[Jira Align], [Enterprise Teams], [Scaling Agile]
Greetings, Jira Align enthusiasts!
Embarking on a road trip from Los Angeles to New York without checking the oil level and route? That's a MUST for me to recommend a detour to "New Way" instead of the iconic New York!
Let's not tread down that path. In the pursuit of a seamless journey, the importance of preparation cannot be overstated. Similarly, in the world of agile product portfolio management, entering the realm of forecasting and capacity management in Jira Align with a realistic understanding is setting off on a cross-country drive by ensuring your vehicle is ready.
A Road Trip of Strategic Forecasting and Capacity Management in Jira Align
Imagine embarking on a road trip through the agile landscape with Jira Align as your trusty GPS. Much like setting out on a cross-country drive, success lies in strategic forecasting and effective capacity management. Fasten your seatbelt, and let's navigate this journey together.
Pit Stops for Effective Forecasting
Before revving up the agile engine, it's essential to ensure a smooth ride by checking these prerequisites:
A Well-Tuned Car: Ensure your vehicle, representing a solid foundation in Jira Align, is well-tuned for the agile road.
Mileage Accumulated: Cover 3-4 Program Increments (PIs), setting out on your agile journey with launched Agile Release Trains (ARTs).
Steady Driving Conditions: Similar to steady team dynamics, aim for stable driving conditions with consistent execution, team composition, and velocity.
In the agile driving world, velocity and capacity are like fuel and engine performance, interconnected and essential for a successful journey.
Chapter One: Planning the Route with Portfolio Epics
As the driver of this agile car, take the wheel and plan your route using Portfolio Epics. Imagine the Forecast Tab as your dashboard, guiding you through the following steps:
1. Plan: Navigate to the Epic Detail panel, the heart of your agile vehicle. Input estimates in Member Weeks, and watch as the PI Estimate helps you out the past performance.
2. Check: As you add and forecast Epics, your Epic backlog is your road. Visualize the load on your journey by selecting the Kanban column Value Stream view. Check if your agile car is loaded appropriately against the backdrop of total past program velocity.
3. Tweak: For a more precise journey, step into any Program 'Forecast' view, a pit stop accessible through Program → Forecast. Here, fine-tune your route at the team or program level, handling scenarios, reserving team capacity for specific Epics, and observing the direct impact on your team's capacity.
Chapter Two: Hitting the Agile Highway
Whether it's the Agile by Program or the Agile by Team, navigating the agile highway becomes a symphony:
Reserve: Reserve program capacity to specific Portfolio Epics, much like marking waypoints on your road trip map.
Allocate: Allocate team capacity across Portfolio Epics, ensuring each team member contributes their expertise to the journey.
Jira Align, your GPS, orchestrates automatic calculations, considering echoes of past team capacity and adjusting as allocations are made.
A Harmonious Drive: "Capacity meets forecasting"
In the grand finale, Jira Align's forecasting and planning emerge as a powerful GPS, sculpting high-level strategic plans, orchestrating the efficient allocation of team capacity, and crafting the optimal distribution of Portfolio Epics across planning cycles. This agile road trip unfolds, guided by the winds of team velocity and the tides of capacity, offering organizations a reliable GPS for strategic agility and effective capacity management.
Let's explore the narrative "Capacity meets forecasting" that unfolds within the innovative landscape of Jira Align. Effective planning extends beyond what teams aspire to achieve; it hinges on understanding what they can realistically accomplish.
The spotlight then turns to the much-anticipated capacity launch, a feature designed to provide end-to-end quarterly planning support. As we delve into its core functionality, capacity empowers users to determine teams' available capacity, seamlessly rolling it up to program, solution, and portfolio levels. The beauty lies in its ability to compare this capacity to forecasted work, providing a panoramic view of whether teams operate under, over, or precisely at capacity.
The Power of Capacity: A Spreadsheet-Like Journey
Now, let's imagine a spreadsheet-like experience, structured yet flexible, where users can effortlessly update variables influencing available capacity. This familiarity ensures quick adoption, with automatic updates rippling across all connected information.
The capacity feature, designed for simplicity, streamlines the planning process by removing complexities like creating multiple buffers per team and shifts the focus to determining overall team capacity.
Optionality: Interconnectivity at Its Best
What sets Jira Align's capacity feature apart is its optionality and interconnectivity. Users can supplement their planning with data from different parts of Jira Align, ensuring accuracy and efficiency.
Bulk Actions: Efficiency at Scale
Bulk actions further elevate efficiency, allowing users to apply data across hundreds of teams with a single click.
Aggregations: Summarizing Success Rate
The 'plan summary' section offers aggregated insights, providing quick summaries on teams, points achievable per sprint, and total available capacity for the planning increment.
The forecast versus capacity bar emerges as a guiding light. This visual representation, soon to permeate other parts of Jira Align, serves as the ultimate checkpoint. It harmoniously combines forecasted work and available capacity, indicating if teams are under, over, or precisely at capacity. In the grand story arc of "Capacity meets forecasting," Jira Align unveils a seamless integration of planning elements, offering users a holistic perspective on their agile journey.
The journey continues, and the agile highway awaits exploration.
Thanks for reading. I would be happy to see you in the comments. That will improve GPS continuously.
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Credit: Images powered by Atlassian Jira Align and DALL-E