What's new in the Roadmap view? I'm so glad you asked.

[#1]

Hello dear Jira users,

I'm Rathesh, a Jira Software Product Manager. I want to take a minute of your time to talk you through two features that have been highly requested for the basic roadmap view, and bring value to your team by allowing you to plan and track work at a deeper level.

Note: These features are new to the basic roadmap view which appears next to the board and backlog available on all editions of Jira Software cloud. Learn more about enabling the roadmap. 
Advanced roadmap users on Jira Software cloud already have the ability to schedule child issues & view releases on the roadmap. 

Feature #1: View child-issues on your roadmap (kanban teams)

The first new functionality  we are currently rolling out (Look out for it the next 2 weeks) is the ability to visualize and schedule tasks and stories for kanban teams from your roadmap view, as shown below:

This added functionality allows you to include both your epics and underlying stories in a single view when working with kanban teams. With this addition, you can more accurately predict and communicate project progress and deadlines. And if a due date of a child issue moves, the roadmap automatically updates your parent-issues' schedule bar, meaning that your plan is always up to date. Note: the epic dates will not automatically update if the epic already has specified start/due dates set. This ensures that the team is aware of child issue movements on an epic that has been planned toward a specific date. 

This feature is not enabled by default, but it’s easy to turn on (if you have project permissions). Learn how to enable child-level planning for kanban teams.

This also unlocks many of the other features that we’ve released in the past six months on the roadmap view for kanban planners. You can use the dependencies tool to indicate which issues are reliant on each other to identify risks and potential pitfalls in your timeline. Learn the ins and outs of child-level issue planning for kanban teams.

If your project settings have "Start date" and "Due date" fields to be visible for child-issue types, the dates scheduled on the roadmap will also appear in the board and backlog. Treat them as time estimates for the purpose of prioritizing work and getting ahead of blockers. They can and should be updated as plans change.

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Feature #2: Releases on your roadmap

The second major feature that we’ve shipped this month is the ability to show releases on your roadmap.

In the image above, each dot in the row labeled Releases represents a release, and their colors tell you their status. This extra information helps you identify potential conflicts between your team’s work and the target release dates. Armed with this information, you can better plan work against release dates, make adjustments to deadlines or scope, and communicate progress to stakeholders. Learn more about what you can do with releases on your roadmap.

Adding releases to your roadmap is simple, as well: the toggle to turn them on is in the View settings menu on your roadmap. Learn more about showing or hiding releases on your roadmap.

In summation

These features might seem simple, but a lot of work has gone into them to get a balanced, yet simple solution for the roadmap– not just from development teams on our side, but also from this wonderful community we have here.

I’d like to take the opportunity to thank all of the members here who participated in the EAP or the Beta testing of these features, as well as those who have given feedback or voted on feature requests. Without the help of this group, this feature wouldn’t have been as robust and valuable.

If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to drop a comment to get the conversation rolling.

Cheers,

Rathesh.

[Alex Gay]

I think I know the answer, but if and when will this be available for Jira Software DataCenter?

[Rathesh Richards]

Hi @Alex Gay, thanks for your question. Unfortunately, we do not have any plans in the next 12 months to make the basic version of roadmaps available in Jira Software DataCenter. 

Have you tried using Advanced Roadmaps in DataCenter?  If not, why? and if so, I'd love to understand what you are trying to achieve that was not possible? 

[Alex Gay]

Hi @Rathesh Richards we are using Advanced Roadmaps.

Do you mean that this features also exist in the Advance Roadmaps in DataCenter?

[Sven Pfeiffer]

Hi @Rathesh Richards

can this feature be combined with Advanced Roadmaps in the Jira Cloud? We have two active sites. On the first one where Advanced Roadmaps is not active this feature is working well. On the other one where Advanced Roadmaps is active (Premium Trial) this feature is not there. 

Thanks in advance. 

EDIT: Yes it can. 

[Rathesh Richards]

Hi @Alex Gay - yes this feature already exists within Advanced roadmaps on DataCenter. 

@Sven Pfeiffer , yes it can - and it should be rolled out to all your jira software cloud instances now :) 

[Nadia Mazzeo]

Hi! How are you?

I am new using Jira and I am having trouble to find a tool that let me group all my projects activities in only one Gant Diagram. I have different projects with independant timelines, but which occur at the same time and I need to see everything toghether. Is there a way to do that?

Thanks in advance

Cheers

Nadia

[Lorenz Rojas]

I have the same trouble! 

[George Lerma]

I love the new updates! - Curious: have there been discussions/thoughts about cross-project support in Roadmaps? Or some kind of "Roadmap of Roadmaps" type of feature?

I'm asking because as a senior manager, I often have to look at many different Jira project epics, but I cannot look at a singular, unifying view.

[Matthew McGarity]

The ability to add markers to the Jira roadmap will be super-useful!  I assume this will show all releases, or can it be a specific sub-set of releases? (ex: Product Manager 1 manages his slice of the backlog using a personal board, and he doesn't want their roadmap mucked up by showing releases that only matter to Product Manager 2)

[Matthew McGarity]

@George Lerma Hey! (waves) I suspect that Atlassian will say no, as that's the carrot they likely dangle to encourage you to upgrade to their Advanced Roadmaps feature.

[Curt Holley]

@George Lerma What you describe is Advanced Roadmaps (available on Jira Premium)

[George Lerma]

Hi @Matthew McGarity ! small world. :D - Ah, ok, advanced roadmaps = More $$, got it. :)

[Nicole Howard]

If I could buy advanced roadmaps on it's own I would. Since I am the only person who needs this, and there are no other features in Premium that we would use I simply can't justify upgrading the entire team. If there was more pricing flexibility we would gladly upgrade just me, or a couple of us.

[Corné]

@Rathesh Richards Thanks for this post - this is really helpful for my organization. What I still miss is week numbers in the Roadmap 'Weeks' view. Is this a feature which is on the roadmap for future releases? 

[Lars Olafsson]

First of all great new change, we have been part of the user testing and happy to see it is now released. Though there is a small thing which we also pointed out during the user testing. Issues that does not have an EPIC parent, is not shown on the roadmap. And with the addition of releases and versions, we often have small things that make it into a release, where there is not always an EPIC on it. Which means we constantly have to check our releases to see that all Issues have an EPIC. Would be great if these could also make it to the Roadmap somehow.

[Chalie Lam]

Thank you for adding such wondering features. Our team has been looking forward to this for a while.

I am experiencing a strange behaviour. I have some existing projects and the child scheduling is working well.

However when I create new two project, team managed, scrum & kanban, this feature doesn't seem to be working.
Anyone experiencing the same?

[Tom Nahum]

Thank you for adding stories to roadmap.

My team is working with stories, releases and sprints, but we do NOT work with epics.

Is there a way to work with roadmaps just with stories alone, and not under epics?

Thanks!

[tk]

@Rathesh Richards Can you comment how do you calculate the dates for kanban? I'm looking to understand how do you arrive at the end date and what do you consider? For eg: velcoity, team availability, dependencies, mutliple teams involved in same epic where they are blocked until another team is done, etc..

[Maria Martinez]

When it will be available ? Even enabling here, it's not possible to use yet.