I’m considering pushing our organization to switch from Jira to Asana because of the ease of use and visibility, but there are a couple workflow concerns I have, and I’d like to see if anyone has ideas on how to solve them.
A project in game development spans multiple teams and several years. It is not what a large organization would consider a project (developing sales forecasts, pushing a product to release, etc. over several weeks), and because of this paradigm, it seems like I would have to sacrifice almost all of the “team” functionality in order to give visibility across teams to all aspects of the projects. Based on my experience with Asana so far, in order for the engineers to see what the artists are doing, or QA to see what Design is implementing, they all have to be on the same team working on the same board with about 20 different columns.
An example use case would be: An engineer is working on a feature for the art team. The art team needs visibility on when this feature is rolled into the newest build without having to ask the engineering team for an update every day. In order for the artists to be able aware of this, artists would have to go check the Engineering Team project board to see if they moved the feature task from “in progress” to “done”. Additionally, there ends up being a bit of overhead searching for the finished task.
Our workflow sees tasks which people across multiple teams transition from development to our in-house quality assurance team. Is there no way to link a column in one project to a column in another project? The goal is to send a task from the “backlog” column, through “in progress”, then finally on to “Ready for QA”. The only way I’ve seen for this to happen is for the user moving the task to go into the task and manually add the QA team’s project board to the task.
Is there no internal workflow logic that can be setup for a task to handle this kind of transition? I feel like I could probably work around most other issues, but those two are fairly significant sticking points for how we operate as a studio. Is the only solution to have a single team and project that includes the entire company with 40 columns in a single board?
Hi Randall,
You should be able to do this automation with Zapier, @Caisha and @paulminors are really good with this tool.
Moreover, I recommend you make extensive usage of Multi Homing for your tasks if they concern multiple teams.
As @Bastien_Siebman suggested, Unito was build specifically to make it possible for teams to work on projects across tools like JIRA and Asana, live. Our sync platform lets you map workflows and fields, letting you choose the level of detail each team needs. This would also let you tackle a transition to Asana much more progressively: no need to change everyone’s work habits at once!
If, on the other hand, you’re looking more for an a automation approach (as opposed to 2-way sync), then Tray, Zapier and friends would do perfectly, as @Sebastian_Paasch recommended.
Happy to guide you through your options, just reach out to us at hello@unito.io.
When considering a switch from Jira to Asana for game development, it’s important to address any workflow concerns to ensure a smooth transition. Here are a few ideas to help solve potential workflow concerns:
Agile Methodology: If your team follows an agile development process, you can configure Asana to align with agile principles. Create projects or boards to represent sprints, and use tasks or cards to represent user stories, features, or tasks. Utilize custom fields to capture additional information like story points or priority.
Task Dependencies: In Jira, task dependencies can be easily managed using issue linking. In Asana, you can achieve a similar workflow by using task dependencies. When setting up tasks, you can link them as dependencies to create a sequential order. This helps ensure that tasks are completed in the correct order and prevent bottlenecks.
Kanban View: Asana offers a kanban view, similar to Jira’s board view. You can create columns to represent different stages of your workflow, such as “To Do,” “In Progress,” and “Done.” This provides a visual representation of tasks and their progress, allowing team members to easily track and prioritize work.
Integrations: Asana offers a wide range of integrations with other tools commonly used in game development, such as version control systems (Git, SVN), bug tracking tools, and communication platforms. Explore the available integrations to ensure a seamless flow of information between different tools used in your development process.
Team Collaboration: Asana provides various collaboration features, including task comments, file attachments, and the ability to mention teammates. Encourage your team to use these features to enhance communication, share updates, and collaborate effectively within tasks.
Before making the switch, it’s essential to involve your team in the decision-making process and conduct a thorough evaluation of how Asana meets your specific workflow requirements. This will help ensure a successful transition and address any concerns proactively.