Documentation for GreenHopper 5.10.x. Documentation for other versions of JIRA Agile is available too.
GreenHopper is now called JIRA Agile. Learn more.

Updated for GreenHopper 5.10 so it is now easier than ever to get up and running with GreenHopper.

Welcome to GreenHopper 101, an introductory guide to the GreenHopper plugin for JIRA and a tour of the most interesting GreenHopper features. Use this page to guide your evaluation process or quickly get up to speed with GreenHopper.

The intended audience for this document is software developers who are familiar with Agile methodologies.

Getting Started

First things first. If you haven't already got the GreenHopper plugin up and running, carry out the following steps.

1. Installing GreenHopper

  1. Log in to JIRA as a user with the 'JIRA Administrators' global permission.
  2. Click the Administration link on the top bar to open the JIRA administration console.
  3. Select Plugins > Plugins. The Universal Plugin Manager (UPM) page will be displayed (see Managing JIRA's Plugins).
  4. Click the Install tab in the UPM. The Find new plugin page will display, showing the featured plugins available for JIRA.
  5. Type 'GreenHopper' in the Search the Plugin Exchange box and click the Search button.
  6. The GreenHopper plugin will appear in the Featured Plugins section on the Install tab. Click the Install button. A confirmation message and the plugin details will display, if it is installed successfully.
  7. Restart JIRA.

(warning) Please ignore this section if you are using GreenHopper OnDemand. If you are using Atlassian OnDemand then you do not need to install GreenHopper, as it is supplied under Atlassian's Hosted Commercial Add-ons program.

  1. Log in as a user with the 'JIRA Administrators' global permission.
  2. Click the Administration link on the top bar.
  3. Select Plugins > Plugins. The Universal Plugin Manager page will be displayed (see Managing JIRA's Plugins).
  4. Click the GreenHopper section to expand it.
  5. Paste your license into the License Key field and click Add.
    (info) You can copy your GreenHopper license from https://my.atlassian.com, where you can either generate a new Evaluation License Key, or retrieve your old License Key if you already have one.

(info) For more information please see Specifying your License Details.

(warning) Please ignore this section if you are using GreenHopper OnDemand. If you are using Atlassian OnDemand, you may order and manage your GreenHopper OnDemand licenses by logging into your account at http://my.atlassian.com.

2. Getting Started: Scrum

Scrum is generally used by development teams who follow a roadmap of planned features for upcoming versions of their product. Scrum teams work in sprints.

  1. Click the Agile menu in the top navigation bar. The Getting Started page will appear.
  2. On the Scrum tab,
    • If someone has already created a Scrum board for you to use, click Open an existing board (in step 2).
    •  Otherwise:
      • If you already have a JIRA project in which to store your Agile tasks, click create a new Scrum board (in step 2). Otherwise, click create a new project and board (in step 1). Type a descriptive Name and unique Key for your project, and select the Project Lead (that is, the person who will manage this project).
        (info) Note that you will need the 'JIRA Administrators' global permission and the 'Administer Projects' project permission in order to create a JIRA project. If you don't have these permissions, you will need to ask your JIRA administrator to create a project for you. For more details, please see the JIRA documentation on Defining a Project.
      • Enter the name of your new Rapid Board, and select the project(s) you wish to work on.

For more information, please see Creating a Rapid Board.

Many Scrum teams estimate tasks in Story Points, then track tasks using hours. GreenHopper therefore gives you the flexibility to set your estimation and tracking statistics differently, depending on what best suits your team. By default, your Scrum board will use Story Points for estimation, and will also use Story Points for tracking.

To use hours (instead of Story Points) for tracking:

  1. Click Agile > Manage Rapid Boards in the top navigation bar.
  2. On the Manage Rapid Boards screen, click the Configure link corresponding to the Rapid Board of interest.
  3. On the Rapid Board Configuration screen, click the Estimation and Tracking tab.
  4. In the Time Tracking field, select Remaining Estimate and Time Spent.

For more information, please see Configuring Estimation and Tracking.

