Improving the way you share Portfolio for Jira plans with stakeholders

[#1]

Confluence helps keep everyone on the same page. It’s an open and shared workspace that connects people to up-to-date ideas and information. That’s why, when it comes to sharing updates on the status of work or negotiating changes to the plans built in Portfolio for Jira, Confluence is a natural fit for surfacing this information.

It is based on this that the Portfolio for Jira Server and Data Center team has placed an emphasis on improving Portfolio users' ability to share their plans with stakeholders across their organizations, directly within Confluence.

Introducing new sharing capabilities

We're pleased to announce the arrival of the Portfolio for Jira plan Confluence macro that lets you embed a lightweight Portfolio for Jira plan within a Confluence Server or Data Center page of your choice. We have provided access to this functionality via the Portfolio for Jira plans in Confluence app, which is now available for download in the Atlassian Marketplace, a stepping stone to our eventual launch of a fully embedded Confluence macro.

Displaying a Portfolio for Jira plan in Confluence provides a window into your teams' work, which will allow key stakeholders to stay informed, track status and progress of ongoing work, and understand what's planned for the future. It also provides a space for deeper discussion about how your work gets done to achieve your business' goals.

Built atop Portfolio for Jira’s existing share functionality, you can custom-tailor your roadmap view using Portfolio’s filters and view settings and share it with your audience in a read-only format within a Confluence page.

In Portfolio 3.x, plans are updated in real-time. The same holds true for plans displayed in Confluence. They will automatically update as work progresses, keeping everyone on the same page even as plans evolve. What’s more, you only have to set them up once. Simply refresh your Confluence page to see the latest and greatest of what’s going on.

Whether you’re sharing the plans of a single team, or multiple plans spanning multiple teams, pair them with supporting information in your Confluence page. Set the right context for your vision, or show how it relates to broader business objectives, and make Confluence the single source of truth for planning, tracking, and coordinating your work.

Check out the Portfolio for Jira Server and Data Center 3.12 release notes for more information.

What about Portfolio for Jira’s current sharing capabilities?

As some of you might be aware, Portfolio for Jira Server and Data Center 3.x already comes equipped with a few sharing capabilities. One of which involves the creation of a link that can be embedded as an iframe, to share a read-only version of a specific viewpoint into your plan on a webpage.

Though some customers have leveraged this capability along with Confluence's HTML macro, we know that some organizations restrict access to this HTML macro for security and compliance purposes. This was another reason for us to expand the sharing options available with Portfolio for Jira to make sure more customers can take advantage of real-time plans in multiple contexts.

Why an app?

Many of you might be wondering… why an app? As you know, we have our sights set on a grander aim of embedding our Confluence macro within a future release of Confluence Server and Data Center. Delivering this functionality via an app allows us to support customers running earlier versions of Confluence (Confluence 6.x+), provide the functionality sooner, and allows us to collect feedback and iterate as we work towards a Confluence-native macro.

To keep tabs on our team’s development, I encourage you to watch our version history page for updates.

We need your help...

Help us make the experience of sharing your plans even better by influencing the future development of our Confluence macro.

Once you’ve initiated a trial or upgraded to Portfolio for Jira Server and Data Center 3.12, download and install the macro from the Portfolio for Jira plans in Confluence app. From there, follow our instructions on the Sharing roadmaps page of our documentation to enable the Portfolio for Jira plan Confluence macro and begin using this functionality.

As you’re testing it out, send us any feedback that you or your team may have using the "Give feedback" button in your Portfolio for Jira instance. Our team will review each submission and reach out with any questions as needed.

"Give feedback" button positioned in the upper right section of a Portfolio plan.

Questions or comments? Leave them here and let us know what you think.

[Chris Jones]

Does the Confluence user require a Jira licence?

[Rhys Christian]

Hey @Chris Jones

Yes user needs access to the Jira instance and will need to be logged in to see the data. 

The user would also require permission to see the scope of issues. Any projects / issues the user doesn't have permission to will not be visible to them in the confluence macro.

[Chris Jones]

hi @Rhys Christian less than 25% of our Confluence users are also Jira users. However it would be useful to report plans with the non-Jira users.

