Adding Jira Align users to Portfolios vs Programs

When you add users to Jira Align, do you just add them to the portfolio and then copy them to the program?  This article may make you think twice about that.

 

Did you know that not adding users to programs can restrict some unwanted behavior without controlling it via the system role? 

There may be instances where companies want to create hybrid roles because there may be some shared responsibility in data entry in the tool.  For example, some companies may want to give both their Product Managers and their Product Owners the capability to enter features.  However, they may want to restrict the ranking/prioritizing of the backlog only to the Product Manager.

Adding the a user to only the portfolio and not the program, restricts their ability to rank the backlog.  In addition to the example provided above, following this practice can also reduce the common mistake of users sorting by a column in the backlog and accidentally applying rank to the the column that was sorted.

Another restriction imposed is on the Program Board.  Only users that are added to a Program are able to move features on a Program Board.

As you can see, limiting the addition of users to the portfolio has its benefits.  When a user is added to the portfolio and not the program, they can still see all of the work within that portfolio and any programs and teams below it.

Now in cases where a company may want to restrict users to only see work associated with their program, adding a user to only the program would be the optimal choice.  In this instance, they can still see themes and epics that are tied to their program, just not everyone else's.

So taking a moment to think about this and putting this as an option to determine the best approach may be worth it.

2 comments

Richard Wilson _Jarow Digital_ January 11, 2020

Thanks Rae,  do you know if it is in the Jira Align roadmap to add issue security similar to what Jira offers now?

Rae Gibbs
Atlassian Team
Atlassian Team members are employees working across the company in a wide variety of roles.
January 13, 2020

Sorry, I don't know the answer to that one. 

Like Allan Maxwell likes this

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