... or ...

Getting Started: Kanban

Kanban is often used by bugfix teams who deliver maintenance releases of their product. Kanban is also well suited to DevOps, Build Engineering and Support teams.

    1. Click the Agile menu in the top navigation bar. The Getting Started page will appear.
    2. On the Kanban tab,
      • If someone has already created a Kanban board for you to use, click Open an existing board (in step 2).
      • Otherwise:
        • If you already have a JIRA project in which to store your Agile tasks, click create a new Kanban board (in step 2). Otherwise, click create a new project and board (in step 1). Type a descriptive Name and unique Key for your project, and select the Project Lead (that is, the person who will manage this project).
          (info) Note that you will need the 'JIRA Administrators' global permission and the 'Administer Projects' project permission in order to create a JIRA project. If you don't have these permissions, you will need to ask your JIRA administrator to create a project for you. For more details, please see the JIRA documentation on Defining a Project.
        • Enter the name of your new Rapid Board, and select the project(s) you wish to work on.
Creating a Rapid Board

For more information, please see Creating a Rapid Board.

Constraints specify how many issues a column can contain. If the constraint for a column is exceeded, the constraint will be highlighted in red.

To set constraints based on the number of issues in a given column:

  1. Click Agile > Manage Rapid Boards in the top navigation bar.
  2. On the Manage Rapid Boards screen, click the Configure link corresponding to the Rapid Board of interest.
  3. On the Rapid Board Configuration screen, click the Columns tab.
  4. In the Column Constraint drop-down, select Issue Count.
  5. To set the columns Max constraint, click the red box at the top of the column, type the new value and press the Enter key. E.g. if your business practice is to have no more than 5 issues 'In Progress' at any one time, you would specify 5.
  6. Close the Use Rapid Board button (at the top of the page). Your Rapid Board will refresh with the column constraint applied. If the total number of issues in that column exceeds the maximum capacity, the column will be highlighted in red.

For more information, please see Configuring Columns.

 

From here on, everything is done on your Rapid Board.

3. Using Keyboard Shortcuts

  • click 'a' to assign an issue.
  • click 'l' to label an issue.
  • click 'm' is comment on an issue.
  • click 'z' to display your board in 'Projector' mode (i.e. full-screen).
  • click '.' for the JIRA Operations dialog.

  • click 'j' to go to the next issue (down) in a column on the Rapid Board.

  • click 'k' to go to the previous issue (up) in a column on the Rapid Board.
  • click 'n' to go to the next (right) column on the Rapid Board.
  • click 'p' to go to the previous (left) column on the Rapid Board.
  • click 't' to toggle between hiding or showing the detailed view of the currently selected issue on the Rapid Board.
  • click 'o' to open the issue which is currently showing in the detailed view on the Rapid Board.
  • click 'Enter' to submit the content of a field being edited in the detailed view on the Rapid Board.
  • click 'Shift' + 'Enter' to add a new line to a field being edited in the detailed view on the Rapid Board.

  • click 's' + 't' to move an issue to the top of the current column on the Rapid Board. (Only applicable if Ranking has been enabled.)

  • click 's' + 'b' to move an issue to the bottom of the current column on the Rapid Board. (Only applicable if Ranking has been enabled.)

(info) For more information, please see Using Keyboard Shortcuts.

Planning your Work

4.  Creating an Issue

  1. Click Create Issue at the top of the screen.

  2. Enter your issue details into the 'Create Issue' dialog box.
    (tick) If you select the Create another check box, JIRA will create your issue and automatically pre-populate a new 'Create Issue' dialog box with your previous issue details, while leaving the Summary field blank. This allows you to rapidly create a series of issues with similar details.
    (tick) If you wish to choose which fields will appear when you create (or edit) an issue, click the Configure Fields button.

For more information, please see Creating an Issue.

5. Ranking Issues

Scrum teams typically try to rank items in their backlog in the order they should be implemented, starting from the top. Kanban teams (which do not have a backlog) organise their To Do column in the same way.

