What's the best way to use Jira within the PMO (project management office)?

[TP]

Hi guys,

Seeking your guidance on the best way to track high level projects in a company, ideally using Jira. 

The goal is to create a project management office (PMO) tool to manage initiatives across the company - something we can use in management meetings to track tasks, or drill down to lower level details. Is this idealistic heirarchy a possibility in Jira or a pipe dream?

We currently use Jira for agile software development. 

I have a dream... of a company-wide PMO using Jira where high level projects drill down into smaller projects and finally into tasks. 

We'd prefer to adopt Jira rather than add more tools (Monday, MS Project) since we already use Jira for Agile software development and want to expand its use. We also have ERP software so timesheets logged there need to correlate at some point with Jira's project tasks. But i haven't used Jira, so I don't know how flexible or appropriate it is for what i'm trying to achieve. So i'm seeking your help!

1. What's the most efficient way to learn Jira for Project Management? Cheapest and fastest, for senior level tracking. (I.e., I don't need accreditation or certification, and probably don't need to learn scrum or detailed software development in order to implement and start using this as high level PM tool.)

2. Do Jira tasks allow for many hierarchies - can we report at various levels? E.g., does each Epic have a parent, and therefore an unlimited hierarchy? 

3. Does Jira offer useful dashboards and reports that are useful for management meetings?

Thank you (!!) for your expertise and time to read my long post. I have a gut feeling for what I'm trying to achieve but not sure if i'm going about it in the right way. I thank you SO MUCH for any recommendations, guidance, suggestions.

[Hannes Obweger - JXL for Jira · Accepted solution]

Hi @TP

there's a lot to say about all of this, and I'd strongly recommend to reach out to one of the many Atlassian Solution Partners for discussing this further; I'm sure there's a couple of options in your area.

Just for some very basic guidance:

I have a dream... of a company-wide PMO using Jira where high level projects drill down into smaller projects and finally into tasks. 

Absolutely possible. Many companies use Jira exactly like that. Jira's out-of-the-box solution for this is Advanced Roadmaps, which comes with Jira Software Premium.

What's the most efficient way to learn Jira for Project Management?

Atlassian offers the Atlassian University, which, from what I know, has some great content. Otherwise, there's countless of tutorials available on Youtube these days, and also a lot of blog posts etc. Simply search for Jira Advanced Roadmaps and take it from there.

Do Jira tasks allow for many hierarchies - can we report at various levels? E.g., does each Epic have a parent, and therefore an unlimited hierarchy?

Advanced Roadmaps does, yes. There are also a lot of hierarchy-focused apps available in the Atlassian Marketplace that, depending on your exact use case, may provide even better visibility, and give you even more flexibility in terms of hierarchy levels. I myself work on one of these apps - JXL for Jira, see below - but there's plenty of options.

Does Jira offer useful dashboards and reports that are useful for management meetings?

Yes, Jira comes with dashboards and reports. Again, if you need anything that isn't part of Jira already, you'll almost certainly find options in the Atlassian Marketplace.

Hope this is some help, but as said before, I'd strongly recommend to sit down with a Solution Partner to spar on your exact requirements.

Best,

Hannes

[TP]

Thank you Hannes, for your recommendations and generosity of time to write this out for me. Really appreciate the advice and will follow up your points. 

Kind regards, TP