We have Jira but still using excel for velocity 🤔

[Brenda Patterson]

Good morning friends,

I recently started working with an organization that has been using Jira for the past 3 yrs and yet velocity is being calculated on an excel spread sheet. This is a third organization that I am coming across that has Jira  but teams are not fully utilizing Jira reports. Has any of you come across such behavior and would you please share some of the reasons why an organization would opt not to use Jira reporting.

[Derek Huether]

Brenda,
I've seen this happen countless times over the years. The most common cause has been that management uses the spreadsheet to create other reports and to try and control the narrative. You can't hide (but you also can't improve), when you're seeing a report that is an interpretation of status and progress, versus actual status and progress. 

The other main cause is management doesn't want to go into Jira to consume the information. In these cases, I ask where they would prefer to view it. Is it Confluence? Is it a reporting platform like Tableau or Power BI?

I hope sharing my experiences have been helpful.

Best,
Derek