In Plan mode (if you are using Scrum):

  1. Select Plan mode on your preferred Rapid Board.
  2. Rank an issue by dragging and dropping it to a higher or lower position within the backlog.

For more information, please see Ranking an Issue.

... or ...

In Work mode (if you are using Kanban):

  1. Select Work mode on your preferred Rapid Board.
  2. Rank an issue by dragging and dropping it to a higher or lower position within its current column (highest priority at top).
 

6. Estimating Issues (Scrum)

  1. Select Plan mode on your preferred Rapid Board.
  2. Click each issue on the left-hand side of the screen to display its details on the right-hand side of the screen.
  3. Enter an Estimate for each issue by clicking the Estimate field on the right-hand side of the screen

For more information, please see Using Plan Mode.

7. Starting a Sprint (Scrum)

Once you have ranked and estimated your issues, you are ready to start a sprint.

  1. Select Plan mode on your preferred Rapid Board.
  2. Make sure the sprint marker (the grey bar) is positioned below the issues you want to include in your new sprint. Drag it up or down as needed.
  3. Click the Start Sprint button.
    (info) You will need to have the JIRA 'Project Administrator' permission in the project(s) whose issues are to be included in the new sprint.
    (info) If you do not have an estimation statistic applied to an issue, you will receive a warning when starting the sprint (unless you are using Issue Count, as this is calculated automatically).
  4. You will be prompted to enter a sprint name and to select the Start Date and End Date for the sprint.
  5. The issues will disappear from Plan mode and move into Work mode. While a sprint is active in Work mode, you can still plan a subsequent iteration in Plan mode, but you won't be able to start it until the active sprint is completed. (You can, however, drag and drop an issue in Plan mode onto the active sprint.)

For more information, please see Starting a Sprint.

Working on Issues

8. Viewing your "To Do" List

  1. Select Plan mode on your preferred Rapid Board.
  2. To see only the issues that are assigned to you, click the Only My Issues button.

For more information, please see Using Work Mode.

9. Filtering Issues

You can use Quick Filters to filter issues on-the-fly, enabling you for example to only see issues of a particular type (such as 'Bug').

  1. On your preferred Rapid Board, select Tools > Configure.
  2. On the Rapid Board Configuration screen, click the Quick Filters tab.
  3. In the Name field, enter Bugs only (or whatever is appropriate for your needs).
  4. In the JQL field, enter type = bug (or whatever is appropriate for your needs).
  5. Click the Add button, then click Use.
  6. Your Rapid Board will now have a new button for your new Quick Filter.

For more details, please see Configuring Quick Filters.

 10. Transitioning Issues through Statuses

  1. Select Work mode on your preferred Rapid Board.
  2. Drag and drop the desired card(s) to the column that matches the status to which you want to assign the issue(s).
    (warning) If moving an issue causes a constraint to be exceeded, the affected constraint will be displaed in red (maximum) or yellow (minimum).

For more information, please see Transitioning an Issue.

11. Ending a Sprint (Scrum)

  1. Select Work mode on your preferred Rapid Board.
  2. Click the 'Close sprint' icon at the top of the 'Done' (rightmost) column.
    (info) You will need to have the JIRA 'Project Administrator' permission in the project(s) whose issues are included in the sprint.
    (info) When you try to close a sprint, and you have parent issues not Done but all sub-tasks are Done, you will be prompted to make the parent Done before continuing.
  3. You will be taken to the Sprint Report. Your issues will move out of Work mode. Any incomplete issues will move back into the backlog and will be visible in Plan mode.

For more information, please see Ending a Sprint.

Many Scrum teams don't release a version at the end of a sprint, but if you need to, it's easy to do.

  1. In the Completed Issues section of the Sprint Report for your completed sprint, click View in Issue Navigator.
  2. You can then use JIRA's Bulk Edit to assign all of the issues to the relevant version (for details, please see the JIRA documentation on
     Bulk Operations
    ).

... or ...

