🎯 Who wants to try our new goal linking feature for Jira Software?

[Daniella Latham]

We’ve received a lot of feedback from users who want to see how work in Jira Software connects to Atlas goals, so teams can stay aligned.

We’re excited to take the first step in this journey, and want to know what you think!

Through our Atlas for Jira Cloud app, goals associated with projects that have been connected to Jira epics will be automatically linked, and visible right from the epic page.

How to try it:

1. Download the Atlas for Jira Cloud app.

2. Find or create a Jira epic, and connect with the relevant project in Atlas, by adding it to the “Where is work tracked” field, and opting to sync it.

3. Ensure the project is linked to a goal.

4. Head over to the Jira epic page, and check out the linked goal from the goal section. You may need to refresh the page first.

Any goals you add to your contributing Atlas project will automatically be synced on an ongoing basis to your Jira Software epic, so your teams will always be kept up to date on the outcomes of their work.

⚠️ Known limitations:
Currently, you can link only Jira epic issues to Atlas projects. We’re looking to support more in the future, so feel free to share what you use, and what the ideal state would be like for you.

✨ More guides and resources:

• The relationship between projects and goals
• The relationship between Atlas and Jira explained
• 🎥 Watch a video demo of Atlas

Coming soon

This is just the first step! Our team is currently working hard on enabling the ability to link an Atlas Goal directly to a Jira Software epic. We’re just so excited about empowering your teams to know the outcomes their work contributes to, that we didn’t want to keep this away from you any longer. Stay tuned for what’s coming soon with goals in Jira!

Let us know what you think! 

[crouhana]

Love the feature! We started using it right after team 23.

Small feedback, for some users, the app keeps asking for "storage permission" and "authorization". Once you click on authorization, the app widget reloads with no problem, until you refresh your browser. 

[Andrew Hammond]

This is unfortunately a browser limitation with the current implementation, we're in the early days of exploring ways to improve this and potentially remove the storage permission step required for end users.

A temporary work around would be to always allow third party cookies for team.atlassian.com in your browser settings.

[James Lester]

@Andrew Hammond I'm sure by now you're aware of this, but Edge does not keep the authorization even with third-party cookie blocking turned off. Any workaround at this time?

[Ben McCormick]

@Andrew Hammond I'm also unable to get this working on the latest chrome no matter what cookie settings I choose.  Possibly there's a setting from my employer that I can't override, but I've explicitly allowed third party cookies for <my-org>.atlassian.net and team.atlassian.com and have had no luck.  

[Ben McCormick]

I can switch to firefox and see it after I grant access specifically, but I'm trying to push for adopting this tool for my team, and everyone uses chrome, so this is a problem for me selling the tool, since visibility in Jira is important to us

[Dan W]

Ideally we would like to be able to link to initiatives, stories and bugs. 

Initiatives to projects

epics to goals 

stories/bugs to sub-goals

How are others drawing those lines between the work in Jira and updates in Atlas?

[crouhana]

I wouldn't link stories and bugs. Atlas is for upper management communication. You don't want to report every single thing. 

For the kind of reporting you're asking for, i would use Advanced Roadmaps / Plans.

[Rachel Lin]

+1 to @crouhana - I think the question here is, do you need to communicate to outside stakeholders (leadership OR dependent teams) on the weekly progress of a story or a bug? 

In terms of initiatives, this is on our radar to support more issue types than just epics.

[Dan W]

I have a need for both really, I have one set of stakeholders that is only interested in the initiative and epic level but another set that is impacted at the story level.  Initiative/Epic will work for a large majority of our use cases I believe.

[Matthew McGarity]

This seems promising, but it doesn't work in our environment. I see the section for "Linked Goals", but its content is empty and shows a never-ending loading spinner.

[Andrew Hammond]

Hey @Matthew McGarity could you please raise a support request so we can look into this more for you?

[Matthew McGarity]

@Andrew Hammond Sure! I actually appended it to an existing ticket in your service desk.

[Matthew McGarity]

Following-up on this — it's working now!

[Matthew McGarity]

Now that this is GA (per the overnight newsletter), here's some feedback when using an unlinked Epic (e.g. one that doesn't have a corresponding Atlas Project)

• When I clicked "Linked Goals", the like-named section appeared immediately. I had expected to be required to authorize storage access, like all other use of Atlas within Jira.
• Linking to a Goal from Jira Cloud was easy & straight-forward. 
• I like the rich amount of information that shows (status, date, owner). I wish that same level of detail would be available when using Smart Embeds in Confluence.
• Ultimately, we can't use the feature until the other side is available = e.g. the ability to see from Atlas Goals what's linked to it besides Contributing Projects. When this is available to test, please let me know.

