Dragonboat helps you to align, plan, manage and track products and roadmap effectively. It's like the mission control of your roadmaps.
To start, you can:
- Add new portfolio items directly in-app
- Import via upload from CSV files
- Import via copy and paste from spreadsheets, google sheets, or text files
- Import from Engineering tools, e.g. Jira, ADO, Rally, etc.
- Delete/Bulk Delete Portfolio Items
Tip: If you want to start over after you import, you may use the Bulk Delete feature to delete the imported items from the Portfolio Roadmaps > List page and re-import them.
Tip: If you import using JQL, you may see progress update automatically pulled from Jira daily (or on-demand by clicking the Jira button).
Add new portfolio items directly in-app
1. Use the + Icon on the top navigation
2. From the OKR Details Screen, Roadmap Tab
While creating and/or updating OKRs, you may also add a new Portfolio item. When you do so, it will automatically be linked to the OKR.
3. From the Metrics Details Screen - Roadmap Tab.
Creating New Portfolio Item from Jira, ADO, Rally or other Integrations
You can also create/link a new Portfolio Item to your development tool by navigating to the item's lightbox > Integration section, and using “+ CREATE” to create the new item in your dev tool, or “LINK” to an existing Jira/ADO item. Please, check the articles below with steps for each integration:
- Jira - How To Link Or Create Epics
- Create/Link ADO Work Items
- How to Create Ideas in Dragonboat and update to Rally
- Create/Link a Shortcut EPIC with a Dragonboat idea
- Connect GitHub Milestones and Dragonboat Ideas
- Create/Link Asana tasks
Import via CSV Upload
If some of your roadmap data is in a different system, you may export them to a CSV file and import it to Dragonboat via the CSV import.
Within Dragonboat, you have the ability to import Ideas, Initiatives, and Bets. For more information on defining what is an Idea, Initiative, or Bet, click here.
Available Fields
During CSV import, you may map the fields in the CSV file to the Dragonboat fields:
| Dragonboat Field | Description |
| Title | Title |
| Initiative | Initiative the Portfolio item belongs to. If no initiative exists, one will be created |
| Owner | Portfolio item owner |
| Phase | Portfolio item development life cycle status/phase |
| Roadmap | Level 1 Roadmap |
| Sub-Roadmap | Level 2 Roadmap |
| Group Timeframe | Planned time frame for the release of the portfolio item. Can be a Quarter, a Release or Product Increment, or fuzzy time as This Month, This Quarter, Next Quarter. Only one value is allowed. |
| L1 OKR | Portfolio or Level 1 Objective |
| L2 OKR | Product or Level 2 Objective |
| Theme | Product or strategic theme (across multiple roadmaps) |
| Category | Category the Portfolio item relates to |
| Priority | Portfolio item priority |
| Details | Portfolio item description, multi-line text. |
| Links | Links, multi-line text (URL). |
| Notes | Portfolio item notes, multi-line text. |
| Target end date | Target end date |
| Tag | Portfolio item tags |
| External Key | Portfolio item ID in external system. Used to link Portfolio Items and Requests, when importing from external systems |
| Created by (email) | Email address of the person who created the portfolio item in the external system. |
For more information, please refer to the Portfolio Item Hierarchy guide.
Importing Portfolio Items
Step 1- Choose Import from the three-dot menu at the top-right of your dashboard
Step 2- Select "Import from a CSV file" and click Browse, to choose the csv file with your list of Epics. Then click next:
Step 3- During the import process, select the type of import you are doing; Ideas, Initiatives, or Bets.
Once you have made your selection on import type, you will be able to designate which field from your spreadsheets maps to which field in Dragonboat.
Note: When importing at the Idea or Initiative level, there is an option to match each item to its parent. For example, if you are importing at the Idea level, the parent field should designate the field that contains the initiative data:
If you are importing at the Initiative level, the parent field should designate the field that contains the Bet data:
If you are importing at the Bet level, only Bets will import, there is no linking of Ideas or Initiatives at this level.
Once your import is completed successfully, a confirmation message will appear.
You may also find a list of recent imports by you in the Notification section.
Jira, Azure DevOps, Rally and CSV Import
If you do not have Jira permissions to set up the integration between Dragonboat and Jira, you can export your Jira issues to a CSV file and import them to Dragonboat.
For easier reference, you may map the Jira issue key in a field in Dragonboat, such as the Link field. Later, after your Jira system admin completes the Jira and Dragonboat integration, you can use the Link Jira field on the Portfolio Item detail screen to link this portfolio item using the issue key saved earlier on import.
This applies to other issue tracking systems, such as Azure DevOps and Rally.
Linking Imported Portfolio Items to Requests
When importing Requests from a CSV file, Dragonboat can match the Request’s External Portfolio Key to the Portfolio Item’s External Key, and link Portfolio Item and Request.
To ensure that requests are correctly mapped to Portfolio Items, please import data in the following order:
- Portfolio Items
- Requests
Managing Duplicate Portfolio Items
Dragonboat does not check for duplicate items when importing from CSV files. Please make sure that no duplicates exist in the CSV file before importing.
Import via copy and paste from existing files (see details here)
Here is Dragonboat Data Structure for reference.
As you import or create Portfolio Items, Objectives (aka Goals), Themes, Timeframes (aka Releases), Category, Owner, Priority values will be saved as metadata and become autocomplete for future selection - for example, if an Owner/Assignee is mapped to a portfolio item, a user will be created in User Settings.
Use Settings page to manage metadata (add, update, merge, archive).
Once you have portfolio items in Dragonboat, you may easily assess, prioritize, and align them to multiple dimensions.
Delete/ Bulk Delete Portfolio Items
Sometimes you may import or add portfolio items you no longer need or that need to be updated. That's okay, in Dragonboat you can update or delete multiple portfolio items at once.
Note: Admin users may bulk update & delete portfolio items, whereas Editors can only bulk update.
To get started, go to the Portfolio page from the left hand navigation panel, and choose "List View". On the the top right, choose the three dot menu and select "Bulk Update" from the drop-down.
Select the relevant portfolio items - you may either delete or update them at once. You can use filter to search for the list of portfolio items to update.
To update many portfolio items at once, select the fields to be updated and enter the value of the field. You will be prompted to review and confirm before the update.
If you imported EPICs from Jira and want to change field mapping, or update them to values that don't exist in Jira, bulk update is a perfect way to organize your portfolio items without the constraint of your Jira structure.
FAQs
How can I prevent the column from re-sorting after copying and pasting the data when importing portfolio items from spreadsheets?
- Check to see if the column header is accidentally set to sort by clicking on any columns - e.g. click on a column title 3 times or until you don't see the up/down arrow, in order to remove any potential sort anywhere.
- Instead of using copy and paste, it could be easier to import portfolio items from a CSV file, assuming all fields are filled in.
If I update my CSV file and upload it again, will the Epics previously imported be updated?
- No. If you upload the same CSV file, it will create new (duplicate) items. You can choose to update the items directly in Dragonboat, or bulk delete the previously imported items and restart the import with the updated file.
How do I find out whether my import is successful? How may I find out recent imports?
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Please contact us at help@dragonboat.io if you need help. Thank you!