Otherwise i don't really see much point to the app, anyone with Jira access would just go directly to Portfolio and view the plan.

[Rhys Christian]

@Chris Jones - Thanks for sharing this pain and context of your Confluence vs Jira users.

This feature is intended for users with access to both Confluence and Jira. We have plans on our roadmap to provide further ways for you to communicate your plan and provide visibility to stakeholders. 

One feature we're investigating is to provide options to export a plan to PDF or PNG. This would produce a document of the plan that can be shared or printed for non-jira users.

It should be noted that the Confluence Macro is the only sharing feature we'll be able to provide real-time up-to-date information from Portfolio. Other sharing such as export would be a static snapshot of the plan.

Does this sound like functionality that your organisation would value?

[Susanne Harelius]

Hi! To me exporting would not cover the case. I love that permission is held throughout different tools but when it comes to a plan like this it would definitely be great to be able to present a live view for users not having access just to make sure that everyone actually see the same "picture". 

[Martin Natterer]

I do support Susanne's view, and very much so. Might be a case distinction would help: in small teams (focussing on developing anyway) a jira licence my be taken for granted as going alongside the confluence access. In larger teams though (such as universities or larger companies) it is not immaginable to buy an extra jira licence just to ensure seamless communication on major topics.

So, in my view, I would introduce a "split licence model": "jira light" for  "1 $ a year", serving larger teams (of students f.e.) , and full access to jira (as we use it f.e.) for smaller teams. 

The proposal is built on my personal experience, both as a (smalish) entrepreneur and a teacher.

[olivier lejeune]

We will test it immediatly...

[Susanne Harelius]

EazyBI has a similar function where you can see things without permission so you need to be careful as a report admin. 

[Martin Natterer]

Does anybody know how the new "portfolio for jira" will work and/or be displayed in the mobile app? - Background: The younger the users get, the more likel it is they will use the app on their mobile...

[Martin Natterer]

sorry, too quick: the interaction of the confluence and the jira mobile app is in question

[Chris Jones]

@Rhys Christiani can take a screenshot of a plan to get a static image for a Confluence page. Static images aren't much use, they're outdated before they're published.

A useful macro would:

1. Present a read only view of the plan that updates dynamically
2. Not require any Jira licence to view the Confluence page, i guess it would be ok to assume the person editing the macro has a Jira licence with permission to access the plan and details.
3. Target an audience who read Confluence pages and need to see accurate information, don't work in Jira and probably don't even create Confluence content.

[Martin Natterer]

No 3, Chris, is different with us (in a small team contgext, as mentioned above). No. 1 + 2 are basics, though

[Venothan Padayachee]

We have just implemented Jira Portfolio within my business unit and this feature compliments Confluence brilliantly 

[Alex GON]

Great thanks ! how about the Cloud users ?

[Dave]

@Alex GON Do you mean Confluence Cloud users (i.e. sharing plans from Jira Server into Confluence Cloud)? Or Portfolio Cloud users?

[Alex GON]

@Dave yes Jira Cloud and Confluence Cloud users. Your page talks about the server version. Do you have the same ?

thanks for your help

[Dave]

@Alex GON Not at the present time. Roadmaps are available for Cloud which include exporting to Confluence pages: https://confluence.atlassian.com/jirasoftwarecloud/roadmap-957979308.html

[Aron Gombas _Midori_]

@Alex GON as an alternative for Jira Cloud, our Better PDF Exporter app can work with the Portfolio custom fields also on cloud! So, if sharing via an exported PDF document is an option in your use case, you may want to check this out: Exporting Portfolio plans to PDF

[Alex GON]

thanks for the insights !

[Scott Stephens]

Not working for me.  I just created CSP-265224

[suresh anantharaman]

I am using jira server 8.13 and confluence 6.13. i have portfolio for jira which i had used to setup a plan. I am unable to use this plan in confluence. I only have roadmap planner as macro, which is used to draw plan manually. How do I get this capability to view roadmap in confluence . Do I need to buy the portfolio plan for jira macro . Will this not available out of the box in confluence 6.13 or is there any setting to be done to get this macro enabled