A new navigation experience is coming to Jira Align!

[#1]

We are excited to share that an improved navigation experience is coming to Jira Align!

We heard your feedback over the years, that the current navigation menus are overwhelming, and that it is hard to find and quickly access your team room and work. Additionally, as many Jira Align users are Jira or Confluence customers first, the different information architecture and menu design adds to the challenges.

So, with the Jira Align 10.122.0 release, we’re starting to address these challenges by introducing a new experience that will provide you with:

1. A new information architecture that orients new and existing users on what you already know - your teams and team rooms.

2. A new top navigation bar that moves from a model where users primarily navigate views to one where you navigate team or product hierarchies.

3. A new sidebar to improve the discovery of views that allow users to accomplish their top tasks. As you navigate across pages, your views will stay filtered by the selected scope and time period.

4. A new homepage that provides quick access to the rooms and work that are most important to you.

5. In-product guides to quickly onboard to the new navigation experience.

For a quick how-to about the new navigation and homepage, check out this video:

What to expect

In version 10.122.0

Administrators will have control over whether people in your instance can opt-in to the new navigation experience through a platform setting. Once your administrators turn on the setting, you'll be able to switch to the new experience with a simple toggle in the current Configuration bar. Then, from any page, you can use the same toggle to switch back to the old experience.

In version 10.123.0

We’re planning to remove the platform setting and make the toggle available to all users. While we’re rolling out these improvements, users will be able to provide direct feedback when switching back to the old experience.

In Q4 2023

Once we’ve fully rolled out the new navigation experience, we’ll begin the process of removing the old navigation, which is currently planned for the December 1, 2023 release (10.127.1). This means that the majority of users will have the old navigation experience removed in the December 8, 2023 release (10.127.2).

Frequently asked questions

• Will there be any differences between Cloud and on-premise instances?
  Because the in-product guides are built with Pendo, on-premise customers will not receive in-product onboarding. We recommend using the above video and our Help Center articles to get started. Additionally, on-premise customers will not receive in-product feedback requests about the new navigation.

Have questions or comments about the new navigation? Leave them here and we’ll be happy to assist.

[Fabrice Huart - NSI]

Can’t wait to test it, more harmonized with the usual navigation experience 

[Kate Lailey]

I am having some problems with the new navigation experience - where can I record my feedback/queries?

[James Webber]

Is there are permission that needs to be added so normal users can turn this on? 

[James Webber]

So, if it's useful we found the turning on the new experience on the home menu works but if you turn it on somewhere else you get the error above.

[Paula Hidalgo]

Is there an exact date for when our users will be unable to toggle to the old navigation?

Where do I report critical missing functionality in the new navigation such as the search mechanism in the blue left navigation is missing and there is no alternative?

[adrimars]

There doesn't seem to be any feedback mechanism when switching back.

In the new UI, We lose the ability to have a filtered Product Board (by Product or Team) and we can't see how to get that back compared to the old UI.

[Ahmet Kilic]

@Fabrice Huart - NSI

you're able to test it right now, in case Jira Align has the version 10.122.0 There is a toggle on the top navigation. Just switch it and enjoy!

[Peter Jessen]

Hi @Kyle Foreman, 

Based on our team's testing so far, the new nav is a massive step back for experienced users of Jira Align.

Atlassian has managed to hamstring an enterprise agile transformation platform by degrading the user experience with:

• More clicks needed to get to each report and view
• Removing the delivery org hierarchy
• Removing the menu search
• Making it much more difficult for leaders to manage multiple programs (ARTs) or multiple teams for activities such as:
  • Cross program dependency management
  • Cross team coordination
• and much more

As someone with almost 8 years implementing, training, coaching, and using Jira Align - the new nav is a disaster.

• Yes, it aligns closer with Jira's user experience, but at what cost?
  • Jira is an individual contributor repurposed issue-tracking tool that can be used by small teams.
  • Jira Align is an enterprise agile platform designed for use by leaders of teams, programs, and portfolios.
    • The current nav supports that use case, the new nav doesn't.

I hope Atlassian  either cancels the new nav or figures out how to get key vies and functionality into the new nav before 10.127 is released.

• This is the worst decision, in my opinion, since the removal of the Investment Distribution report in an earlier version.
  • While that report may not have been heavily used (based on Atlassian data?), it was a powerful report used by advanced users of Align who were early adopters of where the industry is finally catching up.
  • Our team is currently attempting to recreate a version of the Investment Distribution report using EI and Tableau/Power BI.

Jira Align is a powerful transformation platform. The learning curve is already steep. My main concern is the new nav creates a "failure to launch" scenario on par with the SpaceX's Starship explosion earlier this year.

Regards,
Peter Jessen

PS: There is still time before 10.127.0 is released, so I hope Atlassian is able to get new versions of the missing functionality in place. My concern is that fundamentally, as it currently exists, the new nav makes using Jira Align more confusing, not less confusing, more steps, not less steps.

[Kyle Foreman]

UPDATE!

Hi all,

I want to share some updates on the new navigation rollout (and for more information, you can watch our recent roadmap webinar).

1. I just updated the post to reflect the specific releases in which we're planning to remove the old navigation experience (the 10.127.1, December 1, 2023 release for continuous tracks and the 10.127.2 December 8, 2023 release for bundled tracks).

2. There are filtering use cases that were missed in the new navigation experience, and we're committed to addressing these prior to removing the old navigation experience. An example of this is with roadmaps. In the old experience, you could filter roadmaps with multiple portfolios or multiple teams to see cross-portfolio, cross-program, and cross-team work. We're currently working on adding these filters to the new experience so that you do not lose these key views. We're also in the process of updating all open bugs that we plan to address prior to removing the old navigation experience with the "short-term backlog" status. You can expect these updates to be complete by the end of the day on Friday, September 29.

3. Also prior to removing the old navigation experience, we're cleaning up the sidebar menus to make pages and reports more discoverable. Small, simple changes like making sure the items are listed based on the type and hierarchy level (e.g. themes, epics, capabilities, features, etc., and program increments, sprints, releases, etc.), and making sure that reports are listed in alphabetical order using your terminology.

4. I understand updating training material can be a considerable lift, and there are several resources available. We recently completed updates to our help center so that users have guides for both the old experience and the new experience. In addition, our training materials have been updated and can be provided by your Advisory Services representative. 

5. One more exciting improvement we're planning is with the horizontal navigation menu. We listened to your feedback and will be introducing a new team hierarchy menu to help users find teams in the context of others. We're still working through the details of this improvement so it won't be introduced before removing the old navigation experience, but we wanted to give everyone an early look at where we're headed next.

Again, thank you for the feedback, and let me know if you have any follow-up questions!

-Kyle

[Kyle Foreman]

Hi @Kate Lailey - if you're running into issues, please contact support and we'll assist right away.

[Kyle Foreman]

@adrimars good news! You can now filter the program board by multiple programs or multiple teams from the Extra Configs menu.

[Kyle Foreman]

@James Webber no permissions are required to turn on the new navigation experience, but you shouldn't be running into that message. Can you contact support so we can take a look at what's causing this?

[Cynthia Phillips]

Have your resolve the Roadmap to allow us in the NEW UI to enable us to elect multiple Portfolios to see the work across those PALS and team contributingtot it.   Or in the Roadmap the ability to have multiple Teams in the Roadmap.  

[Cynthia Phillips]

I am really excited on the changes you keep making in the UI and listening to the feedback