FYI, I'm extending this to Confluence as well (see http://structure.uservoice.com/forums/43181-structure-plugin-for-jira-ideas/suggestions/5125635-use-jira-structure-as-navigation-tree-on-linked-co )

For us, we use Structure for our test plan, meaning tons of test cases. Then you go to GH and it's all flat. One work around is to filter the view so you don't see the custom issue types we created. However, the flatness is still there for epics, stories, and tasks. If a story is pulled into a Sprint, it seems it's children would be as well, so it's nice and clean.
The work board has a similar issue of having to filter in order only see one or two hierarchical levels at a time.

Hello,

Currently Greenhopper does not treat sub-issues (as in Structure) the same way as sub-tasks (as in JIRA), so it cannot group sub-issues.

You can still use sub-tasks and Structure - for example, if you install Sub-tasks synchronizer, all subtasks will be automatically placed in Structure in a correct position.

Also in Structure 2.0 there's a Structure tab in the issue details view, which lets you see the related issues and sub-issues of the selected issue.

Further integration with GreenHopper requires more detailed feedback based on the current functionality, so we can design a consistent improvement for it. Feel free to comment further with your impressions and feature requests.

Kind regards,
Igor

Hello!
I stop using classic Sub-Task in JIRA, but now my colleagues have troubles with grouping issues in Greenhopper Boards.
Do you have any idea how you can implement this in Structure plugin? Is there any way it could be done within Structure plugin? If you're planning to add this feature, how long it would take you to do so?
Thanks in advance.

In Structure 2.0, we have added "Structure" tab to the GreenHopper's Issue Details panel (available for GreenHopper 6.0 and newer). I would be interested to hear how much that solves this exact problem for GreenHopper users. (And any general feedback, of course.)

Thanks
Igor

Kel, thanks for your comment. Just to make sure, you know that you can press Search when viewing structure, turn on JQL and enter JQL like "fixVersion = version1" to have structure filtered, right? How would you like this improved? Something like GreenHopper's drop-down which selects a single version?

Igor

What I miss when I go to Structure is the ability to choose to display all the issues relating to a specific fixVersion.

GreenHopper has a Version pulldown on the planning board, which is very helpful. I could do it in structure by creating a new filter for each fixVersion, but this is somewhat cumbersome.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

Kel

Mike, thanks for follow-up. I'll schedule the improvement for the planning board.

Timesheet report is likely another matter altogether - could you please send a sample screenshot to support@almworks.com for our better understanding?

Thanks
Igor

Igor,

The team seemed to be satisfied with that as a potential fix for our planning board issue. However, we use the timesheet report for management consumption and the question was brought up on how to visualize this context in the report as well.

Is the structure relationship available for reporting purposes?

I definitely understand the challenges that you face with integrating Structure and GreenHopper, I was just throwing what our issues are right now when we plan using both tools.

As for your idea, I was actually thinking of something similar. I will bring it up in our daily standup tomorrow to see what people think.

Mike, thanks for your comment. Of course the best way would be to have GreenHopper display the same structure, but that would require a lot from GreenHopper team - starting with support for multiple projects on the same planning board. We'll do what we can to assist GH team if they decide to work on that, but for now we'll need to find a way to integrate from our side.

What about this idea: we can augment GH pages in some slight way - for example, adding a tiny structure icon near the issue summary. If the user clicks that icon or hovers mouse over it, a medium-sized dialog is shown with the position of this issue in the current structure (all parents and maybe direct children issues). Would that provide the necessary context? Any counter-ideas?

I'm not sure about Matt, but our issue with using Structure along side GreenHopper is with the context that is lost when viewing issues in a particular project that have parents or children in a different one.

Although the synchronize option for GreenHopper is a start it does not address this, and we always have to drill down to Structure to find this context. Having it viewable from the GreenHopper planning/task boards would allow us to plan sprints and complete tasks quicker.

The way that this is accomplished with Sub-Tasks in GreenHopper is really the ideal solution to this.

Matt, what do you think of the current update? Does this fully address your needs, or can Structure be further improved?

Thanks!
Igor

As of version 1.0-rc1:
- Structure widget has "Search" button, which lets you filter structure by JQL or simple query;
- GreenHopper synchronizer syncs issue rank (both ways - if you change it on the Planning Board or if you rearrange issues in the Structure), and Epic/Theme (both ways - places stories and epics in the structure and updates Epic/Theme field if you move issues somewhere else in the structure).

Thanks for the information.

With regards to production use (as of March 2011) the current version is used in production environment by several companies already. It cannot be considered stable yet (or fully developed, for that matter), but it already solves problems. It is built in non-intrusive way: it does not alter JIRA data – all Structure data is kept separately. So if anything happens, you can always disable the plugin – you will lose only the hierarchy. You can also use “Structure Backup” menu to export hierarchy into a self-explanatory XML file, and reuse that data somewhere else.

Filtering the Structure Board by JQL will definitely help.

I do most of my project planning / issue creation in the GreenHopper Planning Board, using it to prioritize items by the Rank field. I imagine I will want a view that allows me to prioritize by Rank within a hierarchy and independent of the hierarchy, and to visualize the project both ways.

I think I probably need to try the Structure plugin to know for sure whether it would meet my needs without GreenHopper cooperation.

Is Structure ready for production use?

Matt, thanks for the feedback.

Issue Navigator: you can currently use "Views | Open Results in Structure" on the Issue Navigator page. In a future version, we'll add search to the Structure Board: you'll be able to filter structure by text or JQL or a saved filter. Would that suffice? If not, could you please describe a use case you have in mind?

GreenHopper Planning Board: can't promise anything yet - we'll need to work with GreenHopper team on that - but we plan to have an open API to let any other plugin take advantage of the stored hierarchy.

Gadget: we plan to have Structure Board gadget, which will have the abovementioned filtering.

Igor