This page is your step-by-step guide to running Delivery Flow for the first time. It shows how you can access flow metrics for your work in 4 simple steps.
Step-by-step guide to accessing your flow metrics
1. Create Workflow Map using a Project Template
Only application administrators can create Workflow Maps.
After installing the app, navigate to the following options in Jira's top menu:
Apps> Manage Your Apps>
Subsequently, access the following section in the Left Side Bar:
Delivery Flow Admin> Workflow Maps
Upon completion of these steps, you will be presented with a screen resembling the one below:
Click on the New Map button. The New Workflow Map dialog will appear:
Click on the Use existing project as a template selection box. The dropdown will list all projects in your Jira instance. All projects will appear with the project name and unique project key. Select the project that you wish to focus on. A Workflow Map Name is generated. Change if required and then click Create.
The newly created Workflow Map will now appear on the Workflow Maps Admin Page. This map has used the selected project to determine lanes and values in the workflow map. At this stage, you have the ability to edit the Workflow Map if it does not meet your exact requirements.
2. Setup Issue Colors
Only application administrators can set Issue Colors.
This step is optional but recommended. Many graphs in Delivery Flow show data at an Issue Type level. By default, every Issue Type is represented by the color grey. Assigning colors to issue types helps with identification of issue types and also introduces consistency across your organisation as these are system settings.
Navigate to the Color Mapping Page from Jira's top menu:
Apps> Manage Your Apps>
Subsequently, access the following section in the Left Side Bar:
Delivery Flow Admin> Color Mapping
From here you can map colors to your issue types.
3. Decide what JQL Query to use
With Color and Workflow Map setup complete, all that is left to do to access your Flow Metrics is to enter and execute a JQL query that captures all the work you wish to measure. Your query however, requires a little thought. Typically you will need to consider the scope of the query. Do I want data for my team, a group of teams or the whole organisation. You also need to consider time. Some projects exist for a very long time. Just providing scope without providing a time limit may result in the retrieval of an excessive amount of irrelevant data. Here are some suggestions:
Focus on project used to create Workflow Map
Project in (TEAM) AND updated >= startOfWeek(-12)
Hopefully, this is an obvious strategy. The Workflow Map we created in step 1 will be able to interpret the Jira workflow that these issues have travelled through, creating accurate metrics for all of the issues in the query. We used project TEAM in our example. Replace this value with the key of the project you selected. This Query also limits at the query to approximately 12 weeks worth of data.
Focus on project and specific issues
Project in (TEAM) AND issuetype in (Story, Bug, Risk, Debt) AND updated >= startOfWeek(-12)
Ideally, we want to measure everything in the system but before we get to that, it may make sense to reduce the scope of your initial measurements. It's not unusual to initially focus of development activities only. Many projects contain issue types that represent work that exists outside development. The above query narrows the scope to the specific development issue types in this project. Amend the project and issue type values to what is most relevant in your environment.
The options for your query are endless. In general, we are trying to ship products to our customers. Think about your product, all the teams involved and all the work they are doing. The query that accurately encapsulates this is what you should be aiming for.
4. Execute Query and get your Flow Metrics
Navigate to the Delivery Flow App Page from Jira's top menu:
Apps> Delivery Flow>
This will bring you to the main page of the app.
Click on User Settings in top right corner of app. The user settings dialog will appear.
Click on the Preferred Workflow Map selection box and select the Workflow Map that was created in step one. If not already set, enter 90 for number of days in flow calculations. Click Save to save your settings and return to the main screen. Now enter your JQL query in the Delivery Flows query bar at the top of the page and hit enter. Delivery Flow will retrieve your data, perform its flow calculations and populate the app with you flow metrics.