[Joe Pursel]

I started using this feature today by syncing an Atlas project with a Jira Software Cloud project Epic. As stated above, I was asked about storage and confirmed my choice. 

The significance of this feature is that it provides Atlas project information in the Epic, showing the last Update and what the project is about. While in the Atlas Project, the Epic appears under the Where is this work tracked?

All users who view the Epic now see the latest information about the Atlas project, and it will be a great timesaver to switch between the two quickly.

Excellent work, Team!

I am looking forward to linking an Epic to a Goal.

[Joe Pursel]

Another benefit of linking Atlas Projects to Jira Epics is seeing the Atlas Projects Goals in the Epic.

The Goals connected to an Atlas Project appear in the Epic under Linked Issues as Linked Goals and Goals are synced from work you have connected from Atlas.

If the Epic is linked to an Atlas Project and that project has Goals attached to it, you may see an image of a lock requesting that you Authorize to view the Goals listed in the Epic. Once the Authorization is complete, the Goals will appear.

The screenshot below shows an Atlas Project Goal with its Status, Due Date, and image of the Goal Owner in the Epic. If you have multiple Goals connected to the Atlas Project, these will also be shown under the Epics Linked Goals as below.

Thanks, Atlassian Team, for this new feature!

[Doug]

Thanks for this feature! I am very excited about it!

I might not be right about this, but at the moment it seems to only allow 1 Epic to be associated with each Goal.

If that is correct, I'm curious if that is that an intentional constraint or would it be possible to consider goals as large enough to potentially be supported by multiple epics?

I'm imagining:

1. Goal
   1. Project A
      1. Epic A.1
      2. Epic A.2
      3. Epic A.3
   2. Project B
      1. Epic B.1
      2. Epic B.2

^ but I'm not sure if that is the way I should be thinking about it!

[Rachel Lin]

Hey Doug! That's not quite correct. An Epic can be synced to only 1 Atlas project, but can be linked to many goals. 

In your case, if you had 2 goals that projects were contributing to, it might look like: 

Goal A 

- Project A <-> Epic 1 

- Project B <-> Epic 2 

Goal B 

- Project A <-> Epic 1 

- Project C <-> Epic 3 

Hope that helps 

[Doug]

Thanks for the quick reply, Rachel! I think the challenge I'm facing is that, thus far, we have been putting a link to a Jira board in the "Where is work tracked?" field. The idea being that there is (usually) a Jira board associated with each project in Atlas, and so, all the Epics, issues, etc, on the board are related to that project.

It looks like at the moment for this feature to work, I need to put a single Epic in the field. I'm unable to add more than one link to the field on the Atlas side, and on the Jira side, if I try to add more than one Epic, each subsequent Epic replaces the previous one.

All that said - I recognize I may not be using this as intended. Grateful for suggestions and advice!

[Daniella Latham]

@Doug it sounds like flexible issue mapping might be a solution for your needs - i.e. linking one level above a Jira epic to your Atlas project. That way all the relevant epics would roll up under that.

We're not there but it's in our plans!

Does that make sense?

[Doug]

Yes! That would be wonderful @Daniella Latham! Thanks for mapping that out.

In our case, we would most often place a Jira board in the "where is this work tracked" field. Having relevant Epics below the linked board connect with the information in Atlas would certainly be compelling.

Grateful for your help and conversation about this!

[Rachel Lin]

In your case, is a Jira Board a project? Does a Jira project represent work being done that has a deadline and then is closed and a new Jira project spun up for the next piece of work, or is your Jira project more evergreen, ongoing work for your team?

[Doug]

Thanks for the question!

Yes! We have all of these :-)

We have project-oriented boards that have a deadline and are closed when a new project is completed, and we have evergreen boards. An example of an evergreen board would be for a content creation / editorial workflow.

Hope that helps!

[Erki Tammik]

@Daniella Latham 

I haven't checked Atlas for a couple of months now, so something might have changed.
We haven't started using Atlas because it requires too much manual work to keep everything up to date. 

Problem starts from here:

Epics are generally fine, but if you have a lot of them, it doesn't work very well.

It would be great to have an option to include "Initiative" level issues and include "Epics" as projects/tasks beneath them. It would be nice if there was a way to include Initiatives using JQL because doing it one by one is too time-consuming. Syncing these with JQL would give us an option to keep everything up to date easily.

