Configure Jira for Scheduling

Before proceeding with Golive’s Scheduling Configuration, your must configure your Jira instance with the necessary custom fields, issue types, screens, and workflows. Below, we present best practices for configuration based on our experience with leading organizations.

Scheduling processes may vary across organizations, so feel free to tailor the configuration to meet your specific requirements.

Requirements

This documentation is intended for Jira Administrators familiar with Jira Administration concepts. Before proceeding with this configuration, ensure that you have a clear understanding of:

• Jira Projects.

• Custom Fields.

• Screens.

• Screen Schemes.

• Workflows.

• Workflow Schemes.

• Issue Types.

• Issue Type Schemes.

• Issue Type Screen Schemes.

• Issue Linking.

Atlassian University provides complimentary courses for individuals aspiring to become Jira Administrators.

To proceed with the configuration outlined below, you'll need Jira Administrator permission on your Jira instance.

Best practices

1. Jira Project

We recommend creating a dedicated company-managed Jira Project specifically for scheduling your Environments, such as naming it “Test Environment Management” (TEM). While team-managed and Jira Work Management projects are also compatible, it's important to note that in these cases, distinguishing between creation and edit screens is not possible. Consequently, you'll have the ability to modify the environment field as well as start/end time fields post approval of your Event types (Booking, Change, Blackout).

2. Issue Types

In your Jira Project, create one Issue Type per Event Type you need to schedule:

• Environment Booking Issue Type.

• Environment Change Issue Type.

• Environment Blackout Issue Type.

You can customize the names and avatars of these Issue Types to align with your context. For example, you can use the "Freeze" Issue Type to track Blackouts.

3. Create 3 Custom Fields

Create 3 mandatory fields to be added to each of your Issue Types:

• Golive Custom Field to store the Environments linked to your Events. You can name it “Environment(s)”.

• Jira Custom Field of type Date Time Picker to store the beginning of your Events. You can name it “Start time”.

• Jira Custom Field of type Date Time Picker to store the end of your Events. You can name it “End time”.

Info

Golive also offers support for Date Picker fields rather than Date Time Picker fields. However, we recommend utilizing the Date Time Picker due to its greater flexibility. It's important to ensure uniformity in the type of scheduling fields across all event types (Booking, Change, Blackout).

Info

If you're using a team-managed Jira Project, the type of your date fields should be Time stamp (recommended) or Date.

4. Create the Exclusive Field (optional)

Optionally, you can schedule Exclusive Bookings and Changes to ensure that no other Booking or Change can be scheduled for the same slot. To enable this feature, a new "Exclusive" field should be added.

• Jira Custom Field of type Single Select List with two options: Yes and No. You can name it “Exclusive”.

Info

If you're using a team-managed Jira Project, the type of this field should be Dropdown.

5. Create an Environment field for Dependencies (optional)

Optionally, you can automatically book dependent Environments. To enable this feature, add an additional "Dependent Environments".

• Golive Custom Field to store the dependent Environments linked to your Events. You can name it “Dependent Environments”.

6. Jira Screens

After creating the required custom fields, you can create 4 different screens:

• Scheduling Creation Screen.

• Scheduling View Screen.

• Scheduling Edit Screen.

• Scheduling Transition Screen.

And add the fields according to the following table:

7. Workflows

Booking, Change, and Blackout workflows should align with your scheduling processes. To illustrate, here's a straightforward workflow that several of our customers have adopted:

All statuses have a Reschedule transition pointing to In Review, which is the trigger status for the Golive conflict checker.

8. Issue Link (optional)

Optionally, Golive can automatically link conflicting scheduling events together. For that, we recommend creating a new Issue Link (Jira Settings -> Issues -> Issue linking) with the following information:

• Name: Conflict

• Outward Description: conflicts with

• Inward Description: conflicts with

9. Scheduling Configuration

After this setup, you can move forward with your Golive Scheduling Configuration, explained in the Scheduling Environmentsarticle. The configuration example is based on the examples outlined in this article.