create-jira-feature

name	Create Jira Feature
description	Implementation guide for creating Jira features that organize multiple epics into strategic initiatives for SRVKP project

Create Jira Feature

This skill provides implementation guidance for creating well-structured Jira features that organize related epics into strategic initiatives for the SRVKP project.

When to Use This Skill

This skill is automatically invoked by:

• The /jira:create feature command
• The create-epic skill when auto-suggesting parent Features

Prerequisites

• MCP Jira server configured and accessible, or acli installed and authenticated
• User has permissions to create issues in SRVKP project
• Understanding of the feature scope and strategic value

Shared conventions (safety rules, component table, confirmation flow, MCP→CLI fallback): → Read and follow ../_common.md before proceeding.

CLI reference: ../reference/cli-fallback.md

Project: SRVKP Only

This skill is exclusively for SRVKP (OpenShift Pipelines project).

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What is a Feature?

A feature is:

• A strategic initiative containing multiple related epics
• Spans multiple quarters or releases
• Addresses a market problem or significant capability area
• The highest level of work breakdown in the hierarchy

Feature vs Epic vs Story

Level	Scope	Duration	Contains	Example
Feature	Strategic capability	Multiple quarters	Multiple Epics	"Tekton Chains Signing Enhancements"
Epic	Specific capability	One quarter	Multiple Stories	"Recursive Image Manifest signing"
Story	User functionality	One sprint	Tasks/Subtasks	"Sign multi-arch manifests automatically"

Feature Characteristics

Features should:

• Address strategic objectives or market needs
• Be broader than an epic, narrower than a product roadmap item
• Span multiple quarters (2-4 quarters typical)
• Contain 2-10 related epics
• Have measurable outcomes tied to business value

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Feature Description Best Practices

Clear Strategic Objective

The feature description should:

• State the strategic goal or market need
• Explain the business value
• Identify target users or market segments
• Define the overall capability area

Good example:

Expand Tekton Chains signing and attestation capabilities to support modern container image formats, multi-architecture workflows, and emerging supply chain security standards.

This feature addresses the growing need for comprehensive artifact signing in cloud-native CI/CD pipelines, enabling organizations to meet security compliance requirements and prevent supply chain attacks.

Target users: Platform engineers, Security teams, DevOps practitioners
Market need: Supply chain security compliance (SLSA, in-toto)

Strategic Outcomes

Feature-level outcomes should be measurable and tied to business value:

Format:

h2. Strategic Outcomes

* <Business outcome 1>
* <Business outcome 2>
* <Business outcome 3>

Example:

h2. Strategic Outcomes

* Organizations can meet SLSA Level 3 requirements for all artifact types
* Multi-architecture image workflows fully supported without manual configuration
* Signing coverage increased to 100% of build artifacts (up from ~70%)
* Developer friction reduced - automatic signing without explicit configuration

Timeline and Epics

Include expected timeline and epic breakdown:

Example:

h2. Timeline

* Target: Q3-Q4 2026
* Duration: 2-3 quarters
* Key milestones:
  * Q3 2026: Core multi-architecture support
  * Q4 2026: Advanced attestation features

h2. Planned Epics

* Recursive Image Manifest signing in Image Index
* Enhanced attestation formats for multi-arch
* Cross-registry signing support
* (Additional epics to be refined)

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Interactive Feature Collection Workflow

1. Feature Objective

Prompt: "What is the strategic objective of this feature? What market need or capability area does it address?"

Helpful questions:

• What business problem does this solve?
• What strategic capability will be delivered?
• Who are the target users or market segments?
• Why is this important now?

Example response:

Expand Tekton Chains signing to support modern container image formats like Image Index and multi-architecture workflows, addressing supply chain security compliance requirements.

2. Strategic Outcomes

Prompt: "What are the measurable strategic outcomes? How will success be measured?"

Example response:

- Organizations can meet SLSA Level 3 for all artifact types
- Multi-arch workflows fully supported
- Signing coverage reaches 100% of build artifacts
- Reduced manual configuration overhead

3. Planned Epics

Prompt: "What epics are expected under this feature? (Initial list - can evolve)"

Example response:

- Recursive Image Manifest signing
- Enhanced multi-arch attestation
- Cross-registry signing support
- Signature verification improvements

4. Timeline

Prompt: "What is the target timeline for this feature?"

Example responses:

• "Q3-Q4 2026"
• "2-3 quarters starting Q3 2026"
• "Must complete by end of 2026"

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Field Validation

Before submitting the feature, validate:

Required Fields

• ✅ Summary is clear and describes the strategic capability
• ✅ Description includes strategic objective
• ✅ Strategic outcomes present
• ✅ Timeline specified
• ✅ Component is specified (if required by project)

Feature Quality

• ✅ Scope is broader than an epic
• ✅ Spans multiple quarters
• ✅ Contains or will contain multiple epics
• ✅ Has measurable strategic outcomes
• ✅ Tied to business value

Security

• ✅ No credentials, API keys, or secrets in any field

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Creation Strategy: MCP First, CLI Fallback

Follow the MCP → CLI Fallback Decision Tree in ../_common.md.