This way, if someone needs an overview, they can check the Initiatives and drill down to the Epics to see how everything is progressing, there should be a indicator see progress of Epics and Initiatives.

We are using a third-party tool that offers some of the features that Atlas currently lacks.

@Doug  came up with a good idea.

Goal

1. Project A
   1. Epic A.1
   2. Epic A.2
   3. Epic A.3

"Project A" could be a Initiative that has projects beneath them.

[Daniella Latham]

Thank you for the feedback, @Erki Tammik.

As shared above, we're looking at making linking more flexible beyond just epics. 

If you're comfortable, could you share which tool you're also using? 

[Chad Parker]

@Daniella Latham 

I am also looking to link projects to other issue types in the hierarchy that we use in Jira. I think this is a great start, but I would also like the following:

1. Allow linking to other issue types higher in the issue type hierarchy in jira
2. Allow for just linking and not syncing. I would like to see goals and atlas status' without having to sync everything between them, especially name.
3. Allow linking to multiple epics.

[Daniella Latham]

Hey @Chad Parker 

Thanks so much for sharing! Re your points:

2) Do you mean syncing the name of the Atlas project and Jira epic?

3) would this be solved by allowing linking higher issue types (e.g. initiatives) than epics - as you will be able to see how epics roll up under that?

[Chad Parker]

@Daniella Latham 

2. Yeah, an option to not sync epic and project names and dates. I like to have more details in Jira than in Atlas. Sometimes that date we are targeting in Jira is more aggressive than the date we are communicating to stakeholders in Atlas. So, a pure link, while showing the atlas panels in jira with info about the linked goals and project would be nice.

3. It would be partially solved, but it would be nice to have atlas panels on all the child epics too, if I attach it to a higher issue in the hierarchy. 

Thanks for the quick response.

[Erki Tammik]

@Daniella Latham 

3) would this be solved by allowing linking higher issue types (e.g. initiatives) than epics - as you will be able to see how epics roll up under that?

That's something we are waiting for.
If Initiative is added to the Atlas, then Epics will be rolled up under it.
Since not everyone uses Initiatives, I would apply the same logic to Epics and include Tasks underneath.

For us, Initiatives represent goals, and Epics represent projects aimed at achieving those goals.

If I organize my Initiatives and Epics effectively within the project, it would be great to have the option to add them to the Atlas using JQL. It takes away lot of double work. If someone wants to set up goals manually, there should be an option for that.
For example, I would use the "OKR" component for Initiatives/Epics to ensure smooth synchronization. Atlas should be capable of monitoring these Initiatives and syncing any new tasks added under Initiatives/Epics.
To maintain accurate tracking, it is advisable to minimize excessive changes made to Goals, as it can complicate the tracking process for viewers.

It would be nice to have the choice in Atlas to click on an Initiative or Epic and view the projects/tasks that contribute to achieving the goal.
While viewing an Initiative/Epic, it would be helpful to see the percentage of completion "Done". Stakeholders/other viewers need an easy view to see how everything is progressing and see check ins added for these projects.
The Initiative->Epic->Task hierarchy should be good enough for most users. 
I would follow hierarchy set up here: https://company.atlassian.net/jira/settings/issues/issue-hierarchy
Some people may use different issue types: "Milestones", "Objectives", "Key results" etc instead of the default ones.

I would limit drill-down option in Atlas to two levels: Initiatives & Epics, or Epics & Tasks, in order to maintain simplicity in views for other users. The choice of which hierarchy level to use depends on the user's preference. If someone really want's go into details, then there could be a link that takes to the project or Advanced Roadmaps for more detailed view.

[Alexandre Krammel]

@Daniella Latham I fully agree on @Chad Parker points and a simple and flexible solution would be:

• Allow to link an Atlas Project to many Jira Issues (of any type), just as you do in Jira Issue Links.
• Jira linked issues (and their childs) would present the Atlas panel with the respective Atlas Project and related Atlas Goals. This allows who is working in an issue to be aware of which Company Project and Goals that issue contributes to.
• There is no need for field syncing with such issues.

Maybe it make sense to have a new session "Related Issues" for such feature, while "Where is work tracked?" could be kept for syncing purpose to a single issue.

[Reg Meyer]

Do you have any plans to link this to Discovery?

[crouhana]

please and thank you! I'd pay for this.

[Andrew Hammond]

This is indeed a capability that is on the teams radar, watch this space 👀

We'll be sure to announce as soon as a v1 of an integration with JPD is ready for general use!

[Daniella Latham]

@Reg Meyer @crouhana would love to know more about why you'd find this useful?

