What is Jira Align?

Jira Align

What is Jira Align?

Jira Align is an Atlassian product that is an agile planning tool for implementing scaled agile and assists in the necessary business digital transformation. It is a browser-based cloud service that links team processes in real time with the broader context of the entire company plan.

Jira Align is a tool for agile enterprise planning that integrates work with multiple programs, products, and portfolio management at scale. It links and unifies all the data to receive timely, accurate information throughout your company.

It was previously called AgileCraft, but once Atlassian purchased it in 2019, It was renamed JIRA Align.

What is Jira Align

What is Enterprise Agility?Why is it essential to my organization?

The term “Enterprise Agility” refers to the ability of an organization to quickly respond to changes in the marketplace. Successful agile transitions can improve customer happiness, reduce operational costs, and increase staff engagement. Smaller cross-functional teams and quicker iterative development cycles are hallmarks of enterprise agility.

At the enterprise level, agile activities are guided by business metrics. It also provides many benefits to organizations working on a large scale.

Enterprise Agility

Here are some of the values enterprise agilities can provide your business with:

  • Departments successfully interact with one another because they use a common language and have similar goals and intentions.
  • Teams and team members can do their job without waiting for assistance from other tasks, teammates, partners, or supplies.
  • Cross-functional teams can collaborate, pool resources & abilities, and finish cross-departmental projects with little managerial guidance.
  • Each team member is independent, and the organization distributes authority equally.
  • The company promotes the use of innovative approaches to address developing demands.
  • Management reacts swiftly to new problems and market developments.
  • The company employs robust, standardized procedures focused on long-term corporate goals.

JIRA Align Features

The features of Jira Align are divided into several layers that examine the organization from various angles. Thus, the platform offers development teams, managers, and executives customized tool sets at each stage.

JIRA Align Features

Here, essential components used for project-people, tasks, and time are developed as independent hierarchies that span the company.

Customize bar: Jira Align’s whole language may also be modified to suit your company’s requirements. So the platform adjusts to your requirements.

Customize Bar

Program Board: Your Company’s overall strategy may be defined and documented using Jira Align’s Enterprise level. Executives can track Execution against Outcomes and Snapshot Progress in the same sections where they can also define the organization’s mission, vision, and core values.

You can track how work is moving on your strategic objectives and plans by incorporating Jira task tracking into the system. Near-real-time updates are made to executive reports.

Program Board

OKR Heatmap: Is a highly useful Heatmap tool for summarizing progress toward goals and objectives is the OKR Heatmap. This is followed by the OKR Tree, which shows how objectives may be divided into strategic, portfolio, program, and team levels.

OKR Heatmap

Strategic Backlog: A strategic backlog is another tool in the organizational toolbox that makes it easier to develop, update, and prioritize strategy points. This platform makes it possible to link goals and invest in ideas. Because of this, the connection between the activities and the strategic goals to which they contribute is still evident.

Strategic Backlog

Roadmap: When managers modify the backlog, the project roadmap updates instantly and may be adjusted to meet requirements.

A roadmap summarizes the development of the program. The connections and grouping of jobs within a particular project iteration are displayed in road maps. Then, this design may be changed and tailored to fit the project’s needs.

Roadmap

You can use the Roadmap for scenario planning by separating the instance. You may then change the Roadmap under complete control without affecting the live version.

Dependency Maps: Jira Align also offers Dependency Maps, which record explicit, accepted commitments and guarantee on-time completion of projects. The Dependency Maps show which teams requested a given dependency, which teams rely on it, and the current status of the work.

Dependency Maps

Wheel map: Dependencies are shown using the Wheel Map in real time. Dependencies begin as red connectors and change to blue connectors after an agreement has been reached. You can quickly understand the bigger picture by using a wheel map. It allows you to view all the incoming and outgoing relationships to any element by selecting it.

Dependency matrix grid view: The Dependency Matrix grid view, however, can reveal problems that could affect work further down the line, such as several dependencies pointing to a single team that could cause cascading problems in the future.

Dependency Matrix Grid View

Portfolio Strategy Management: Jira Align offers top-down alignment by using Strategic Snapshots to show how the business operates.

What is Jira Align used for?

Here are important applications of JIRA alignment:

  • Jira Align acts as a platform that unifies team-level and portfolio management technologies.
  • The firm benefits from increased visibility, alignment, and traceability.
  • It ensures that work and planning align with a long-term strategy. Doing this can enhances collaboration and enterprise transformation throughout the whole organization.
  • It helps managers to ensure that teams function cooperatively and that resources are appropriately allocated by placing projects and activities in their larger strategic contexts.

Who uses Jira Align?

Every level of the business can benefit significantly from Jira Align. Usually, it is employed by:

  • Companies using a scaled Agile framework, such as SAFe®, DAD, Scrum@Scale, LeSS, Spotify, etc.
  • Executive teams to tie strategic objectives and goals down to the team level.
  • Program managers monitor feature-level roadmaps, vulnerabilities, and dependencies.
  • Organizations that employ distinct business divisions’ installations of Jira.

Who uses Jira Align

JIRA Align frameworks

For many different agile frameworks, JIRA Align offers incredibly versatile support. It is one of the few bug-tracking tool products to adopt any scalable framework, whether standard or hybrid.

The following frameworks are among those that Jira Align supports:

  • SAFe: The Scaled Agile Framework is the most popular and has already assisted several international businesses in finding success with agile.
  • DaD: Disciplined Agile is a hybrid Agile technique that puts your people above everything else and is expected to be used throughout the lifespan of your project.
  • Scrum at Scale: Scrum@Scale builds on the Scrum framework. Companies that have previously found success with Scrum at the team level are more likely to employ it.
  • Spotify: The Spotify Framework is an autonomous, employee-centric business strategy focusing on networks and culture.
  • Custom and Hybrid frameworks: These adaptable options can constantly be changed to reflect leading practice techniques.

What is differences between JIRA and JIRA Align?

Many small size organizations use Jira. But companies will need to switch to Jira Align as their size grow. Here are some major differences between Jira and Jira Align:

Jira Jira Align
Jira supports small-size teams. Jira Align support teams of 500+ members.
As mentioned above, Jira is not powerful. Jira Align is a powerful tool and provides a business with enterprise agility.
It is a tool for project and task management. Project and task management aren’t supported well by Jira Align.
Jira includes bug tracking, customer service, creating new products, and more. Jira align is the best tool for a business looking towards agility.

What size organizations are the best fit for Jira Align?

All corporate businesses that seek to quicken their growth trajectory must adapt to changes. In this case, Jira Align could be beneficial. Jira Align is an ideal match for a business if team, project, and portfolio management coordination are key business objectives.

It is also favorable for a business if it works with the leadership to synchronize reporting and tool usage across several agile teams (50+).

Conclusion

  • Jira Align does exactly what its name implies: keeping teams in sync and aligning work-in-progress with business OKRs and the overall organizational plan.
  • Jira Align is one of the most popular Enterprise Agile planning platforms due to its numerous features.
  • With the knowledge of the requirement for business agility, support for hybrid scaling models, and enterprise-grade security and data governance, it has a solid grasp of the industry.
  • JIRA Align is unquestionably a product not to be overlooked if you are heading toward Enterprise Agility because it is a leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant.