What is this line & how is it intended to be used?

INTENT OF THIS LINE:  Without sufficient stakeholder communication, do not change the relative order of a Feature in the Unified Backlog because there are already plans being made or currently in execution on the ordered Features. Changing the relative priority will likely cause context switching and comes with a high expense $$$, along with whiplash frustration.

ACTIONS REQUIRED FOR RANKING ABOVE THIS LINE:  1) Attend the bi-weekly OCPSTRAT Refinement call for a discussion.  Come prepared to cover the criteria below as part of a decision-making.  2) Ensure that all impacted stakeholders have been informed so they can account for the impact of the rank change.

NOTE:  We will convey the “strategic significance” via the order in the backlog (not via being above this line).

Why this line exists (background):  In Jira, when issues are re-ranked via dragging & dropping on Team roadmap views, the issue that is re-ranked will anchor to the issue immediately above it on the screen but this also impacts the OpenShift ranked unified backlog and can result in inadvertently ranking things "at the top of the overall list" even though that wasn't what was intended (see a demo of this problem here).

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Criteria for ranking above this line:

When we discuss "whether or not" to allow a Feature (or Initiative) to be ranked above this line, the following criteria need to be considered:

• On the critical path to achieving an HATSTRAT strategic goal as defined in the OpenShift product strategy 
• On the critical path to achieving an OCPSTRAT Outcome (and shown in JIRA as having an Outcome as a Parent), e.g. Hosted Control Planes for ARO, Microshift Productization for Red Hat Device Edge
• Directly supports a strategic customer commitment with direct business impact of $10M+, e.g. Verizon, Adobe
• It either requires work across teams, or we'd consider pulling resources from other teams to get it done if it looked like it was at risk.

• Has the Feature (or Initiative) met key Exit Criteria for Refinement?
  • Must have an Assignee
  • Must have an accurate Priority
  • Must be actionable within 4 weeks and has been broken down
  • Must have t-shirt sizing (Size field) completed per OpenShift (OCP): Jira Issue Size Guide (by Issue Type)
  • Must have a candidate label (labels include:  4.16 candidate) to indicate planned action and timelines.