[Tanguy Crusson]

@Reg Meyer @crouhana There is already an integration between Jira Product Discovery and Atlas available in early access. The model is slightly different so it works with Jira Product Discovery's fields and views system:

More details here: https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-Product-Discovery-articles/Upcoming-product-improvements-Atlas-integration-ready-for-early/ba-p/2195274

@Reg: I found you in the system and gave you access

@crouhana I didn't find you but if you could share your site URL (xyz.atlassian.net) we'll turn it on for you too

[crouhana]

Hey Tanguy, our site URL is https://createmusic.atlassian.net/

[James Lester]

@Daniella Latham Hopefully I can help answer your question:

• It would be useful to have a Goals field that syncs with Atlas goals because it would avoid manually maintaining Goals fields across potentially many JPD projects.
• It would also be of interest to view an Atlas goal and see what JPD Ideas have been proposed for it. Atlas projects will only represent the JPD Ideas that have made it through a many-sieved selection process, so it would be of value to see what other Ideas are out there for a particular goal.
• During campaigns to generate continuous improvement ideas, it would be of value to see what goals get the most "idea attention," which get the least, and so on. We could use insights from that to help evaluate the perceived clarity, achievability, or usefulness of goals. We could also use that to shore up gaps or put on follow-on events.
• JPD integrating with Atlas would complete the triangle linking goals, ideas, and projects. Seeing what we need to achieve, ways we can achieve it, and how we're achieving it all in one place would be amazing.

[Tanguy Crusson]

@crouhana done. Just refresh your screen and you should see the "Atlas Goals" and "Atlas Project" fields.

@James Lester you should be able to do this with the Jira Product Integration with Atlas. I've also turned it on for you. You can see a demo here for how to use it: https://www.loom.com/share/9489c20d9ff243cd95882bf4c502ba87

[crouhana]

it works! Thanks @Tanguy Crusson !

[David Washburn]

Question about the Marketplace app. I installed it and immediately noticed the new Status updates section appear on the sidebar of my Jira issues. Does that appear for everyone in the company, or only uses assigned to Atlas? Because my company doesn't know about Atlas yet as we're still introducing it.

I don't want to enable this feature if it's going to suddenly appear on everyone's Jira projects on the sidebar of an issue.

[Dan W]

I just confirmed it is available for everyone after it is installed.  I am only seeing it on Epics.

[Mia Paulin]

@Daniella Latham 

I think its great and I've created an instance it.  I just haven't linked my bitbucket, compass and Tello to it yet.  I've been trying to design my server implementation, but will be more proactive in keeping my progress in my Jira and confluence instances.doI apologize.  Grabbing a bite to eat and will be back bery shortly.  Thanks for your patience and understanding!  You guys are awesome!

[David Washburn]

Thanks for the feedback @Dan W. I am glad to know it's Epics only, but this does make it tricky to prepare when most of the company doesn't use Atlas or know about it. Or some users may not have a license assigned and wonder what the product is.

[Rachel Lin]

@David Washburn Users who do not know Atlas will get some overview onboarding to the product through this panel to begin with. They will see information on what Atlas is and how it connects with Jira on projects. 

Once they are able to access Atlas, you will also not be charged for additional users as Atlas pricing is free for up to 35,000 users. 

[David Washburn]

Hey @Rachel Lin don't get me wrong, I love that the product onboards users to Atlas. I'm just not ready to release Atlas to the company yet, however I would like to still use it on a few Jira projects that are high visibility with c-suite.

I was just hoping there was a way to control visibility of the integration until I'm ready to launch the product fully.

[Matthew McGarity]

> Currently, you can link only Jira epic issues to Atlas projects. We’re looking to support more in the future, so feel free to share what you use, and what the ideal state would be like for you.

One our end, we currently have one Atlas Goal per software release, and under that an Atlas Project for each major feature within that release.  Those same features correspond to Jira Epics, so the sync works well.  

However, there are occasions when the business has requested visibility to work that doesn't fit into that model — specifically individual stories which don't rise to the level of needing a parent Epic.

Because Atlas doesn't (yet, maybe) sync Projects → Stories, we work around this by moving such individual stories to their own private epic, but I think it could be easier if we could link Projects down one level — specifically to the Story type, which would be helpful on those rare occasions.

[Rachel Lin]

Hey Matt, HIGHLY encourage you to drop in some time so we can catch up more. Loving your feedback and energy around Atlas! 

https://calendly.com/rlin2/atlas-jira-goal-exploration-research