CLI Feature Creation

acli jira workitem create \
  --project "SRVKP" \
  --type "Feature" \
  --summary "Tekton Chains Signing Enhancements" \
  --description "$(cat <<'EOF'
Expand Tekton Chains signing capabilities to support modern container image formats and multi-architecture workflows.

h2. Strategic Outcomes

* SLSA Level 3 compliance for all artifact types
* Multi-arch workflows fully supported
* 100% signing coverage without manual configuration

h2. Target Users

* Platform engineers building multi-arch images
* Security teams implementing supply chain security

h2. Timeline

* Target: Q3-Q4 2026
* Duration: 2-3 quarters
EOF
)" \
  --label "ai-generated-jira" \
  --json

Note: Use $(cat <<'EOF' ... EOF) for inline multi-line descriptions with wiki markup. No temp files needed.

Feature Template Format

{Strategic objective paragraph}

h2. Strategic Outcomes

* {Outcome 1}
* {Outcome 2}
* {Outcome 3}

h2. Target Users

* {User segment 1}
* {User segment 2}

h2. Market Need

{Why this feature area matters strategically}

h2. Timeline

* Target: {quarters/year}
* Duration: {estimated time}
* Key milestones: {major deliverables}

h2. Planned Epics

* {Epic 1 - brief description}
* {Epic 2 - brief description}
* (To be refined as feature develops)

h2. Success Metrics

* {Metric 1}
* {Metric 2}

---

Examples

Example 1: Auto-Generated Feature from Epic

Context: User creating epic "Recursive Image Manifest signing in Tekton Chains"

Auto-generated Feature:

Summary: Tekton Chains Signing Enhancements

Description:
Expand Tekton Chains signing and attestation capabilities to support modern container image formats, multi-architecture workflows, and emerging supply chain security standards.

This feature addresses the growing need for comprehensive artifact signing in cloud-native CI/CD pipelines, enabling organizations to meet security compliance requirements.

h2. Strategic Outcomes

* Organizations can meet SLSA Level 3 requirements for all artifact types
* Multi-architecture image workflows fully supported without manual configuration
* Signing coverage increased to 100% of build artifacts
* Developer experience improved with automatic signing

h2. Target Users

* Platform engineers building multi-arch images
* Security teams implementing supply chain security
* DevOps practitioners managing CI/CD pipelines

h2. Market Need

Modern container deployments require multi-architecture support (amd64, arm64, s390x, ppc64le). Current signing approaches require manual configuration per architecture, creating friction and potential security gaps.

h2. Timeline

* Target: Q3-Q4 2026
* Duration: 2-3 quarters
* Key milestones:
  * Q3 2026: Core recursive signing support
  * Q4 2026: Advanced attestation and verification

h2. Planned Epics

* Recursive Image Manifest signing in Image Index
* Enhanced attestation formats for multi-arch artifacts
* Cross-registry manifest signing support
* (Additional epics to be refined)

h2. Success Metrics

* 100% signing coverage for multi-arch builds
* Zero manual pullspec configuration required
* SLSA Level 3 compliance achieved
* Adoption by 80%+ of multi-arch pipelines

Component: Tekton Chains

---

Example 2: Manual Feature Creation

Input:

/jira:create feature "Enhanced Tekton Results storage and performance"

Interactive prompts:

What is the strategic objective of this feature?
> Improve Tekton Results storage efficiency and query performance to support large-scale pipeline deployments with millions of results

Strategic outcomes? (measurable)
> - Support 10M+ pipeline results per cluster
> - Query response times under 100ms for 95th percentile
> - Storage costs reduced by 60%
> - Retention policies configurable per namespace

Planned epics?
> - Database optimization and partitioning
> - Result pruning and archival
> - Query performance enhancements
> - Storage backend flexibility

Timeline?
> Q2-Q3 2026, estimated 2 quarters

Result:

• Feature created with complete strategic context
• Ready for child epics

---

Best Practices Summary

1. Strategic focus: Features address market needs, not just technical improvements
2. Business value: Clearly articulate why this matters
3. Measurable outcomes: Define success metrics
4. Right size: 2-4 quarters, contains 2-10 epics
5. Timeline: Specify target quarters/year
6. Planned epics: List expected epics (can evolve)
7. Target users: Identify who benefits

Anti-Patterns to Avoid

❌ Feature is actually an epic

"Add recursive signing to Chains" (1-2 sprints)

✅ Too small, create as Epic instead

❌ Feature too broad

"Complete Tekton platform redesign" (multi-year, 50+ epics)

✅ Too large, break into multiple Features

❌ No business value

"Technical improvements to Chains"

✅ Be specific: What business value? What outcomes?

❌ Implementation details

"Refactor Chains to use new storage backend"

✅ Focus on user value, not implementation

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Workflow Summary

Follow the Mandatory Confirmation Flow and MCP → CLI Fallback Decision Tree in ../_common.md. The preview label for this type is PREVIEW: SRVKP Feature.

1. ✅ Parse command arguments
2. 🔍 Search for duplicate features (keyword matching)
3. 💬 Interactively collect strategic objective
4. 💬 Collect strategic outcomes and timeline
5. 💬 Collect planned epics
6. 🔒 Scan for sensitive data
7. ✅ Validate feature size and quality
8. 📝 Format description with Jira markup
9. 📋 Show preview and get confirmation
10. ✅ Create the feature (only if confirmed) — MCP first; same payload via acli on fallback
11. 📤 Return issue key and URL

See Also

• /jira:create epic - Creating epics under features
• create-epic skill - Epic creation (enhanced with feature discovery)