Section 1: Preparing for Jira Align
In this section, you will be introduced to Jira Align and will learn the characteristics of an organization that can benefit from implementing Jira Align. It then shows how to implement the solution by mapping the people, work, time and outcomes. Finally, it shows how to navigate Jira Align and facilitate onboarding and collaboration.
This section comprises of the following chapters:
- Chapter 1, Introducing Jira Align
- Chapter 2, Implementing Jira Align
- Chapter 3, Navigating Jira Align
Chapter 1: Introducing Jira Align
This chapter provides an introduction to Jira Align. You will learn about the past and present of Jira Align and the company that brought it to the market. This chapter also covers the types of organizations that can benefit the most from implementing Jira Align and the key factors for success. Lastly, you will learn how Jira Align supports organizations in using a scaling agile framework.
We will cover the following topics:
- Connecting with Jira Align
- The ideal candidate for Jira Align
- Assembling the Jira Align Core Team
- Selecting a framework
- Working with an Atlassian Solution Partner
Connecting with Jira Align
Jira Align is a product whose time has come. Its story begins with agile frameworks created in the 1990s for development teams to deliver quality products early and often. When leaders of these frameworks met in Snowbird, Utah, to formulate the Agile Manifesto in 2001, team-level execution was still the focus. But the world has grown more complex in the two decades since, with the need for diverse sectors such as banking, automotive, and government to embrace digital transformation. As organizations struggle to create ever larger and more complex systems and even systems of systems (such as aerospace and military applications), the need to coordinate the delivery of numerous agile teams has grown more pressing.
In 2007, entrepreneur and technology executive Steve Elliott teamed up with a talented engineer to answer this challenge by creating what would become AgileCraft and later Jira Align – a way to break down the barriers between product management, project management, and engineering to coordinate and deliver complex product development efforts. As the tool was taking shape, a new type of agile framework was emerging, one that harnessed the power of successful agile team delivery and scaled it both upward to teams within teams and ultimately the enterprise, and outward to parts of the organization not traditionally associated with agile.
AgileCraft has had a close working relationship with the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), the leading framework for agile at scale, since SAFe was launched in 2011. After 7 years of rigorous, real-life testing during his tenure as a technology executive, Steve left his day job and launched AgileCraft in 2013 to help companies achieve enterprise agility at start-up speed. By 2015, AgileCraft was named a Scaled Agile Gold Partner and Gartner Cool Vendor.
In 2016, Team AgileCraft scored its first Fortune 10 client, AT&T, which adopted it as a companywide standard in 2017 after delivering its mobile TV product using the platform. In 2018, Gartner named AgileCraft a visionary in the Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Agile Planning (EAP) Tools. In 2019, Gartner named it a leader and Atlassian acquired AgileCraft. Today, known as Jira Align, it is still a leader, if not the leader. Moreover, the product is continuously improving, with new features and enhancements released every 2 weeks.
The ideal candidate for Jira Align
Jira Align is not for every organization. It is vast in breadth and depth, built from the ground up as an agile-first platform, unlike competitors that attempt to transform waterfall project portfolio management (PPM) solutions into EAP tools. Much as SAFe builds upon team-level agile delivery and scales it to the program, solution, portfolio, and enterprise levels, Jira Align too works in concert with the top team-level agile tool, Jira Software, extending it to all levels of scale. It natively supports a variety of frameworks and approaches beyond SAFe, including Disciplined Agile Delivery (DAD), Large-Scale Scrum (LeSS), Scrum@Scale, Spotify, Lean Startup, custom frameworks, and any combination of these. It is therefore geared toward larger organizations that have or seek a more formal approach to agile at scale.
The ideal candidate for a successful Jira Align implementation meets the seven qualifications listed here:
- 500+ developers using Jira Software: Functionally, Jira Align can support hundreds to thousands of users across all levels of an organization. The quantity of developers using Jira Software is often a good indication of whether an organization's size is well suited for Jira Align. If you have 500 or more developers using Jira Software, then Jira Align may be worth your investment. For fewer than 500 developers, Jira Software alone or in combination with Atlassian Marketplace apps may suffice.
- Following an agile scaling framework: There are two rules of thumb that apply when selecting a tool to support agile at scale. The first is that you cannot scale the unscalable. The second is that any tool is only as good as the underlying data, organizational structures, and agile practices that it visualizes and supports. Therefore, having a formal practice around agile at scale is often a leading indicator of successful outcomes with Jira Align. See the Selecting a framework section later for more information.
- Has executed two or more quarterly planning events: Quarterly planning and execution focused on the highest-ranking features in the product backlog have become standard practice among companies engaged in agile delivery. The Program Board is one of the key pieces of functionality in Jira Align used to support this practice. But it's best to have practical experience of a methodology before applying a tool to it, especially one that is so feature-rich it could be overwhelming at first. Therefore, it's sensible to have at least two quarterly planning increments under your belt before introducing Jira Align.
- Has an established team agile practice for at least 6 months: Successful agile delivery at the team level is a prerequisite to scaling with frameworks and tools. Just as you would not scale buggy code, you would not want to scale suboptimal product delivery methods. A good way to gauge the effectiveness of your teams is to review the 12 principles behind the Agile Manifesto. If your teams are regularly enacting at least 7 or 8 out of 12, such as satisfying the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable product features (Principle 1), then they've achieved a high degree of agility. Your organization can then build upon this foundation by scaling it to achieve goals such as the following:
- Each program has 5–12 teams: Whether you call it a program, agile release train (ART), tribe, or something else, the team of teams construct has proven successful for delivering higher quality products faster to market. There are two important considerations when structuring these groups of teams.
The first is that each group of teams should be able to deliver product features independently, on cadence (typically quarterly), with minimal dependencies on other groups. The second is that each group should comprise 50–125 individuals (5–12 agile teams) due to the inherent limitations on cohesion in larger groups observed by anthropologist Robin Dunbar in the 1990s.
- Executive sponsorship for the agile at scale transformation: Agile at scale, and the tools to support it, needs buy-in from executives. This is not merely a matter of funding, but one of embracing and leading the change. This requires openness and commitment to shifting the internal culture. According to the 13th annual State of Agile survey, the top three impediments to successful transformations are culture-related:
- Organizational culture at odds with agile values
- General organization resistance to change
- Inadequate management support and sponsorship
These 3 remain in the top 5 of the 14th annual State of Agile survey, published in May 2020. Additionally, a new impediment reached the top 5 in that report: Not enough leadership participation. This speaks to the importance of leaders embracing the agile mindset, first by learning it themselves, then by walking the talk – advocating the principles, exhibiting the practices, and coaching others. Start small with a few showcase programs, generate short-term wins, then consolidate gains and produce more wins. John Kotter, author of Leading Change, has shown that this is the way to anchor new approaches in the culture. When teams experience wins, their energy shifts. They move from merely doing agile toward being agile.
- Center of Excellence (CoE) or governing body in place for agile practice, with funding: The CoE is a team dedicated to implementing and supporting the agile transformation. It is a key differentiator separating companies who are agile in name only from those who are achieving the best outcomes. Functions of the CoE include training staff in the new methods, sourcing specialized roles such as product owner (PO) and scrum master (SM), and the all-important practice of coaching.
For three years in a row, 2017–2019, respondents surveyed for the annual State of Agile report designated Internal Agile Coaches as the top ...
