Introducing Forecast by Feature with a Glimpse into What’s Next!

[#1]

Hiya, everyone! Jake here, Jira Align Product Manager. I want to update you on an exciting improvement to the overall planning experience in Jira Align.

Before diving into specifics, I want to talk about why this launch is important to Jira Align at large. At its core, Jira Align is a tool that enables enterprises to …

1. View all of their work across various teams at various altitudes;

2. Execute with more confidence and less risk;

3. Make better investment decisions during planning.

We have been investing in the top two areas with projects like our ongoing objective enhancements, improvements to Program Board performance, and of course, new navigation (are you excited for that, by the way? Because I know I am!). This current forecasting work, in addition to upcoming capacity enhancements, focuses on the third area.

We know that setting budgets and determining capacity is a moving target. And we know that different enterprises – and even different teams within one enterprise – are in different phases of their agile transformation, from not transformed to Optimus Prime. Countless times I’ve heard someone say, “I want to do that … but I don’t think we’re there quite yet.”

These enhancements intend to help you reach your destination quicker, regardless of where you’re at in your journey, and regardless of how well data is logged in Jira Align. We’re doing this by creating flexible experiences that give you more choices in how you control your budget, headcount, and project allocations. We’re doing this by making our features more intuitive and performant. And we’re doing this by providing you with stronger what-if analysis capabilities with enhanced insights that lead to better outcomes.

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What’s happening: a new forecasting feature!

As you may already know, we are launching forecast by feature, a longstanding customer request that will deliver new granularity to this powerful planning tool. Time and time again, we have heard that forecasting is done outside of Jira Align in error prone spreadsheets that do not connect nicely to your work items and teams in Jira Align.

But with this launch, which will hit sandboxes later tonight and production on June 23, 2023, you will be able to input estimates for features in Jira Align for the first time, which will help your teams set better, more accurate, and more granular expectations on the work that they plan to do.

Personally, I am stoked for this launch for many reasons, such as these, listed below:

• Like Natalia mentioned back in February, ensuring that our customers have a great experience with our products is our top priority. With this launch we are doing just that. Forecast by feature is a top five Jira Align customer request. But that’s not the only highly requested customer ask that is being addressed as part of this launch. In the forecast tab, we are also defaulting values to null rather than zero, which will help users differentiate between true zeroes and submissions that have not been entered yet. AND we are providing the capability to add multiple teams and programs to a feature, if desired. Enhancements abound.

• We have squashed nearly twenty bugs throughout this project, each of which will improve the overall forecasting experience.

• We have newly designed Atlassian-esque screens. Below I provide you with a sneak peek along with explanations:

With the new and improved forecast tab …

• You can easily toggle across program increments (1) for the selected work item;

• You can collapse (2) or expand (3) programs to see their associated active teams;

• You can edit or view the estimate for a work item for an entire program increment (4), or at the more granular program (6) or team (5) levels;

• And you can also simply sum team level estimates to the program level, and program level estimates to the program increment level using the sum (7) and sum all (8) buttons, respectively;

• And finally, you do not have to save, since saving is now done for you automatically

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What’s next: more capacity work

We are staying hyper focused on helping you make better investment decisions. In the upcoming quarters, we will launch an enhanced capacity feature that enables users to set, update, and review the capacity of their teams and programs by planning increment. This feature will help facilitate meaningful conversations across enterprises about work sequencing, prioritization, and resource allocation.

With the enhanced capacity feature, users will be able to source data from Jira Align, input data into the tool directly, or utilize default values that can be set at the portfolio level. Additionally, this feature will include a new field that enhances the accuracy of capacity planning, and will provide new insights, thereby making capacity management more actionable than ever before. Finally, and for the first time, portfolios that use points will have access to capacity management!

There will be more to come on this enhancement over the next couple of months. In the meantime, if you have any questions, thoughts, or feedback, please feel free to reach out, or to connect with your rep directly!

[kasi.v.ramanathan]

Excited about this change. I do have a question - Does Forecast from Feature (as it changes - Say Team updates Forecast at Feature level) reflects it into Epic Forecast? Or is it expected to be stand-alone information at different levels. 

[Donald Kemmerling]

@kasi.v.ramanathan from what I have read and talked to a few people about, the forecasting at the feature level will not automatically reflect in the epic forecast. The forecasting information is typically treated as stand-alone information at each level. This is my educated guess. I was hoping to get clarification too. 

[Jake Comito]

Hi, @kasi.v.ramanathan and @Donald Kemmerling ! That's correct. We did not introduce new screens that automatically roll up feature level forecasts into higher levels. 

I'd love to learn more about the use case behind the ask, if you are willing to share =] Feel free to DM me or add here. 

[praveena surapaneni]

Hello @Jake Comito - I am trying to explore capacity and forecast features of Jira Align and encountered the below issues. I am currently in RTE role for a train and my organization is on Jira Align version 10.128.3

1. I cannot access Capacity at Portfolio and Solution level

2. I cannot access Forecast Epic, Capabilities and Features or from Capacity at Program level

Also wondering if there is a Video for forecast feature I can explore. I was able to watch the capacity videos for Estimation in Points and member weeks. It was very helpful. 

Your help is greatly appreciated.