Why is the version report gadget being retired?

[Derek Campbell]

The most useful indicator on my dashboards is the version report gadget.  In one graphic it shows all stakeholders the progress towards the committed features in the next version.  It motivates developers as they can see the progress towards their medium term goals.

Today Jira Software Cloud is showing the message "The Version Report gadget will be retired soon on Dashboards. You can still access your Version Report by navigating to the Reports feature inside your Project."

Why is this very useful feature being retired?  There is no similar gadget for epics, so that isn't an option.  There is not even a gadget for providing links to reports, so I have to educate stakeholders on how to navigate to a project and its reports.  This seems a big backward step for the usefulness of dashboards.

[Derek Campbell · Accepted solution]

Unfortunately the Version Report gadget has now gone.  I switched to using the Issue Statistics gadget with Statistic Type set to Status.  It does not tell such a good story, but it is the best available.

I am disappointed that I never did receive an answer as to why, although I assume it was because the gadget was resource-intensive.  Even if the retirement decision was never to be changed, it would have been nice to add more information to the retirement notice about what alternatives were recommended.  It is also disappointing that you cannot add a link to a dashboard, so that you could link to the full Version Report.

[Thomas Robbs]

Sadly, based on my experience, Atlassian customer service / product management responsiveness is sorely lacking unless you are a big customer of theirs.  They undervalue this community.

I appreciate you logging your comments here though, as it gives others a chance to find an answer to "where did the Version Report gadget go?" question, like I did today.  It's one of the most common gadgets that I would use for stakeholders to have a dashboard to give them a good overview of where the project is at and it has been nagging at me these past few weeks as to why I can't find it any more.

I'd further state that Atlassian has been big on trying to improve the usability of Jira, but completely missed the negative impact that removing such a gadget has on the usability.  No stakeholder I've worked with spends their time in Jira on a daily basis, but yet everyone of them would bookmark a dashboard or look at a dashboard on a screen mounted around the work area.  So this just leaves stakeholders with no recourse because they certainly won't be spending time navigating to a version report, and bookmarking one only gives them a slice of what they had on the dashboard before.

The main response I've received from stakeholders is - "That sucks.  Is there a tool that is better than Jira that can give us this information like we had it before?"  That doesn't bode well for Atlassian, given these are the same people that influence tool purchasing decisions.

[jeroen_wilmes]

Is there any chance that Atlassian is going to bring back this feature?  I fully agree with Derek e.a.  This is one of the most valuable gadgets. Hopefully a mistake that can be repaired.

[Grant Adkins]

Would also love to know why this is being removed. We use dashboards for high level update meetings regarding product development and the version report gadget is provides vital information. Having to click through to a report in a Jira project defeats the point of a dashboard. 

[evangelopanagi]

So you CAN link/add the Version Report in Confluence and use a Confluence Page to report against the Version Report. 

@Derek Campbell - agreed, this was a lovely little gadget I used often, I'd love to know the WHY Atlassian are removing this too. 

@atlassian-qe ??

[Andriy Tatchyn]

The version report was an essential feature for our firm. And we run 18 projects simultaneously. Removing it was very much of a surprise to me? Does anyone know what other tools can offer a similar report?

P.S.
Changing an interface of a fey tool every quarter does not make it better at all.

[Derek Campbell]

Hi Andriy, the version report is still there.  It is only the version report dashboard gadget that is gone.

[Peter Yoon]

The Version Report will still be available under Reports. If you are using a Kanban board, simply create a Sprint board and you will be able to see the Version Report in the Sprint board's Reports even if you aren't using the Sprint board.

[Derek Campbell]

Thanks Peter.  I am already using Sprint boards and access to the Version Report is not the problem.

The problem is that the Version Report Gadget will not be available for dashboards.  The whole purpose of dashboards is to make it easy to communicate progress to stakeholders without requiring them to navigate around Jira.  You can't even link to the Version Report directly from a dashboard!  I am not aware of Atlassian's rationale for removing this very useful gadget.

[Peter Yoon]

The whole purpose of dashboards is to make it easy to communicate progress to stakeholders without requiring them to navigate around Jira.

Sounds like a pain point. Sorry to hear that. The only workaround I can think of is linking the stakeholder to the report. But yeah, this might complicate their experience since they'll now have a lot of features and options in front of them.

[Ricardo Dalge]

For some reason that I am not aware of I cannot see the Version Report under reports. Not only the gadget, but the report is note here which makes my life quite more difficult. 

I am working in Sprint Mode and it is available the Velocity Chart and Burndown chart but not version.

Any ideias?

Best regards,

[Ricardo Dalge]

I got it! I am in a team-managed project and the report is only available in company-managed project type.

This makes no sense at all once I could monitor the version progress through the Version Gadget that was retired.

Anyway, leave here my contribution and my feedback to review this retirement. Back to excel.

[Amie Walton]

I am also in a team-managed and would like to know when the version report will be available?

[elizabeth_jones]

I now use Advanced Roadmaps to track and share progress to versions. Is this an option for you?

[Derek Campbell]

Thanks for the suggestion Elizabeth.  I can see from the Advanced Roadmaps documentation that people can visually see progress towards a release.

The version report gadget shows a lot more than a Gantt bar because it is two dimensional.  It tells a story about scope change, velocity, disruptions, etc.  I like the transparency that brings.

I think Advanced Roadmaps would double the cost of our Jira licence and give stakeholders less clarity.

[Yevgeniy Pinchuk]

I just wish Atlassian created a better product in Advanced Roadmaps to drive adoption and not remove key functionality to drive people that way