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2017-05-24 Bio-IT World Using JIRA & Agile to accelerate science
1. Using JIRA and Agile Techniques to
Speed Science at the Broad Institute
May 24, 2017 | Bio-IT World
2. Mission & Method
• Our mission is to support and nurture the accelerating pace of science
• Our method is to provide groups with visual tools to scale their work, shorten
cycles, and empower teams
• The Broad has used JIRA and Agile techniques to both organize traditional IT
work and scientific workflows
• Use is expanding into additional scientific and administrative areas and
deepening within IT and labs across the Institute
3. About the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
• Propelling the understanding and
treatment of disease
• Collaborating deeply
• Reaching globally
• Empowering scientists
• Building partnerships
• Sharing data and knowledge
• Promoting inclusion
4. About the Speakers
• Sadiya Akasha is a
Project Manager in IT
• Connect via LinkedIn:
https://linkedin.com/in/sadi
ya-akasha
• Bruce Kozuma is a
Principal Systems
Analyst in IT
• Connect via LinkedIn:
https://linkedin.com/in/bk
ozuma
5. Accelerated Pace in Data Science Platform
Data
Science
Platform
(DSP) uses
JIRA & Agile
to accelerate
pace of
genomic
sequencing
6. JIRA Spreads Beyond DSP and Agile Introduced
• The Broad encourages movement of people between departments, which
spreads knowledge/expertise, e.g., Sadiya moved from DSP into IT
• IT identified the need for a tracking system across a variety of labs and
administrative groups
• IT had experience with Agile principles and practices
• IT had knowledge of how DSP used JIRA (a visual task/project management
tool), to meet their sample tracking and workflow visualization needs
• Using JIRA with Agile techniques could (and does) result in more people
spending more time on critical tasks and not on paperwork!
7. Adoption of Core Values
Individuals & interactions
Processes & tools
Working software
Comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration
Contract negotiation
Responding to change
Following a plan
Agile Values and Techniques
Recommended Agile Techniques
• Daily standups
• Weekly planning/Sprint planning
• Continuous improvement
• ”Inspect and Adapt” attitude
• Iterative releases
• “Less is more” project design
• Cross-functional teams
9. Case 1: Data Center Relocation
Re-packaged sample tracking concept within BITS to track compute assets for a
data center consolidation project
10. Case 2: Lab Sample Tracking
Scientific projects related to cell lines use JIRA to track cell lines in the
characterization pipeline
• Achilles: https://portals.broadinstitute.org/achilles
• PRISM: https://www.broadinstitute.org/news/7944
11. Current State of JIRA & Agile
• Multiple JIRA instances in use, both on premises & cloud
• On premises JIRA has extensive integration into internal systems
• Cloud JIRA
• Users: ~600/Groups: ~30
• Additional use cases
• Grant status
• Software projects
• Facilities
• Corporate collaborations
• Weekly growth
• Agile
• DSP has Agile coaches on staff
• Internal affinity group established
• Training offered, more planned
12. Challenges
• Cloud uptime: Generally good, but very noticeable when down
• Gradation of user permissions: Gradation of permissions limited, meaning
JIRA administrators have more-than-desired role in JIRA project administration
• Diverse needs: Utility of templatesshared JIRA projects limited, since users do
have unique needs, given breadth of Broad activities
• JIRA’s evident focus on software development: Some fieldsroles not
intuitive for non-software types (e.g., user type Developer)
• Future performancescalability vs affordability: Some concerns as use
continues to grow at current price point
• Developing JIRA Cloud capabilities: JIRA Cloud APIs do not yet match On
premises JIRA APIs
13. Success Factors
• Re-imagining basic use of JIRA with Agile framing allowed rapid
evolution/adoption to serve science & administration
• Community desire to emulate effectiveness of DSP
• Decentralizing Agile and JIRA knowledge
• Training lab managers/scientific managers to increase facility with tools
• Training all of IT on Agile to meet increased demand
• Self-organized communities to promote Agile
• Ensuring logistical support to help meet demand
• Drop in office hours
• Ticketing system for JIRA-related requests
• Broad-specific documentation for users and administrators
• Training classes for users and administrators
14. Future Plans
• Offer additional internal training classes to continue building JIRA capabilities
throughout the Broad, e.g.,
• Introduction to Agile & Lean (current offering)
• JIRA 101: JIRA users & JIRA project administrators (current offering)
• JIRA 201: JIRA project administrators & JIRA administrators (planned)
• JIRA 301: JIRA administrators, e.g., standards (planned)
• Refine internal support model, e.g., improving documentation of standards,
existing integrations
• Integrate JIRA Cloud into science-facing applications
15. Key Takeaways
• Goal is to help accelerate the pace of science
• Use JIRA to enable Agile values of openness, transparency, responding to
customer needs
• Use Agile techniques such as short development cycles and retrospectives to
rapidly provision working solutions
• JIRA Cloud is flexible enough to accommodate diverse use cases from
software development, IT service provision, facilities, and laboratory sample
tracking
16. Acknowledgements
Broad Information
Technology Services
• Lukas Karlsson
• Peter Ragone
• Kristian Maiorano
• Eric Jones
• Robert Damian
Science
• Zach Leber
• Jennifer Roth
• Diolinda Vaz
Ex-Broadies
• Marc Monar
• Chris Dwan
Thank you to the many people who helped paved the way for current and
future success! A few notable individuals:
Editor's Notes
Explain small icons (people)
Explain color dots are tickets for an instrument and status of the instrument
JIRA 101: What is JIRA, how to get started using it, what are basic structures (e.g., projects, issues, screens, boards, workflows), aimed at JIRA users and project administrators
JIRA 201: More about JIRA structures (e.g., fields, schemes), intermediate topics (e.g., required fields, multiple workflows per project), aimed at project administrators and JIRA administrators
JIRA 301: JIRA administration (e.g., schemes, transitions, field type configurations, standards)