21 January 2013

This release delivers the following enhancements:

This release also includes a number of fixes. For full details please see the GreenHopper 6.1.1 Release Notes.

Specify your Non-Working Days

You can now filter out weekends, holidays, and other times during which your team might not be working on a given project. Non-working days will be indicated on the Burndown Chart:

Each person who views the Burndown Chart can decide whether to hide/show non-working days.

The board owner can configure non-working days for each board:

• Decide which days are working days or not
  • On a weekly basis
  • One-off holidays
• Take time zones into account

We intend that these settings will also be reflected in the Sprint Report and the Control Chart in an upcoming release in the near future.

^top

Add Custom User/Group Fields to the Issue Detail View

In GreenHopper 6.0.3 we introduced the ability to add text-fields to your cards; in 6.0.5, we added numeric fields; and in 6.0.8, date/time custom fields.

In 6.1.1 you can now also custom fields of the following types.

• User
• Group

For details, please see Configuring the Issue Detail View, and the JIRA custom field documentation.

^top

Jump quickly with Vertical Icons

The icons for jumping to different sections of an issue — Details; Description; Comments; Attachments; Sub-tasks — are now displayed vertically at the left of an issue:

The icons are always available, even when you scroll down.

10 December 2012

This release delivers the following enhancements:

This release also includes a number of fixes. For full details please see the GreenHopper 6.1 Release Notes.

Organise your Stories into Epics

Epics provide you with an additional hierarchy of story management, providing planning guidance for groups of issues within, or across, projects. This allows ScrumMasters and Product Managers to measure important groups of issues that are all related by a common theme.

In GreenHopper 6.1 we are delighted to launch epics out of Labs. Epics are now automatically enabled for every Scrum board, appearing in the left-hand panel:

Originally released (via Labs) in GreenHopper 6.0.6, we added colour customisation and inline editing in GreenHopper 6.0.7. This was followed in GreenHopper 6.0.8 by progress bars, an Epics panel that follows you down the page, and the ability to create an issue that is automatically added to your chosen sprint.

^top

Mark an Epic as "Done"

You can now exclude completed epics from Plan mode to keep it uncluttured.

Simply select Mark as Done in the epic drop-down:

Technical notes for the curious:  Epics now have a custom field called Epic Status, of type Status of Epic (for details please see GreenHopper JIRA Configuration). Marking an epic as "Done" will set the epic's Epic Status field to "Done", but will not affect the epic's workflow or its Status field, and none of the epic's issues will be affected.

 ^top

View an Epic's History

Change History is now stored on the epic (as well as on the included issues), and is visible when you view the issue in JIRA.

For example, if issue SSP-1 is added to epic SSP-24, then SSP-1 will look like this:

... and SSP-24 will look like this:

 ^top

Add Issues from Active Sprints to an Epic

In Plan mode, you can now drag-and-drop issues to an epic from either the backlog, a planned sprint or an active sprint.

See Adding an Issue to an Epic.

 ^top

Clear Quick Filters in a Single Click

Ever used Quick Filters in Plan mode, and forgotten they were on? (We have.)

So now there is a Filtered icon  at the top of the backlog — and in each sprint header — to indicate that one or more filters have been applied. Click it to clear all filters.

 ^top

3 December 2012

This release delivers the following enhancements:

This release also includes a number of fixes. For full details please see the GreenHopper 6.0.8 Release Notes.

Please note that epics are still in development. To try them out, activate epics via Labs.

Epics Panel now follows you down the page

By popular request, the Epics panel now remains visible when you scroll down the backlog.

Epics panel at top of page:

... and scrolling down:

^top

See the Progress of an Epic

The Epics panel now contains a progress bar, showing you at a glance:

• the percentage of issues in an epic which have been estimated (grey bar), and
• the percentage of the total amount of estimated work which has been completed (green bar).

Simply mouseover the progress bar to display the exact statistics.

