Benefits to using Jira for Effective Portfolio Management
There are several reasons why you would use Jira for portfolio management. Here are some of the key benefits of using Jira for portfolio management:
Centralized Management
Jira allows you to manage multiple projects and initiatives in one central location. This means that you can track progress and manage resources across your portfolio in a more efficient and effective way.
Customizable Fields and Workflows
Jira allows you to customize fields and workflows to match your portfolio management needs. Because of this, you can create custom fields to track strategic alignment, risk, and ROI for each project in your portfolio.
Advanced Roadmaps
Jira’s Advanced Roadmaps feature allows for easier roadmap planning and “what-if” scenario planning. With this feature, you are able to simulate the impact of changes to your roadmap and ensure that your portfolio is always aligned with your organization’s goals.
Collaboration
Jira allows you to collaborate with team members across your portfolio allowing you to assign team members to issues and communicate updates with them through Jira.
On top of this, you can set up notifications and alerts to keep team members informed of changes. Notifications and alerts can be customized to individual users so that the notifications and alerts make sense for them and to ensure that they are not bogged down with unnecessary information.
Reporting and Dashboards
Jira’s reporting and dashboard features allow you to visualize data and make informed decisions.
You can create custom reports to track progress, monitor risks, and analyze resource utilization across your portfolio.
Integration with Other Atlassian Tools
Jira integrates seamlessly with other Atlassian tools like Confluence and Bitbucket allowing for easier collaboration between teams and improved visibility into project progress.
Alongside other Atlassian tools, Jira is able to integrate with third-party tools that your organization uses.
Scalability
Jira is highly scalable and can handle large portfolios with many projects and initiatives. It can support teams of all sizes, from small startups to large enterprises.
It is extremely flexible and when implemented properly, can be used to scale with growing organizations.
The benefits listed above show how Jira is an effective portfolio planning and management tool. It provides a centralized and customizable platform for portfolio management that offers advanced roadmap planning, collaboration features, and reporting capabilities.
Its integration with other Atlassian tools and scalability make it an excellent choice for portfolio management, regardless of the size of your organization or portfolio.
Getting Started with Jira for Effective Portfolio Management
After reading about the benefits of using Jira as an effective portfolio management and planning tool, we’re hoping that you’re interested in getting started with using Jira for effective portfolio management.
Here’s an easy step by step process in order to use Jira for effective portfolio management and planning:
Define Your Portfolio
The first step in using Jira for portfolio planning and management is to define your portfolio.
Determine the scope and objectives of your portfolio and decide on the projects and initiatives that will be included in your portfolio and how they will be organized.
Create Projects
Create projects in Jira for the initiatives or projects that are part of your portfolio. You can create projects for software development, marketing campaigns, or any other type of project that is part of your portfolio.
When creating projects in Jira, think about how it will be used and whether or not it can be shared with other teams. If you’re creating projects for each individual initiative or team, Jira can slowly become bogged down with extra data and information.
Configure Jira
Configure Jira to align with your portfolio management approach. Customize fields and workflows to match your portfolio management needs. For example, you can create custom fields to track strategic alignment, risk, and ROI for each project in your portfolio.
When it comes to creating new fields and workflows, make sure that you are looking at them holistically to see whether or not existing fields/workflows can be used, or if the new fields can be re-used. Creating lots of new fields and workflows can start adding up to performance degradation.
Create a Portfolio Plan
Create a portfolio plan in Jira. The portfolio plan allows you to manage multiple projects and initiatives in one place. You can use the portfolio plan to set goals, track progress, and manage resources across your portfolio.
Add Issues to Your Portfolio Plan
Add issues from each project to your portfolio plan in Jira. Use the hierarchy levels to group issues and create a visual representation of your portfolio. You can use epics, initiatives, and themes as levels in your hierarchy.
Plan Releases
Plan releases for your portfolio by defining release dates, goals, and dependencies. Use the “what-if” scenario planning feature to simulate the impact of changes to your roadmap. You can also set up releases across multiple projects to ensure that they are aligned with your portfolio goals.
Monitor Progress
Use the scope view and capacity view in Jira to monitor the progress of your portfolio. Analyze the health of your portfolio and track resource utilization. You can use reports and dashboards to visualize data and make informed decisions.
Collaborate with Teams
Assign team members to issues and communicate updates with them through Jira. Use the built-in collaboration tools to work with teams across your portfolio. You can also set up notifications and alerts to keep team members informed of changes.
