no built-in notification feature, they explored a workaround using JQL and subscriptions to receive email digests at specified intervals. They demonstrated how to set up a filter for issues assigned to oneself with approaching due dates and subscribe to it.

Custom Fields: The team delved into custom fields in Jira, which are user-defined fields that can be added to projects or screens. They created an example field called "Team Selector" as a select list with options for teams one through three. They also briefly touched on screen schemes, which group together related fields under one logic.

Release Dates: As another example of custom fields, the team created a new field called "Release Date" as a date picker without any default options since it only requires selecting dates. It was noted that this type of field can be associated with all screens or specific ones depending on project needs.

Understanding Fields and Screens: To provide context for custom fields and screen schemes, the team reviewed what constitutes "fields" in Jira - individual data points such as issue type or summary - versus "screens," which are groups of related fields displayed together on pages like create/edit issue forms. A diagram was shared illustrating how these elements work together within workflows in Jira.

Default Screen: The team discussed adding the default screen to the Mp project and creating an issue for it. They also talked about how to find and choose the right screen in a more easy way by going to project settings. They added real estate and team fields, tested it out, and removed unnecessary ones.

Project Settings: The team explained that every detail in Jira has a schema associated with it, such as issue type schemea, workflow scheme, tell screen scheme, field scheme. These are group of settings shared within one or multiple projects. A Jira admin would create one schema for all workflows then adjust other schemes accordingly.

Workflows: The simplified workflow is editable from both project settings and board view but can only be used for simple tasks without complicated transitions or setups. To add more complexity into your project's workflow you need to edit those items directly from your workflow page instead of using simplified workflows.

Workflow Diagram View: There are two ways to view workflows; diagram view which is easier to understand visually or text view which is better if you have a mathematical way of seeing things. All bugs should go through this process before being resolved:

1- Open
2- In Progress
3- Resolved
The team also discussed how they will set up their own custom workflows later on in upcoming lessons.

Transitions: The meeting discussed transitions in Jira, which are movements of an issue from one status to another. The speaker explained that transitions can be modified and tailored to specific project or company needs. They also demonstrated how to create a new screen for prompting users to leave a comment when moving an issue to the blocked status.

Workflow Modification: The meeting touched on modifying workflows in Jira by adding screens on top of issue transitions. Examples given included adding fields for specifying release versions, reasons for closing issues, and resolution statuses.

Board Settings: Board settings were mentioned as important when working with workflows in multiple boards associated with the same project. It was emphasized that correct mapping should be done whenever changing or removing statuses.

Jira Automation: A question was asked about creating repetitive tasks every week with the same name appearing at the top of the list on Mondays and Fridays. While it was noted that this could not be recreated through workflows, it was suggested that it may be possible through Jira automation using a scheduler trigger.

Issue Ranking: The most difficult part of issue ranking is the creation of the issue. There are different ways to rank issues based on board settings, such as priorities or position. This topic needs further discussion.

Transitions: Triggers, conditions, validators and post functions are actions that take place during transitions. Triggers are events that precede an issue transition while conditions only allow certain actions if a condition is met. Validators check for valid transitions and post functions happen after an issue has been moved from one status to another.

Post Functions: Post functions or actions happen after an issue has been moved from one status to another. They can assign issues to a particular user, create clear value fields or trigger web books in other tools among others.

Supporting Details:

- Issue Ranking:
The meeting discussed how ranking issues can be done based on board settings such as priorities or position but creating the actual issue was identified as the most difficult part. 

- Transitions:
Triggers were explained as events that precede an action while conditions only allow certain actions if specific criteria have been met before transitioning occurs.

Validators were described as checks for valid transitions while post-functions occur after transitioning has taken place and perform various tasks like assigning users and clearing value fields among others.

- Post Functions:
Post-functions were highlighted in this meeting because they occur after transitioning takes place between statuses in Jira workflows.They perform various tasks like assigning users and clearing value fields among others which help streamline workflow processes within Jira projects.

Workflow Management: The meeting discussed the importance of publishing workflows after making changes to ensure visibility. It was recommended to keep a backup or copy of previous workflows in case of complications. The team was given homework to create a simple workflow with adjustments and complications using specific instructions provided by the instructor.

Restricting User Actions: The team explored ways to restrict user actions within workflows, such as limiting transitions between statuses and enforcing certain steps in completing an issue. It was emphasized that these limitations should be enforced on different levels and well-understood by the team.

Homework 3 (As a Jira user, you should be able to do this) Create filters for : 

• Issues that were created by you

• All closed issues (done items)

• Issues that have been modified/updated today

• Issues that contain the word 'test'.