How To Turn A Spreadsheet Into A Sprint Plan?
Excel sheets can serve as a requirements traceability matrix (RTM) when it comes to tracking the progress of goals for a project. It is convenient to use Excel sheets to reflect a project’s requirements, goals and status. However, to achieve those goals, teams need to break down the piles of information compiled together. This is where the need for an efficient and technologically sound tool that can help organise data, break down goals to make them more attainable and allow teams to coordinate with ease comes up.
Jira is one such tool. It enables teams to set realistic goals and track progress while working on a project. But when the number of tickets becomes overwhelming and tracking progress becomes challenging, the need for another tool that can capture all those scattered tickets becomes imperative.
One of those tools is Miro. However, for it to be more effective and efficient, you should be able to sync Jira and Miro to view all the tickets that are already on Jira without having to copy them manually.
In this blog, I’ll explain, step-by-step, how spreadsheets can be synced with Jira and Jira can be linked with Miro (and vice versa) to track our progress easily.
Migrating Spreadsheets to Jira
To explain this stage more efficiently, I chose to take this route: Spreadsheet → Jira → Miro Board.
1. Create a new project on Jira, or add issues to any existing project.
2. Add the types of issues.
The types of issues include Stories, Tasks, Bugs and Epics. To select one on Jira, go to Project Settings → Issue Types and Add Issue types per the requirement. You can configure the Issue Types as per the project requirements:
3. Import Issues from CSV.
Get back to the project and click on Issues and go to the three dots on the top right corner. You’ll be redirected onto the screen to add issues in a bulk format.
Note: Make sure to convert Excel File to the “CSV” extension first.
4. The next step is to process further.
After clicking ‘Next, enter the project name where you’re intending to import issues.
5. This step is all about the “mapping game”.
Correct mapping concerning the columns in the CSV file will automatically exclude many errors in the initial stages.
For mapping, the Summary and Description of the Jira Ticket must not be left empty, however, filling out the rest of the fields is optional.
6. You have successfully imported all Issues.
Double-check to make sure the mapping is performed correctly and all the basic fields are mapped accordingly.
Note: Columns can be amended or deleted as per the requirements. On top of it, there’s a filter that can be saved for later use to retrieve stories.
7. If required, bulk edit stories.
To make any changes in imported stories, we have an option to bulk edit them. Click on the three dots on the top-right corner of the page. From the dropdown menu, choose Issues > Operation > Operation Details > Confirmation.
8. Add Epics.
Epics are added manually to assign each user story with a parent. Follow the steps in the screenshot below.
Note: Configuring fields is optional here. For more information visibility on an Epic or Parent, you can configure fields as per their project requirements so that they may appear there.
Add Epic Name as a Summary, add Labels (choice), add Features and add its child Issues (field area in the bottom of the screenshot attached). After an Epic is included with its story, try to link a story with its assigned epic.
Importing Stories from Jira to Miro
Open your Miro Board and select any Sprint Planning template to display Jira tickets. For example:
On your Miro board, click on the three dots on the bottom left. Click Jira: a menu would pop up displaying multiple stories, epics, tasks etc.
Enter the filter string with the help of a ‘basic’ or ‘advanced’ search.
You can also configure the fields that are displayed on Jira tickets so they are visible on Miro as well.
TA-DA! After successful configuration, proper mapping and integration, the tickets of Jira Board Stories will now be visible on Miro Board.
In order to maintain syncing between Miro and Jira boards, any changes made in any field value on either tool will sync with the changes on the field values of the other board.
Conclusion
The purpose of writing this blog post is to highlight that sharing information and organising it efficiently is not only possible but easy if you know how to sync tools like Jira and Miro. Not only is it easy to use Miro, but it is also an attractive tool to view information. Its visual interface is human-friendly and interactive, making it easy to sort out important information.
Often, teams that work with Jira face difficulties with breaking down data and resolving tickets due to an extensive backlog. They are not aware that they can use Jira and Miro together to break down big project goals within a given period of time. Miro is a friend Jira needed but wasn’t aware of.