^top

Create Issue and add to Epic

You can now create an issue and automatically associate it with a particular epic. Simply click Create Issue in the Epics panel:

^top

Add Custom Date/Time Fields to the Issue Detail View

In GreenHopper 6.0.3 we introduced the ability to add text-fields to your cards; in 6.0.5, we added numeric fields.

In 6.0.8, you can now also add date/time custom fields.

^top

Add Built-in Fields to the Issue Detail View

You can now also add the following built-in fields to the Issue Detail View:

• Resolution
• Environment
• Security Level
• Due Date
• Resolution Date

See Configuring the Issue Detail View.

^top

Sub-tasks can be excluded from Column Constraints

Constraints specify how many issues a column can contain, enabling your team to enforce business rules about how many issues they can have in progress at any one time.

In GreenHopper 6.0.8, you can now choose to exclude sub-tasks from the count. This is useful if you are interested in constraining the number of major tasks (stories) your team is working on, rather than the total number of individual tasks.

^top

Control Chart now shows median time

The Control Chart now shows the median time as well as the mean time. The median time is often considered a more useful measure as it is less influenced by outliers.

The median is shown in a column below the chart.

^top

Performance improvements

This release includes a number of performance improvements. 

Please note that, due to API changes between JIRA 5.0 and JIRA 5.1, some of the performance improvements in GreenHopper 6.0.8 will only be gained if you are running JIRA 5.1 or later.

^top

12 November 2012

This release delivers the following enhancements:

This release also includes a number of fixes. For full details please see the GreenHopper 6.0.7 Release Notes.

Customise Colours for Epics

You can now choose your preferred colour for each epic. Simply click the drop-down at the right of the Epics panel and select a different colour:

Please note that epics are still in early development. To try them out, activate epics via Labs.

^top

Edit Epics in-line

There is now a quick and easy way to change an epic's label. Simply hover over the epic in the left-hand panel, click the 'pencil' icon, then start typing:

Press Enter to save your changes.

^top

5 November 2012

This release delivers the following enhancements:

This release also includes a number of fixes. For full details please see the GreenHopper 6.0.6 Release Notes and the GreenHopper 6.0.5 Release Notes.

Epics now available via Labs

We hope you enjoy the much-requested epics, now available in an initial implementation via Labs. Expect to see further development of epics in upcoming GreenHopper releases in the near future.

Epics provide you with an additional hierarchy of story management, providing planning guidance for groups of issues within, or across, projects. This allows ScrumMasters and Product Managers to measure important groups of issues that are all related by a common theme.

In GreenHopper, an epic is simply an issue of type "Epic", which has a label (e.g. "My Epic") with which other issues can then be associated (linked).

Once activated in Labs, you will see an Epics panel at the left of the screen in Plan mode (for Scrum boards only):

A few tips:

• To view just the issues for an epic, click the epic in the left-hand panel.
• You can click Tools > Hide/Show Epic Panel if you wish.
• Epic issues may also appear in Kanban boards that include a project containing epics. To prevent this, add issuetype != epic to your board's filter.
• To allow epics from a different project, add (project = AAA and issuetype = Epic) to your board's filter.

Creating an epic involves specifying the epic's label (please see Creating an Epic for more details):

You can then simply drag-and-drop cards (issues) onto your epic (see Adding an Issue to an Epic):

See also Removing an Issue from an Epic.

Technical notes

If you have previously been using epics on the Classic Boards, please note the following:

• Classic epic-issue relationships are not migrated and the new implementation uses a completely different mechanism to join epics and their issues.
• After epics are enabled in labs we do not recommend using the Classic New Card button or the JIRA Create Issue button to create new epics.
• "Old" epics may be visible in the new "Epics" panel, if they used the "Epic" issue type, but please note that labels will need to entered manually, and links to other stories may need to be recreated.

The Classic implementation of epics is very different to the new implementation which introduces some new custom fields and custom field types. Please see GreenHopper JIRA Configuration for details.

