Keeping it Agile: Maximize Sprint efficiency with draw.io and Jira

The Big Picture

When working on a project for an upcoming sprint, there are a lot of moving parts to be aware of. Often, the biggest challenge is having a clear overview of the project itself, with everything mapped out. Without the big picture, teams can struggle to understand their part in a particular process, or work out how all the pieces of the project connect and interact with each other.

In this blogpost, we’ll look at the power of using draw.io to visualize your sprint planning, and getting teams from Definition of Ready to Definition of Done.

Definition of Ready

In sprint planning, every task within the epic needs clear criteria laid out for what needs to be done. This falls under your Definition of Ready (DoR), a checklist for assessing that you have everything in place to begin working on a given task or project.

For example, if you’re adding a new button to a page on your website, it’s not as simple as creating the ticket, and “off you go”. You first need to consider things like: Where will the button live on your website? Where will the button link direct users to? What color will it be? Once these questions are answered, the task requirements are clearly laid out in the ticket, and the team is aligned, then your DoR checklist is complete.

Reviewing your DoR is critical for effective project planning. It establishes clear scope, timelines, and goals, while reducing the risk of unforeseen errors, along with unnecessary back and forth between teammates as they struggle to define the task and its scope after they’ve begun working on it.

Definition of Done

Similarly, Definition of Done (DoD) is essentially a quality checklist for the Increment (i.e. a concrete step towards your product goal) you’re working on. It’s a way to ensure the work is up to standard, and that everyone (developers, POs, stakeholders etc.) is aligned on what “done” truly means. As with DoR, the team needs to be aligned that the requirements have all been met, then the task can be checked off.

Mapping out the relations between all the different steps in draw.io helps you to keep the big picture at front of mind, which in turn helps inform your DoR and DoD planning.

How draw.io helps teams with sprint planning

When teams use draw.io to map out the big picture when planning for their next sprint, the process is clearly laid out for everyone to see. In this big picture diagram, no stone is left unturned: The multipage diagram outlines each process, with separate pages dedicated to individual subprocesses.

A big picture diagram in draw.io containing multiple pages

Add a diagram to a Jira ticket

To add a draw.io diagram to a Jira epic or ticket:

1. Click on the Settings (…) icon on the right side.
2. Select Add draw.io diagram to create a new diagram. If you’ve already created a diagram you wish to use, then select, Embed draw.io diagram.

Add a new draw.io diagram, or embed an existing one

Once this is done, the diagram will appear on the right side of the ticket.

Export a section of the diagram

If you want to select part of the big picture process to expand on in another subtask:

1. Hold down Ctrl (Windows) or Cmd (Mac) and select the individual shapes you wish to use.
2. Head to File > Export as. Here, you can choose between exporting in different file formats, such as XML, HTML, PNG, etc.
3. In the export settings, tick the Selection Only checkbox.

If you’ve exported your selected shapes as a PNG, you can drag the file onto a draw.io diagram in a new subtask, and the PNG will be converted into a diagram.

Drag a PNG file of your diagram into draw.io, and the image will be converted into diagram shapes

Add custom links to your diagram

Adding custom links to your diagram is a great way to help viewers navigate, either between individual pages of the diagram, or to external webpages.

To add a link from a given shape to another diagram page:

1. Right-click on the shape and select Edit Link.
2. In the dropdown menu, select the page of the diagram you wish to link to.

Link individual shapes to pages of your diagram

Viewers can then use these links to navigate between the different pages of the diagram:

Use these links to navigate between pages of the multipage diagram

The best part about adding custom links to direct users to subprocesses on separate pages? It reduces cluttering the big picture, leaving teams clearly able to see the overview, and diving into further detail laid out in subprocesses only if they need to.

Here is what the full process would look like if it wasn’t split out into separate pages – that’s a lot of info to process!

Running a sprint retro

At the end of each sprint, running a retro gives teams the chance to celebrate milestones achieved, as well as reflect on when things didn’t quite go to plan. For example: Why weren’t we able to deliver part of the project on time? How do we avoid this in future?

Running your sprint using draw.io helps teams Inspect and Adapt, i.e. identify key learnings that help mitigate unnecessary steps, and what to work on the next time round. This in turn helps create better transparency and alignment as a team.

Running your sprint retro in draw.io has the additional benefit of keeping all your information in one place – the diagram itself. Simply add a new page to the diagram for your sprint retro notes. Teammates can then add stickies to the relevant columns, so that everyone’s voice is captured and heard.

Add a new diagram page

To add a new page to your diagram:

1. Click on the (+) icon to the right of the tabs at the bottom of the diagram.
2. Double-click on the new tab to rename it accordingly.

Once you’ve created the new page, add your sprint retro visualization.

A sprint retro diagram, ready for teammates to add their stickies to

Ready to hit the ground running?

For your next sprint, try visualizing the big picture in draw.io. By mapping out the overview in the Jira epic, and processes and subprocesses on multiple pages of the diagram, you ensure all parts of the sprint planning are captured and visible for the team. Map out the sprint from initial planning, to execution, to sprint retro in draw.io, and see how this becomes a game changer for your team in your next sprint!

Want to dive deeper into the world of draw.io? Access our linktr.ee page to follow us on social media and learn how others use draw.io, as well as pick up some helpful tips and tricks.