LinearB Admins - Configuration Refinement Checklist

Hello! You've configured LinearB already, but now that you're ready to really begin working with the application. Here are some quick things to double-check and validate to ensure you have the happiest of times while working in LinearB.

You must be a LinearB admin in order to accomplish most if not all of the tasks below!

If at any time you have further questions or need any additional assistance, don't hesitate to reach out to our support team using the button in the bottom right corner of this page.

Add all relevant users to LinearB

Please verify all users who need access to your LinearB application are added here.

Note that there are Users in LinearB and Contributors. Users can access LinearB metrics via the LinearB application, Contributors are the development team members added to LinearB Teams.

Users can be given admin, editor, or viewer permissions, you can learn more about these permissions below.

A team member logged in but doesn't see the same data I do.

Welp, they done logged into the wrong account. If a user tries to log into LinearB before they have been added to your account, or if the user attempts to log in using a different email than has been invited, they could unintentionally create a free account. If this happens to a team member, please reach out to LinearB Support and we can move this user into your account.

I get the error "account is already registered" when I try to add a user.

This user is already located in a different LinearB account! We can move them into your account, just contact Support in order to have them moved. Users can unintentionally create free accounts from LinearB's home page if they are attempting to log into your LinearB account before their user has been added to your account.

Confirm your Git is properly connected

It is strongly recommended to connect Git using a Git admin's credentials via OAuth. This will enable all relevant organization repos to be available to LinearB. This also ensures LinearB can establish a real-time connection to your Git org and will update immediately as your team works.

Add all relevant repos to LinearB

For various good reasons, LinearB does not scan all of your git repositories by default. Scan the connected repostiories in LinearB and make sure to select all repos on which your teams work. You can view your connected repos in LinearB here.

I need to add another Git connection.

We can enable that for you, just contact Support! You can connect multiple Git instances to LinearB, even from different Git providers.

Can't find specific repos?

• This may be due to the permissions of the connected Git account. LinearB can only see repos that the connected Git account has admin permissions. Verify the connected Git account has admin access to all necessary repos (instructions on updating Git privileges can be found in the helpdoc above).
• By default, LinearB will only pull private type repos, not internal or public. LinearB can enable access to internal and public repos by request. Please contact LinearB Support if this feature needs to be enabled.

Can't see certain branches from your repos?

Check your exclusion settings. By default, LinearB will not report over commits to branches such as "main" and "master", instead focusing on feature work. If your team is working directly on these branches, you can monitor this activity by removing these branches from the excluded branches list in your advanced settings tab. Exclusions can be configured globally, or on individual repositories. Click here to update your global exclusion settings in LinearB. You can read more about exclusions on the global, repo, or even individual branch level below.

Branches can be auto-excluded if all associated commits are “non effective”, for example, merges by a bot. This feature can be disabled by contacting LinearB Support.

Confirm your PM tool is connected correctly

It is best practice to connect your project management platform with credentials that have admin permissions. This will ensure that LinearB can view and report on every project management board relevant to you. Please ensure that all relevant PM boards and projects are selected in your account PM settings here.

Configure MTTR and CFR

Now that your project management board is connected, and all relevant boards are selected, configure your MTTR and CFR. The MTTR and CFR settings utilize your PM data to identify change failures and critical incidents. You will need to configure LinearB using the MTTR and CFR tabs to the right of your project management board settings to listen for the correct types of issues.

I don't use Jira or Clubhouse to report critical incidents.

Consider using our Incident API! This will allow you to report MTTR and CFR related incidents to LinearB from any incident or project management platform.

Don't see the board you are looking to connect?

• LinearB's access to your project management platform is the same as the access of the user credentials connected to LinearB. If the connected credentials do not have permission to see a board, neither will LinearB.
• Support Jira Software Management product for board collection, if a board is created in other products such as Jira Work Management or Jira Service Management, LinearB cannot report over these boards in Pulse or Teams views.

I want to change which project management platform we're connected to.

In order to change or reconnect your Jira connection, or to connect a different instance, reach out to Support! Your PM credentials will first need to be cleared from LinearB before a new connection can be established.

Confirm your LinearB Teams are correctly configured

Merge duplicate users

When creating a team, double-check that all relevant contributors have been merged. If you don't see all activity for certain team members listed on your team activity page, it's likely this developer has two contributor names in Git. Example: Joe has 2 contributors: joe@schmo.org and joe+noreply@125j252.github.com. If just joe@schmo.org is added to a team, Joe's activity under joe+noreply@125j252.github.com will not be seen in the team activity page.

