How to Create and Manage a Product Roadmap in Jira

[#1]

A product roadmap is a strategic document that outlines the vision, direction, priorities, and progress of a product over time. It serves as a guiding document for stakeholders and the development team, ensuring everyone is aligned with the product's objectives and timelines.

Steps to Create a Product Roadmap in Jira

1. Set Up Your Jira Project. Before creating a roadmap, you must have a Jira project set up. Choose a project template that best suits your product's needs, such as a Scrum or Kanban template.
2. Define Your Epics and Stories. Epics are large bodies of work that can be broken down into smaller tasks or stories. Defining your epics and stories early on helps in organizing your roadmap around major features or initiatives.
3. Use the Roadmap Feature. Jira Software’s Premium and Enterprise plans include an advanced Roadmap feature (currently called Timeline). This feature allows you to create a visual representation of your epics over time, drag and drop items to adjust timelines, and track progress directly from the roadmap. Also, you can always stick to the third-party apps like Planyway for extended functionality like resource planning and portfolio management.
4. Customize Your Roadmap. Customize your roadmap view to match your team’s needs. You can filter by teams, projects, statuses, and more. Utilizing custom fields and labels can also help in categorizing and prioritizing tasks effectively. In Planyway you have a chance to group your roadmap by users, projects, and epics.
5. Share Your Roadmap. Communication is key to successful product development. Share your roadmap with stakeholders and team members to ensure everyone is aligned with the product’s direction and priorities. Jira allows you to share roadmaps directly or embed them in Confluence pages for broader visibility.

Best Practices for Managing Your Product Roadmap in Jira

• Regular Updates. Keep your roadmap updated to reflect any changes in priorities or timelines. Regular updates ensure that your team and stakeholders are informed about the product’s progress and any adjustments to the plan.
• Engage Stakeholders. Regularly review the roadmap with stakeholders to gather feedback and ensure that the product’s direction aligns with business objectives and user needs.
• Use Reports and Dashboards. Leverage Jira’s reporting and dashboard capabilities to monitor progress and performance. This can help in making data-driven decisions and adjustments to the roadmap.
• Be Flexible. While it’s important to have a clear direction, being flexible and open to changes is crucial in product management. Adapt your roadmap as needed based on feedback and market changes.

Planyway

[Lisa Singh]

Is this possible to use in Jira v9.4.14?

[Balazs Kisfali]

nice, but where can I actually find the native Roadmap feature? We have Jira Premium plan bit no roadmaps tab visible and can't enable it either in any settings ;) Tagging @Mary from Planyway 

[Ajini Sahejana Perera]

Is this updated? I got it from a video that the Roadmap is now being called the timeline.

[Mary from Planyway]

@Ajini Sahejana Perera Thanks, updated:)

[Mary from Planyway]

@Lisa Singh yes, it should be there

[Mary from Planyway]

@Balazs Kisfali They have updated it, so it's called Timeline now