Releasing a Version (Kanban)

  1. Select Work mode on your preferred Rapid Board.
  2. Click the Release icon at the top of the Done (rightmost) column.
    (info) You will need to have the JIRA 'Project Administrator' permission in the project(s) whose issues are to be included in the version.
  3. The 'Release' window will display. Enter the Version name and Release date (optional — will default to today's date).
  4. Click the Release button to save your new version and mark it as 'released' throughout JIRA and GreenHopper.
Creating a Rapid Board

For more information, please see Releasing a Version.

 

Searching and Reporting

12. Tracking Progress: Scrum

A Burndown Chart shows the actual and estimated amount of work to be done in a sprint, and helps you to project the likelihood of achieving the sprint goal.

  1. Select Report mode on your preferred Rapid Board.
  2. Select Burndown Chart from the drop-down at left to display the burndown chart for your active sprint.
  3. Any changes to scope (e.g. issues added to sprint, issues removed from sprint) are shown in the table below the graph.

For more information, please see Viewing the Burndown Chart.

A Sprint Report shows the list of issues in each sprint. It is useful for your Sprint Retrospective meeting, and also for mid-sprint progress checks.

  1. Select Report mode on your preferred Rapid Board.
  2. Select Sprint Report from the drop-down at left.
  3. Select the relevant sprint from the sprint dropdown.

For more information, please see Viewing the Sprint Report.

A Velocity Chart shows the amount of value delivered in each sprint, enabling you to predict the amount of work the team can commit to in future sprints. 

  1. Select Report mode on your preferred Rapid Board.
  2. Select Velocity Chart from the drop-down at left.
  3. Select the relevant sprint from the sprint dropdown.

For more information, please see Viewing the Velocity Chart.

... or ...

Tracking Progress: Kanban

A Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFD) shows your work-in-progress and helps you to identify bottlenecks in your processes.

  1. Select Report mode on your preferred Rapid Board.
  2. Select Cumulative Flow Diagram from the drop-down at left to display the CFD.

For more information, please see Viewing the Cumulative Flow Chart.

A Control Chart shows you the cycle time (lead time) for your product, version or sprint.

  1. Select Report mode on your preferred Rapid Board.
  2. Select Control Chart from the drop-down at left to display the control chart.
  3. Hover over the graph at any point to display actual values of the moving average.

For more information, please see Viewing the Control Chart.

 

13. Displaying a Wallboard

A Wallboard displays vital data about project progress to anyone walking by.

  1. Ensure that the JIRA Wallboards Plugin has been installed. (This is similar to installing the GreenHopper plugin as described above.)
  2. Click the Dashboard menu in the top navigation bar and create a new JIRA dashboard for your new wallboard.
    (info) Since existing dashboards may contain gadgets which are not wallboard-compatible, avoid copying an existing dashboard.
  3. On your new dashboard, click the Add Gadget link (top right). The Gadgets Directory will display. Find the GreenHopper Wallboard Gadget in the list of gadgets and click Add it now.
  4. Add any other wallboard-compatible gadgets to your new dashboard.
    (tick)Tip: By default, all available gadgets are listed. However, many of these gadgets are not wallboard-compatible. To restrict the list of gadgets to wallboard-compatible ones only, select the Wallboard category at the left of the Gadgets Directory.
  5. Select View as Wallboard from the Tools drop-down on your dashboard and stare in awe at your fresh new wallboard. For optimal use of screen real-estate, enter full-screen mode on your browser (F11 in Firefox 3.6 and Chrome 5; Safari requires a plugin to enable full-screen mode) and refresh the page. Wallboards are optimised for 1920x1080 and 1920x1200 pixel resolution screens, but should also work in some other resolution modes.

For more information, please see the documentation on the GreenHopper gadgets, the Wallboards Plugin and the JIRA Dashboard.

Thank you for reading this guide.

Thanks for taking the time to try GreenHopper using this guide. To help continue your journey, our support staff are always ready to answer your questions in Atlassian Answers for GreenHopper, or solve specific problems at our support portal http://support.atlassian.com.

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