^top

Detail View is now closable

If you prefer to use the full screen-width to see your cards, you can now close the Detail View in Plan mode (you always could in Work mode):

Tip: You can use the "t" shortcut to toggle between hiding/showing the Detail View.

^top

More customisation of Issue Detail View

In GreenHopper 6.0.3 we introduced the ability to add text-fields to your cards. Building on this, you can now also add numeric fields (e.g. Business Value).

See Configuring the Issue Detail View.

^top

Count of Visible Issues Shown in Column Header on Work Mode

When a Quick Filter is active, the count of visible issues is now shown in the header of Work mode. Note that you need to enable 'Issue Count' as the Column Constraint in the configuration of the board for the issue counts to appear in the column header.

^top

15 October 2012

This release delivers the following enhancements:

This release also includes a number of fixes. For full details please see the GreenHopper 6.0.3 Release Notes and GreenHopper 6.0.4 Release Notes.

Auto refresh

To make sure you are always seeing the latest data, GreenHopper now refreshes the board periodically if the browser window does not currently have focus.

It sends a poll request to the server every 30 seconds with a checksum and if this has changed, the server sends back the new board data.

If GreenHopper detects an out-of-date board while you have focus on the window, it will show a message asking you to refresh:

We would love your feedback on this new feature (note that it has currently been implemented for Work mode only). Please comment on GHS-5568 - Getting issue details... STATUS .

^top

Customise your Issue Detail View

By popular request, you can now choose which fields to show in the Issue Detail View. At this time you can choose any custom fields of type "Text" — more to follow very soon in future releases.

See Configuring the Issue Detail View for further details.

^top

What type of board is that?

You now have an instant visual indicator of what type of board you are looking at, thanks to the following icons:

Scrum board

Kanban board

We have added these icons to the Agile drop-down menu:

The icons are also shown at the top left of each board:

^top

Easier management of Remaining Estimate

For boards that are configured to use Time Tracking there are two improvements to make the management of the Remaining Estimate on issues and sub-tasks easier.

In Plan mode, the sprint footer will now display the sum of the Remaining Estimate of all of the issues and sub-tasks in the future sprint. Note that the the value will not be shown if:

• the board is configured to use the Original Time Estimate as the Estimation Statistic (see Configuring Estimation and Tracking), and
• the board is configured to use a Tracking Statistic (see Configuring Estimation and Tracking), and
• the sum of the Original Estimates on the issues is different from the sum of the Remaining Estimates on the issues and sub-tasks.

In Work mode, the value shown on the bottom right of the card is now the Remaining Estimate for the issue or sub-task:

^top

Sample data included

To help newcomers get started quickly, we've included sample data with GreenHopper.

• Scrum and Kanban projects.
• Projects pre-populated with issues showing how to use a board.
• Sample reports included.

^top

Parallel sprints

You can now have multiple active, parallel sprints. For example, if you have two teams working fom the same backlog, each team can now work on their own sprint.

Please note the following caveats with this simple approach:

• The Velocity Chart will not show the velocity per team.
• The current implementation assumes that the teams perform estimation identically, which is unlikely in practice.

This feature is currently in Labs – please enable "Parallel sprints" to activate it. Please note that this feature is still undergoing development and may change from its current implementation.

^top

10 September 2012

This release delivers the following enhancements:

This release also includes a number of fixes. For full details please see the GreenHopper 6.0.2 Release Notes.

Customisable card colours

You will be as pleased as we are to see this very popular request satisfied. You can now configure your card colours based on Issue Types, Priorities, Assignees, or JQL queries of your choice.

^top

Multiple active sprints

If you are working on a large, multi-team project, then you may want to keep track of each team's current activity – that is, you may want to track multiple active sprints.

In GreenHopper 6.0.2, if your board's filter is configured to display multiple projects then you can now see all of the active sprints. Great for Scrum of Scrums meetings.

