As a project manager or product owner, you may want to plan and track development for several versions of the same project, or support your product for multiple platforms. It is indeed possible to track platform-specific project activities in Targetprocess. In this article, we list some recommendations and best practices on how hierarchical mapping between your actual data structures and entities in Targetprocess can be configured.
Example 1: I have an application which I want to develop for iPhone (iOS) and Android. We have two development teams (or just two developers) who will perform the same tasks as there is little difference between iOS & Android versions. Common Epics, Features and User Stories should be shared between both teams. The requirements are exactly the same. If we change the requirements, these changes should affect both OS platforms at the same time. We don't know how to manage the shared backlog without duplicating every entity.
Example 2: We have three similar versions of the same website. They are in English, French, and Italian. These are three separate projects, and we would like to create a user story to embed a social network login to each website version. Can we create a single user story valid for all three versions? Can we assign single work item to 3 projects at the same time?
In general, a work item (Feature, User Story, Task, or Bug) in Targetprocess can only belong to one parent Project at the same time. Keeping this rule in mind, there are several possible ways to handle your work are possible. Let's discuss them one by one.
Platform-Specific All Level Backlogs
This approach works best when you have powerful mobile applications with a rich set of features in each other. Such projects can last for half a year or even several years. In this case we recommend you to split platform-specific work items (epics, features, user stories, tasks and bugs) on all levels.
More information: Platform-Specific All Level Backlogs
Platform-specific User Stories under common Features
If your project is not so large and lasts for 2-3 months, you may want to release the Features for both your applications synchronously, in the same order and (almost) without delays. In this case Features and higher Epics can be kept within commonly shared backlog.
More information: Platform-specific User Stories under common Features
Platform-specific Tasks under common User Stories
In this setup, the whole backlog is kept under the same multi-platform project. Tasks are platform-specific. This approach fits best for very short projects with a minimal number of functionalities. If your whole project can be finished within a months or even a few weeks, and you would like to complete the user stories in the same order and as synchronously as possible on every supported platform, you might consider this workflow.
More information: Platform-specific Tasks under common User Stories
This guide is a recommendation, so use it as a starting point. Compare it with other approaches, and let us know which workflow best suits your needs.
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