ALM Works

The order in which issues appear in a structure is up to you.

Unlike search results in JIRA, which are sorted by some field, a structure lists issues in the order set up manually — in the same way you manage backlog in GreenHopper.

You can freely rearrange issues in a structure by moving them up or down, one position at a time, or by placing them to an arbitrary position with drag-and-drop or copy/paste.

The users may create and share a number of independent structures. (Each structure's permissions determine who can view and who can edit the structure.)

The same issues may be added to multiple structures and organized differently in different hierarchies.

For example, an Agile team can keep their team backlog of stories, in order of importance. The same stories and epics may be a part of a bigger cross-project structure, contributing to the overall progress. And you can also create your personal structure of the issues you need to keep track of for yourself.

Structure owner can control who can view or edit the structure by setting up permissions lists, which allocate specific access levels to either a JIRA group, or a project role.

By default, a new structure is private - only the owner has access to it.

A view is a visual configuration of the Structure widget. It defines which columns are displayed in the grid and the settings for each column.

The structure grid is highly customizable: you can add, remove, rearrange columns as needed. Current column configuration may be saved as a named view and shared with other users.

You can quickly switch between views using Views menu, or with keyboard.

Structure provides special columns that show the sum of the estimates and logged work time, calculated for the issue and its sub-issues.

Progress column displays % of work done, calculated based on the completion of the sub-issues and time tracking information.

Structure grid allows editing most of the fields right in the structure grid, without leaving the page. Just double-click the value you need to change.

You also can create new issues, add comments, apply workflow transitions or use any other JIRA operation from the drop-down menu, or from the Actions and Operations dialog, brought up with "." (dot) keyboard shortcut.

With a single click on the Excel button, you can get a neatly formatted XLS file with the structure in the same visual configuration.

Issue hierarchy is replicated using the collapsible row grouping and indentation, and columns contain well formatted data, ready for aggregation or graphs.

Excel export helps with reporting to management who don't use JIRA and in signing off plans and baselines.

You can handle many issues at a time. Select issues with the mouse or space key, and use Bulk Edit button to use JIRA's Bulk Edit wizard on them.

The selected issues can also be moved around in the hierarchy or removed from structure, by using toolbar buttons or keyboard.

Structure allows you to create a copy of an existing structure, doing bulk copy of the issues that structure contains. The new structure will contain freshly created (and maybe slightly modified) issues, arranged in the same hierarchy.

This can be used to quickly create a plan for a repeatable structured work, such as a Test Plan.

Structure Gadget lets you show structure on a JIRA Dashboard and on a Confluence page.

The gadget is configured to show a specific structure with a specific view (columns configuration). It's also possible to set up a filter, so the gadget shows only matching issues.

The gadget is interactive, and, if configuration allows, can be used to change or create new issues.

Structure integrates with GreenHopper in two ways.

Firstly, an additional Structure tab appears in the GreenHopper's issue details panel. It allows you to browse and edit structure while working with the Agile board, and it also shows you the hierarchical context for the selected issue.

Secondly, there's GreenHopper synchronizer, a background service that can be configured to automatically match Epic-Story relationship with parent-subissue relationship in structure: if you assign a story to an epic, it will be moved under the epic issue in structure, and vice versa.

The similar synchronization is possible for the issue rank.

In JIRA, you can create an association between two issues using issue links. Structure includes Links Synchronizer, which can build a structure from the existing links, and then keep it synchronized.

Whenever a new link appears, structure is updated to mirror the change. Likewise, if structure is updated, a link may be created or removed to reflect that.

Links synchronizer is a complex function with many parameters. By carefully building multiple synchronizers, you can define complex structures with multiple link types involved.

The Status Rollup synchronizer can automatically transition a parent issue to reflect changes in the statuses of its sub-issues.

The synchronizer tracks updates to issues and to the structure, and calculates the desired status for the parent issue, based on the statuses of its sub-issues. The configuration defines which projects, issue types, statuses are affected, how calculation is done, and which transitions are allowed.

Structure adds a new structure() JQL function, which lets you select issues that are added to a specific structure.

The optional second parameter to structure() function lets you retrieve issues that are located under a specific parent in the structure.