^top

Ability to rename future sprints

Following on from GreenHopper 6.0, where we delivered the ability to create multiple upcoming sprints, GreenHopper 6.0.2 brings you the ability to rename your future sprints.

Simply mouseover the sprint name, click and start typing:

^top

Expand/collapse all swimlanes

This will save you some time and mouseclicks.

To instantly see all issues in all of your swimlanes in Work mode, simply press the "-" key (see Using Keyboard Shortcuts) or select Tools > Expand all swimlanes:

^top

Burndown Report shows what didn't get done

The Burndown Report now includes an itemised list of incomplete issues/outstanding work at the end of the sprint:

^top

Navigation change yields faster performance

In GreenHopper 6.0.2 we have removed the board selection drop-down, which has improved page load performance — especially on instances that have lots of boards.

You can still access all boards via Agile > Manage Boards, and of course your most recently used boards are available directly from the Agile menu:

^top

13 August 2012

The Atlassian team announces the release of GreenHopper 6.0, bringing you the ability to plan multiple sprints at the same time.

This release also includes a number of fixes. For full details please see the GreenHopper 6.0 Release Notes and the GreenHopper 5.10.6 Release Notes.

New menu structure

In GreenHopper 6.0, the new board (formerly known as the Rapid Board) is now promoted in the menu structure. The previous boards are now known as the Classic Planning Board, the Classic Task Board, the Classic Released Board and the Classic Charts Board, and are available via Classic in the menu:

Please note that the keyboard shortcuts have also been updated. Type "?" for the latest list.

^top

Future sprint planning

You can now create multiple upcoming sprints, allowing you to plan several iterations ahead. Simply click Add Sprint at the top of the backlog:

^top

iPad aware

You can now view your GreenHopper board on your iPad, e.g. during your standups you can now:

• view the current status of all your stories in Work mode and drag them from column to column
• view your Burndown Chart
• and more

We hope you enjoy the convenience of being able to perform many of your most common GreenHopper tasks on the iPad (we do!)

 ^top

Simple workflow editing in GreenHopper

You can now edit your project's workflow from within GreenHopper. Just click Add Status on your board's Column Configuration page:

For details (and caveats), please see Using GreenHopper Simplified Workflow.

No longer Rapid by name – but still rapid by nature

In GreenHopper 6.0 the new board is no longer known as the "Rapid Board" — we figure everyone knows by now that it is vastly faster than the Classic boards. The new board has been built from the ground up on newer technology that enables us to provide optimum performance, making the most of your valuable time.

Enjoy!

 ^top

16 July 2012

This release delivers a number of bug-fixes. For full details please see the GreenHopper 5.10.5 Release Notes.

9 July 2012

This release delivers the following enhancements to the Rapid Board:

This release also includes a number of fixes. For full details please see the GreenHopper 5.10.4 Release Notes.

Rapid Board becomes more rapid

Every second of your time is precious, so we are delighted to announce some significant reductions in page load time, particularly for Internet Explorer and Firefox.

Rapid Board gets a promotion (optionally)

Your feedback tells us that you love the Rapid Board, so we're giving you the option of moving it up the menu and making it quicker to access.

Enable Rapid Boards as default in GreenHopper Labs to change the Agile menu from this:

... to this:

Classic will take you to the old Planning Board, Task Board, Chart Board and Released Board.

^top

Rapid Board renamed to just "Board" (optionally)

If you choose to enable Rapid Boards as default in Labs, as well as changing the GreenHopper menus, the term "Rapid Board" will be replaced simply by "Board" throughout GreenHopper. It seems that's what everyone was already calling it anyway.

^top

2 July 2012

This release delivers the following enhancements to the Rapid Board:

This release also includes a number of fixes. For full details please see the GreenHopper 5.10.3 Release Notes.

Velocity Chart

The velocity chart shows the amount of value delivered in a sprint. It is useful for your Sprint Retrospective meeting, sizing your future Sprints and also for mid-sprint progress checks.