Connect all relevant PM boards to your team

Connect your project management boards to your team. This will enable you to utilize Pulse dashboard for your team, as well as measure MTTR and CFR metrics by team.

Set your team goals and alerts

Don't see the board you are looking to connect?

Prior to being added to a team, they must first be added to LinearB. To add a board to LinearB, go to the gear icon > Company Settings > Projects. You'll see a list of all boards available to LinearB from your project management connection. Select all boards your teams will use. You can then return to your team settings, and add these boards.

Are unexpected iterations showing for your team?

Jira boards that teams use can often be shared by multiple teams. Use the regex filter inside your team's Project Management settings to filter by your team's naming convention.

WorkerB Configuration

WorkerB alerts can be configured to alert teams or individuals You can click on the buttons below to confirm you have connected Slack or MS Teams to your LinearB instance.

Connect Team Channels

After your chat application is connected, your LinearB Teams can be connected to their respective Slack channels. This will allow LinearB to notify your team of potential bottlenecks and if you're nearing any goal exceptions. Use the links above to connect your LinearB teams to their respective Slack channels.

Make sure to customize your notifications!

LinearB has a default set of notifications that turn on when Slack or Teams channels are connected. It's a good idea to review these notifications and edit or disable connections as you see fit to avoid sending confusing or excessive notifications to your team.

Configure your Cycle Time

LinearB focuses on Git activity to measure cycle time. You can read more about how LinearB calculates cycle time below. By default, our cycle time calculation begins when the first commit is made on a feature branch. Cycle Time ends when the branch is identified as "released".

The beginning of cycle time can be changed to listen for when a Jira issue linked to a branch is marked as "in progress", as opposed to the first commit. Please read more about enabling Jira-based coding time below.

Confirm your release detection methods

Click here to see your releases in LinearB. Verify that LinearB is detecting your releases and that all of your repos are accounted for here.

By default, LinearB listens for release detection by tags. This can be updated globally or on a repo-by-repo basis to listen for specific tags (using regex), for pull requests made to a dedicated branch, by merges to a dedicated branch, or by using our Release API.

Project Delivery Trackers are configured

Use the below instructions to create Project Delivery Trackers for any of your teams or ongoing projects or initiatives.

Product Delivery Trackers have some setup / customization options not currently available in the UI. 

Please contact support to enable any of these customizations

• Issue Filters
  • Include / exclude by Component,
  • Include / exclude by label and by parent’s label
  • Include / exclude specific issue types
  • Include / exclude subtasks (default: exclude)
• Sprint Filters
  • Only include sprints with names matching a regex
  • Exclude sprints with names matching a regex
• Investment Category
  • Jira field to use as investment category (defaults to issue type)
  • Optional list of values to use (ignore anything else)
• Customizable Defaults
  • Story points for issues with no story points. Defaults to 1.0
  • Sprint planning grace period: defaults to 24 hours
  • Provide additional statuses to be considered “done”

Incorrect sprints are showing in my PDT

This often happens when if an issue is moved across sprints/boards/teams. LinearB can filter the incorrect sprints in/out for you. This is currently a feature accessible to the LinearB support team. Please notify LinearB support or your account manager to enable strict filtering by sprints/boards/teams.

My issue isn’t showing in this sprint report.

• When was the issue completed? Issues completed before a sprint starts will not be pulled into LinearB Trackers for a sprint report.
• Did the issue have any status changes? LinearB's project trackers detect sprint issues by status change events. If an issue is not touched or changed during a sprint, LinearB will not collect or report over the issue.
  • This also applies to issues added mid-sprint but not updated or edited.

My issue is showing as Uncompleted even though it’s Done.

• Verify that the issue is in a green done status in Jira. Jira statuses can be assigned one of three categories: To Do (gray), In Progress (blue), or Done (green). Even if the status is named "done", it will need to be set to a "done" category in order for LinearB to identify the issue as done.

This is a setting LinearB can customize for you! Contact LinearB support if there are custom statuses your team uses when completing an issue.

My issue is showing even though I deleted it.

LinearB's project trackers detect issues by status change events, and even if an issue is deleted, will still account for any effort or status change events for the deleted issue.

This doesn't look the same as Jira

LinearB 👏 is 👏 not 👏 an 👏 iframe 👏 of 👏 Jira 👏 data 👏.