Refining Issues in Klar

Refining issues is all about knowing enough to start work – and have a high chance of successfully finishing it. This document tells users how to refine issues in Klar once the app has been configured by your Project Admin.

Jump to:

Finding Klar

To begin refining issues in Klar, click on the Klar menu option in the project nav.

Understanding the Klar app Layout

You’ll enter the Klar app as shown below. There are 3 main columns.

List of Issues (left pane)

There is a toggle at the top of the pane that allows you to decide if items that are considered Ready (aka Refinement is complete) are shown. By default this is toggled off.

As refinement is done, issues will disappear from the left pane. If they do not, you can click on the refresh icon to force an update.

Issue Details (center pane)

This pane shows information about the Jira issue in order to help you in your refinement process.

Currently there is a limitation of the Forge platform and we cannot embed the issue here directly as you may see in other areas. As that is provided, we will update this experience to make it more similar to other areas of Jira.

Refinement area (right pane)

What you will find here:

  • A View issue button to open the issue in a dialog box.

  • User preferences button

    • Show confetti when you finish refining an issues

    • Automatically move to next issue when you finish one

  • Refinement Questions

  • Dependencies

  • Interested Parties

 

Answering Refinement Questions

The list of questions that shows up here is configured by your Project Admin. There is only one set of questions for all issues in the project at this time.

To answer a question, click on the icon to the left of the question text. This will make a dropdown appear.

You can choose from the following answers:

  • Yes

  • No

  • Unknown (default)

As you answer the questions the view will update to show your selections

Once all of the questions are marked with a checkmark (“Yes”) then the item is considered refined and ready to start and the Refinement Complete field is updated.

Add context to your answer

Sometimes just Yes or No isn’t enough - you need to add a bit more context. There are 2 features that can be utilized to help with this.

Adding a comment with your answer

Whenever you choose an answer, you’ll get a dialog box that gives you an opportunity to add a comment.

 

You can choose to show or not the comment on the issue by toggling on the option below:

You can then decide which group should be allowed to see the message.

This is a comment that relates to the current answer and it will be visible from the icon in the top right corner of that question’s box. The comment may also become available as a comment on the Issue (and in an upcoming release - on the Jira issue itself).

Feel free to add emojis in your comments!

Choosing a common reason for your answer

Often there are common reasons for why you will say Yes or No. Your Project Admin can configure these to allow you to choose them when you answer questions. This can save you time! You can still add additional comments if you need to share further information.

Editing your comment or common reason

Whenever you choose an answer you will be given the opportunity to choose a common reason for the answer and to update the comment currently applied to that question.

To edit either without changing the underlying answer, select the same answer from the dropdown and you’ll be able to make changes.

Selecting Dependencies and Interested Parties

If your Project Admin has configured Dependencies or Interested Parties for you to choose from then you will see those sections under the Refinement Questions in the right pane of the Klar app.

When you click on the pencil icon you are able to choose one or more pre-configured options.

When you click save you’ll see your selections.

The images here show Dependencies. The Interested Parties area works in the same way. Click the pencil to edit whenever you learn more.

What’s next?

Once you’ve refined your Jira issues, check out more about how your actions populate issue fields and what that enables you to do: