When dealing with Agile projects, it is typical to come across challenges or impediments that hinder the advancement of specific tasks or stories. In such cases, Jira – a widely used project management tool, offers a functionality to ‘block’ a story. Follow these steps for a detailed explanation on how to block a Jira story.
Prerequisites
To follow this tutorial, you will need:
- A Jira account.
- Access to a project where you have permissions to edit stories.
Steps to Block a Jira Story
Step 1: Open the Story
Firstly, navigate to the specific story in your project’s backlog or on your board that you wish to block.
Step 2: Edit the Issue
Click on the issue to open it, and then on the Edit button to enter edit mode.
Step 3: Update the Issue Status
Look for a field named Status or Workflow. Depending on your team’s configuration of Jira, the blocking status could be different. The commonly used blocking statuses are ‘Blocked’ or ‘On Hold’.
Select the appropriate status from the dropdown list. Jira allows you to add a reason or description for blocking a story, providing context for your team members.
Step 4: Save changes
Once you’ve updated the status, remember to click on the Save button to apply the changes. The story will now be marked as blocked on your board.
Conclusion
Blocking a Jira story is a simple yet effective way of communicating that a task cannot proceed due to specific reasons. It helps in keeping your team on the same page and ensures that everyone is aware of the project’s current state.
Remember, the goal isn’t to have blocked stories; instead, it’s to resolve whatever is causing the block so that work can continue. Always consider blocked stories as a high-priority that requires immediate attention.
A blocked story is not merely a status update; it’s a call to action!
