Building strategy with the new Strategy Room
In version 10.67, one of the biggest changes we made to Jira Align was a revamp of the Strategy Room. And when you first get to the room, the view might look quite different from what you might be used to:
Look at all that red! In this article, though, we’ll give you a look at just how to set up your business strategy in Jira Align so you can both get the most out of the Strategy Room, and (hopefully) get rid of all that red.
The strategic hierarchy
As part of the changes to the Strategy Room, we added objectives as part of the strategy planning process, and they’ve been added to the Strategy Pyramid widget in the Strategy Room as a result. The strategic hierarchy now has eleven levels:
- Mission (displays at the top of the Strategy Room)
- Vision (displays at the top of the Strategy Room)
- Values (displays at the top of the Strategy Room)
- North Stars
- Long-Term Goals
- Long-Term Strategies
- Yearly Goals
- Portfolio Objectives
- Solution Objectives
- Program Objectives
- Team Objectives
What’s important here is the order -- strategy is created top-down.
Step 1: Connect your goals and objectives. Each level of strategy should define the level below. As you create each objective and goal, make sure you define which parent objective or goal it’s related to and assign them to the PIs in your strategic snapshot.
Performing this step will provide information on your strategic hierarchy on the OKR Tree widget in the Strategy Room. The hierarchy will also reflect on the Objectives Tree page!
Key results
Key results, also known as OKRs, could already be set for objectives. Now, they can also be set for strategic goals (North Stars, long term goals, long term strategies, and yearly goals). Many of the widgets in the strategy room are color-coded to reflect information on key result scores, so...
Step 2: Define key results for your strategic goals and objectives.
As you create and update the results, you’ll start seeing information about key result counts and scores in the OKR Heatmap, OKR Tree, and Strategy Tree widgets. And as your key result scores improve, you’ll start seeing less red and more orange and green!
Connecting strategy to execution
Another big change is that themes and epics are no longer part of the strategy pyramid and are instead considered work that you can connect to your goals and objectives. But that doesn’t mean they’re any less important -- they’re the work that needs to be done to bring your objectives and goals to reality, and that progress is reflected in the Strategy Room, too.
Step 3: Tie work (themes, epics, capabilities, features) to your strategic goals and objectives. Themes can be assigned to objectives and goals on their Details panels. Epics, capabilities and features can be assigned on their Details panels, or from an objective’s Details panel.
As work proceeds on those work items, you’ll start seeing information on the progress at each level of strategic goal and objectives in the Execution Against Outcomes and Progress widgets.
By doing these three things, you’ll have the information you need to measure the success of your business strategy with the Strategy Room!
One last thing...
We want your feedback
These are some pretty big changes, so we’d love to hear from you about the Strategy Room changes. Feel free to reach out to your TAM, SA, or CSM with any feedback, or leave your thoughts in the comments below!
Was this helpful?
Thanks!
Emily Koch
3 comments