Roadmap & Reporting: How to Know if You’re Moving in the Right Direction

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A practical guide for Jira teams: how to read key reports, assess project “health,” and keep the roadmap realistic — without heavy configuration, with examples included.

When you have a roadmap but the progress picture is blurry - decisions slip and deadlines drift. The solution is a simple weekly ritual with 3–5 reports that honestly answer: where we are now, what slows us down, and when we’ll realistically finish.

Below we’ll look at a set of reports that together create a complete picture of the project’s state and help assess its health. These are indicators that tell you when to react and adjust the roadmap.

1. Created vs Resolved: Demand vs Capacity Balance

Question it answers: Are we keeping up with what gets created?

How to read it:

• If the Resolved line steadily catches up or overtakes Created - you’re on pace.

• A constant gap in favor of Created = growing backlog debt.

• Sharp spikes in Created indicate events: release influx, incident peaks, process changes.

What to do:

• Align focus and WIP limits: what we’ll actually close this week.

• Cut out the “noise” (low‑impact tasks) or batch them separately.

• In weekly review: pick 1–2 concrete actions to narrow the gap.

Where Report Hub helps: The standard Created vs Resolved exists, but with Report Hub it’s easier to build a single panel combining related views (e.g., Created vs Resolved + Cycle Time + Workload per Sprint) without complex setup.

Use Case — Support/Incidents: Stop the Backlog Growthituation: Kanban team, incident inflow is rising, SLA is slipping.

How to use the report: track the daily Created vs Resolved trend specifically for Incident type. Actions:

• Add a dedicated swimlane for incidents with WIP limit and swarm rule on critical tickets.

• Introduce a quick triage checklist to shorten classification time.

Expected result: backlog growth halts within 2–3 weeks, gradual return to target SLA.

2. Release Burndown & Release Progress: Will We Ship on Time?

Question: Does delivery speed match the release scope?

How to read it:

• Release Burndown shows how remaining work decreases against the plan.

• Release Progress provides a % complete with context across epics/components.

• If the “ideal” line stays ahead of actual - risk of delay. If actual is ahead - you have buffer.

Red flags:

• Scope creep: release scope grows mid‑cycle.

• Flat line: work not burning down for days — check blockers.

• Frequent re‑scoping: roadmap becomes decorative.

What to do:

• Fix a release baseline and explicitly log scope changes (what/why/who).

• Compare burn‑rate with the team’s average Velocity.

• Move “heavy” items into a later stage or next release.

Where Report Hub helps: Ready‑made Release Progress and WBS (Roll‑up) give a consolidated view across epics/initiatives in clear hierarchy — Jira data without external BI or scripts.

Use Case A — Startup Without a PM: MVP for Investorsituation: 8‑person team, MVP release in 4 weeks.

How to use the report: track Release Progress to keep MVP scope fixed; compare Burndown with historical Velocity.

Actions: baseline scope, push nice‑to‑haves to next release; WIP limit of 2 in dev column; daily removal of blockers in top 3 tasks.

Result: stable burndown, 90–95% of MVP ready by demo date.

Use Case B — Enterprise: Coordinating 3 Scrum Teamsituation: Quarterly release, cross‑team dependencies.

How to use the report: WBS (Roll‑up) for initiative progress; Release Progress for % complete; weekly check of scope changes.

Actions: rebalance workload if >20% uneven; add weekly dependency check; plan based on each team’s actual Velocity.

Result: predictable release without last‑minute “repacking.”

3. Project Health Panel: 5 Metrics That Actually Matter

Goal: avoid drowning in dozens of charts — focus on the few indicators that drive forecasts.

1. Cycle Time — how long from “started → done.” If rising, check bottlenecks.

2. Estimation Accuracy — gap between estimates and actuals; over/underestimation breaks plans.

3. Workload per Sprint — balance of load; imbalance = hidden queues.

4. Time Spent — actual time split between features, bugs, tech debt.

5. Created vs Resolved (from section 1) — strategic background metric.

With Report Hub: These metrics are available out‑of‑the‑box as ready Agile reports (Cycle Time, Estimation Accuracy, Workload, Time Spent, Created vs Resolved). They can be combined into one Hub without extra setup. JQL is supported for advanced filters but not required to start.

4. Realistic Roadmap Checklistse before planning and during execution.

• Single source of truth: one system, one set of fields.

• Scope baseline fixed: what’s in/out; changes only via change control.

• Owner of metrics: someone reviews weekly and acts on deviations.

• Review rhythm: short weekly (15–20 min) + monthly summary.

• WIP limits: team focuses and finishes.

• Dependency map: explicit inter‑team/component dependencies.

• Blocker SLA: how fast to escalate and to whom.

• Stakeholder transparency: one dashboard instead of slides.

• Capacity vs plan: don’t plan beyond historical throughput.

• Post‑release retro: what to improve in estimates, process, data.

Example Weekly Ritual (20 minutes)

1. 2 min — Created vs Resolved: weekly trend.

2. 5 min — Release Progress: % complete, blockers, scope changes.

3. 5 min — Cycle Time + Workload: bottlenecks and imbalance.

4. 5 min — Estimation Accuracy: 1–2 lessons for next sprint.

5. 3 min — decisions and owners: who does what before next check.

Conclusion 

A realistic roadmap is not “faith in deadlines,” but the habit of watching a few simple metrics and reacting in time. If you lack capacity for complex setups — focus on the basics and gather them in one working screen.

If you need the same views without extra configuration, try Report Hub: ready Agile reports, JQL support (if needed), and clear Roll‑up for releases — all inside Jira Cloud.