3 Jira automations to boost the delivery quality of your team

A few quarters ago, the software development team I manage inherited a new project. 

This project was an initiative to build a new product within the company, so high velocity and fast iterations were important. However, at TestGorilla, we don't see quality and velocity as competing attributes of a team; we take quality very seriously. To tackle the bug backlog while maintaining our standards, I decided to leverage Jira's automations. I use this feature extensively in my daily workflows, for everything from managing project development to sending reminders for postmortem documents after incidents.

For this particular initiative, I needed to solve three main challenges: raising awareness about new bugs, increasing the velocity of bug fixes, and ensuring that proper technical planning wasn't neglected in the rush to deliver.

If you have a growing bug backlog or want to prevent one, the automations I'm about to describe can be incredibly useful. Below, I’ll detail how I set up and implemented them.

Automation #1: Bug notification

What it does: If a bug ticket is created, I get a notification.

The outcome: With this, I was able to be the first line of defense for the team. Upon receiving the notification, I reviewed the bug, occasionally conducting a small investigation, added my notes, and adjusted its priority as necessary. 

How I did it:

Automation #2: Bug prioritization

What it does: If a bug ticket is not of minor priority, it will go straight into the current sprint.

The outcome: Bugs in my project were no longer sitting in the backlog waiting for product prioritization; they automatically became our team's priority. This reduced the time for an engineer to address a bug, which also reduced the development time for the fix, as the code that generated the bug was still fresh in the engineer's head.

How I did it:

Automation #3: Technical planning

What it does: If an epic is created, spike tickets are also created to allow the frontend and backend engineers to properly plan the implementation before doing it. 

The outcome: Spike tickets quickly became a standard practice in the team. Engineers love technical planning, you just need to allow them to do it. And it is easy to see the great impact it has on the development process and delivery quality. With this, we reduced the number of bugs in new developments.

How I did it:

To wrap up

• Jira automations are a great tool for engineering managers. Use it!

• Bugs must be faced seriously and fixed fast

• Technical planning is an important part of the development process. Make sure you create an environment that will allow engineers to do it. The bugs will hate you for that, and the engineers will like you even more!

I'll be back soon with more software engineering and management posts. Until then, find me on LinkedIn!