What are your daily go-to views in Jira Align?

[Peter Jessen]

Hi Everyone,

I've been implementing, coaching, and using Jira Align for 4 years now. In that time I've developed a preference for coaching new users, especially RTEs and Product Managers, to use a basic 4 - 5 go-to views for quickly determining the health and progress of the programs/ARTs.

My favorites include:

1. Program Room
2. Program Board
3. PI Progress
4. Roadmaps
5. Work Tree

What are yours and why?

Thanks,
Peter

[Peter Jessen]

Hi @Thomas_Barry,

You added some good choices, in m experience. The Risk ROAM Report and the Dependency Wheel (I call it the doughnut and spider web view) are two of the views in my second tier.

They are in the second tier, because I was trying to keep my list to a handful (although 7 is a common number of items in a list), and because we can see dependencies and risks via the Program Board. These two provide the more holistic view and I coach people to access them no less than twice weekly.

By the way the Program Increment Progress view is #3 in my list above.

I agree with you regarding the minimal amount of customization available with Jira Align reports. If your organization purchases LEO, the BI add-on, you can create custom data views, but there definitely should be more customization allowed on existing reports. Alternatively, Jira Align could create an Excel plug-in like Rally had/has.

As for metrics, I like to keep things as simple as possible for tracking health, a bit like a doctor checks our weight, blood pressure, temperature, and pulse during each visit, even if they later order blood work and other labs. Those would include:

• Any change in scope since yesterday?
  • Program Room - Program Load or PI Progress - Scope Line
• Any obvious health issues on the Program Board?
  • Any red/orange/yellow features, dependencies. or objectives/milestones?
• Has anything slipped since yesterday?
  • Program Board - History Button
• Any misalignment between work planned and work being executed?
  • Roadmaps - Features by Epics view
  • Program Board - Feature detail view
  • Program Room - Misaligned Stories section
• Are we on track to meet our commitments?
  • Program Increment (PI) Progress view
  • Program Board

That being said, here's a deeper dive into part of the routine I coach and practice.

The Program Room let's me scan overall program/ART health by looking at:

1. Program Load - Is the Program overloaded or properly loaded for where they are in the Program Increment?
2. Team Load - Are any teams overloaded, even if the program isn't?
3. Team Progress - Are any teams ahead or behind plan based on where we are in the PI? If so, I can filter the Program Room on that team to dive deeper.
4. Progress widget - Great overall progress view.
5. Dependencies and Risks - Scan for any issues
6. Orphan Stories - Have any popped up since yesterday? If so, which Product Owner is owning getting it/them parented today? Why were they added?
7. Misaligned Stories - Have any popped up since yesterday? If so, which Product Owner is owning getting it/them parented today? Why were they added.

Now I dive into the Program Board, where I can check:

1. Is any feature (Jira Epic) or dependency a color other grey, blue, or green?
   • There usually is, so I dive in, team by team, on any feature or dependency that is red or mustard/orange to see what the issue might be.
     • Here is where I'll see dependencies and risks that might be an issue.
2. Have any features or dependencies been slipped to later sprints since yesterday without approval from Product Management?
   • This becomes second nature to spot over time, but the
     "History" button in the upper right corner details what changed and who changed it.
3. Are there any Orphan or Unassigned features on the board?

Now I check the Program Increment (PI) Progress view for:

1. overall progress of both features and stories, paying attention to any scope change,
2. as well deltas between planned work points (features - left side) and executed work pints (stories - right side)
3. individual team progress - Drill Down Button - View Teams Button

And then on to other views.

Regards,
Peter

[Ann Bouvier]

I like the Release Train Board.  It gives a combined view of the health of the whole train.  And a great place to look towards the end of the PI, to see what is still outstanding, and what features will need to be split to carry over to the next PI.

[Tim Keyes]

One of my favorite reports when working with the Jira integration that is often forgotten is the Fit View under Jira Align Admin > Jira Management > Jira Sprints > Fit View as it provides a macro view into sprint alignment and progress between Jira and Jira Align across a Program(s).

More info on the fit view can be found here:

https://agilecrafthelp.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360018815534-10X-Jira-Management-Settings

Jira Fit View report

In Jira Software, sprints might not go one right after another. The Jira Sprint Fit View report is used to see the sequence of sprints in Jira. It is a calendar view that provides a better outline of how Jira sprints look within a program.

The teams within the selected program are listed on the left side. For each sprint, a bar appears that represents the start date and end date of the sprint overlaid on the calendar. Move the pointer over the bar to see how many points are accepted within the sprint.

To view the report:

1. Open the Jira Sprints tab.
2. Click the Fit View button.
3. Select a PI and a program from the drop-down menus. You can select multiple PIs and programs here.
4. Click Run Report.
5. To navigate the report:
   • To zoom in or zoom out, click the plus or minus sign.
   • To scroll horizontally, click the right or left arrow.

[Emily Koch]

I use a lot of the team-level features. I use the Team Room multiple times a day, to easily review the progress on stories I need to document, and then click into their stories to review the acceptance criteria as I write documentation on the new functionality.

I'll also use the Chat feature on those stories at the start of each sprint and/or PI to communicate that any review of UI text in acceptance criteria has been completed.

Roadmaps are also great for me to check, so that I can see what's planned ahead!

[Thomas_Barry]

Hi Peter, 

I've been implementing, coaching, and administering Jira Align for almost a year now myself. I agree with what you say and would add the following views/screens to that list: 

• Program ROAM Dashboard - for Scrum of Scrum 
• Dependency Wheel View - for Scrum of Scrum 
• Program Increment Progress - for PI Burndowns & Burnups

The one challenge I find with Jira Align is that you can't customize reports, so often the metrics one needs are spread across multiple reports, which gets to the crux of your post. Thus, I need to work with users to focus their attention on specific metrics on each report. What metrics do you find most useful for RTEs and Product Managers on the five reports/views you listed? 

Best, 

--Tom

[Fernando Bordallo]

Interesting. I'll surely take a peek into how my team can make use of the Release train