Is Jira Making You Less Agile?

Using Jira doesn’t mean you’re Agile, in fact, it could be stopping you from being as Agile as you could be.

A common saying we use is that there is a big difference between “doing” Agile and “being” Agile and that’s all to do with your mindset and approach to the work. You can be doing the Agile events and using Jira but still approaching the work in a waterfall manner. I’ve frequently seen teams allowing Jira to dictate the way they work, make Jira work for you, not the other way around.

He’s a couple of tips.

#1 – Know the difference between your Product Backlog and your Sprint Backlog
The Sprint backlog belongs to the Development team, it’s theirs to manage. You should have the current sprint and the next couple of sprints defined and starting to plan, refining stories etc but because Jira puts these two items in the place, although convenient, it does blur the lines between to two very different assets.

#2 – Keep your backlog in check
Stories should be emergent as they come up through the backlog rather than broken out too early. You can often end up with Jira backlogs that are huge and overwhelming. This is where I recommend keeping your product backlog separate, preferably as a visual physical board in a place where everyone can see and interact with it. Then only move the upcoming stories to Jira.

To hear my other tips, watch the video below…