Use Reports and Dashboards
Use the reporting and dashboard features in Jira to visualize data and make informed decisions. Customize reports and dashboards to meet your portfolio management needs. You can create reports to track progress, monitor risks, and analyze resource utilization across your portfolio.
Portfolio Management Best Practices with Jira
When it comes to using Jira for portfolio management and planning, there are several best practices that can help organizations get the most out of this powerful tool. Here are some of the best practices for using Jira for portfolio management and planning:
Create a Portfolio Hierarchy
To manage a portfolio of projects effectively, it’s important to establish a hierarchy that clearly defines the relationship between projects and initiatives. This hierarchy can be based on factors such as strategic alignment, business unit, or product line.
Set Up Roadmap Planning
Jira’s Advanced Roadmaps feature allows for easier roadmap planning and “what-if” scenario planning. It’s important to use this feature to ensure that the portfolio is aligned with the organization’s goals, and to simulate the impact of changes to the roadmap.
Monitor Resource Utilization
It’s essential to monitor resource utilization across the portfolio to ensure that resources are being used effectively and efficiently. Jira’s reporting and dashboard features can help with this by providing real-time data on resource utilization.
Track Project Progress
Jira allows organizations to track project progress across their portfolio. It’s important to use Jira’s reporting and dashboard features to monitor progress, identify issues and risks, and take corrective action when necessary.
Communicate Updates with Team Members
Jira’s collaboration features allow team members to be assigned to issues and to communicate updates with each other. It’s important to use these features to ensure that everyone is on the same page and that progress is being communicated effectively.
Use Custom Fields and Workflows
Jira allows organizations to customize fields and workflows to match their portfolio management needs. It’s important to use this feature to track strategic alignment, risk, and ROI for each project in the portfolio.
Use Jira Align
For larger portfolios, Jira Align is an advanced tool that can help organizations manage their portfolios more effectively. It offers a range of features and capabilities that can help organizations manage their portfolio more efficiently.
By following these best practices, organizations can get the most out of Jira for portfolio management and planning. Jira provides a centralized and customizable platform that offers advanced roadmap planning, collaboration features, and reporting capabilities. By using Jira to manage their portfolio, organizations can improve their ability to track progress, monitor risks, and analyze resource utilization across their portfolio, resulting in greater success in their portfolio management efforts.
Advanced Jira Features for Effective Portfolio Management and Planning
If your organization is on Jira Software Premium or Enterprise, you have access to Jira Advanced Roadmaps , an excellent tool embedded in Jira for project/program/portfolio planning.
If this is something that you have available to you, below are some steps to using Jira Advanced Roadmaps for effective portfolio management and planning.
Create a plan
To create a plan, go to the “Plans” tab in Jira and click “Create plan”. Select the projects you want to include in your portfolio and specify the timeframe for your plan.
Define hierarchy levels
You can create a hierarchy of levels to group issues and visualize them on your roadmap. For example, you might have epics, initiatives, and themes as levels in your hierarchy. You can also add custom fields to your hierarchy levels to track additional information.
Add issues to your plan
Once you have defined your hierarchy, you can add issues to your plan. You can use JQL queries to select issues based on specific criteria, or drag and drop issues from the backlog or board view.
Plan releases
Jira Advanced Roadmaps allows you to plan and manage releases across multiple projects. You can define release dates, set release goals, and track progress. You can also use the “what-if” scenario planning feature to simulate the impact of changes to your roadmap.
Monitor progress
You can monitor the progress of your portfolio by using the scope view to track the status of your issues and the capacity view to track resource utilization. You can also use reports and dashboards to visualize portfolio data and make informed decisions.
Collaborate with teams
Jira Advanced Roadmaps allows you to collaborate with teams by assigning team members to issues, tracking progress, and communicating updates. You can also set up notifications and alerts to keep team members informed of changes.
Conclusion
Jira is a powerful tool for portfolio management and planning, providing a range of features and capabilities that can help organizations manage their portfolio more effectively. By using Jira for portfolio management, organizations can centralize their portfolio management, customize fields and workflows, create roadmaps, collaborate more effectively, and improve reporting and dashboards. With the right setup and best practices, Jira can help organizations achieve greater success in their portfolio management efforts.
If you need help with using Jira for effective portfolio management and planning, contact us for a free consultation.