The velocity of a sprint is the sum of the Estimate for all completed stories. Estimates can be based on story points, business value, hours, issue count, or any numeric field of your choice (see Configuring Estimation and Tracking). Please note that the values for each issue are recorded at the time when the issue moves into the sprint.

 ^top

Sub-tasks now visible in Work mode

When you view an issue's details in Work mode, a sub-tasks tab will now be shown (indicated by a 'folder' icon). This shows existing sub-tasks of the issue (if any exist), and gives you the total estimate for all sub-tasks. It also gives you the ability to quickly create new sub-tasks.

 ^top

11 June 2012

This release delivers the following enhancements to the Rapid Board:

This release also includes a number of fixes. For full details please see the GreenHopper 5.10 Release Notes and the GreenHopper 5.9.8 Release Notes.

Scrum graduates from Labs

In GreenHopper 5.10, Scrum support is now a core part of the product. This means that Plan mode is now automatically available for all Scrum boards — you no longer need to enable it via Labs. Likewise, the Scrum option will automatically be available whenever you create a new board.

^top

Sprint Report shows scope-change issues

The Sprint Report now indicates (with an asterisk) issues that were added or removed after the sprint started:

 ^top

View Burndown on the Sprint Report

The Sprint Report (previously known as the Sprint Retrospective Report) now shows burndown, and also displays a table showing you which issues were completed successfully during the sprint and which were not.

Smarter Sprint Naming

GreenHopper will now suggest a name for your new sprint based on your previous sprint, e.g. if your previous sprint was called "Bob 1", GreenHopper will offer "Bob 2" as the default name for your new sprint.

Estimate in Story Points, Track in Hours

In GreenHopper 5.9.7 we introduced the ability to choose your preferred Estimation Statistic (e.g. Story Points).

We now bring you the ability to do your tracking in hours, if you wish. This means that, for example, you can now choose to use Story Points for estimation, but time-tracking for burndown.

Enter your Estimation Statistic before starting a Sprint

If you do not have an Estimation Statistic applied to an issue, you will receive a warning when starting the sprint (unless your Estimate Statistic is set to Issue Count, which is calculated automatically).

^top

Remove Issue from Active Sprint

By popular request, you can now remove an issue from an in-progress sprint in Work mode. Simply click an issue to display its Detail View on the right of the screen, then click the cog icon:

^top

Resolve Parent when Sub-Tasks are Done

Once all the sub-tasks have been completed, it's time to resolve the parent issue. In GreenHopper 5.9.5 we introduced a prompt, when you move the last sub-task to the 'Done' column in Work mode, to remind you to move the parent too.

But what if you resolved the sub-tasks in native JIRA instead? In GreenHopper 5.9.8, we now display a button on the parent issue the next time you visit Work mode.

See the Sprint Report when closing a Sprint

When you end a sprint, the Sprint Report will now be displayed automatically.

^top

28 May 2012

This release delivers the following enhancements to the Rapid Board:

This release also includes a number of fixes. For full details please see the GreenHopper 5.9.7 Release Notes

 Please note: Plan mode is available by activating the "Scrum" option in GreenHopper Labs.

Estimation Statistic is now configurable

Instead of having to use Story Points, you can now choose to estimate your issues based on Story Points, Original Estimate, or any numeric custom field you have configured:

^top

Sprint Burndown Chart now uses your Estimation Statistic

The Sprint Burndown Chart is now based on your configured Estimation Statistic. The value burns down when the story is completed (i.e. moved to the last column on work mode):

^top

Sprint Burndown Chart now shows scope change

The Sprint Burndown Chart will now show issues that are added to (or removed from) a sprint after the sprint has started.

^top

Sprint Burndown Chart now includes data table

The Sprint Burndown Chart now includes a Data Table that explains each movement of the graph (see screenshot above).

^top