Good news! Advanced Roadmaps for Jira Software is now available with every Data Center licence, meaning more people can access this powerful agile roadmapping tool (formerly known as Portfolio for Jira). Even better, we've developed a course on Advanced Roadmaps and how it works with agile project management, Jira Core and Jira Software.
Let’s take a closer look at how Advanced Roadmaps can help to overcome challenges in agile environments:
The rise of agile
The agile way of working is a common feature of many modern development teams. Agile methodologies encourage efficiency, scalability and innovation, as well as a flexible and autonomous approach to projects. As projects and organisations get larger, however, they can run into difficulties with this approach. agile, autonomous work must be balanced with the need to have clear oversight of processes and progress.
Stakeholders who aren't as involved in the day-to-day detail as the Scrum Master need to know who's working on what. Those responsible for a project’s overall output should have a view of the scope and the schedule, as well as the interdependencies between teams and likely delivery dates. The challenge is how to get this visibility without adding overhead to teams or compromising their autonomy.
Track progress with agile tools
This is where agile portfolio management tools, like Advanced Roadmaps for Jira Software, can add a layer of light-touch oversight.
Advanced Roadmaps is designed to empower teams at scale, allowing you to set business goals, track progress towards them and give everyone on the team the same visibility so that priorities are understood and shared. It does this by accessing Jira boards, projects and filters, presenting data in a customisable interface to allow for full oversight.
Looking for an agile solution for larger businesses? Consider Jira Align, which connects the execution of work all the way up to the strategy set by leadership teams. Find out more in our introduction to Jira Align.
Get visibility of delivery dates and dependencies
Project managers and administrators are often asked when features, upgrades and systems can be delivered, and can face scrutiny over whether their resources are being used effectively. Working in an agile setup makes this easier, as every deliverable is broken up into sprints. However, you still need to know when they'll be delivered, whether they’re on track and if you have enough resources.
Advanced Roadmaps for Jira gives you a view of sprints and their forecasted release dates so you can see interdependencies and bottlenecks, and manage the bigger picture. Learn more about how to create dependencies in Advanced Roadmaps in this video:
Creating Dependency Relationships
Improve efficiency in your teams
If team members are spending time creating spreadsheets or Gantt charts, they aren't spending time working towards releases. Throw in the human factor of holiday plans, illness and team members moving on, and it can become difficult to get a clear view of who’s doing what, and when.
In an agile context it makes no sense to spend time updating a static picture of where everything is, so getting an integrated set of tools for managing the team and process is key. Advanced Roadmaps for Jira is connected directly to how your teams work, showing project progress and backlogs. Its Teams and Capacity features help to group, filter and allocate work based on assigned team members and their capacity, making it a key tool for improving efficiency in an agile environment.
Getting started with Advanced Roadmaps for Jira
1. Create a plan
An Advanced Roadmaps plan joins your team’s relevant boards, projects and filters into one place, so you can organise work, visualise scenarios and design your schedule more effectively.
The plan will inherit the issue types you created in Jira software, such as epics and stories, and you will be able to choose which ones to include in your plan.
2. Add releases
You can then add releases you created in Jira Software and associated to certain issue sources. Selecting a release will import all the issues associated with the release.
3. Add teams and configure boards
In the next step, based on the issue sources chosen, teams will be suggested to add to your plan. This is also where you can choose if you want to configure your boards for Scrum or Kanban, and decide how you are estimating work. The defaults are Scrum boards with two-week sprints and 30 story points.
4. Auto scheduling
And now for the most exciting part: auto scheduling. Based on clever algorithms and your setup, Advanced Roadmaps will generate a roadmap for you. At this stage, you can review and edit the roadmap or drive straight in and get started!
Want to know more? Watch this video on how to create a plan in Advanced Roadmaps:
