The Atlassian Jira Align team is pleased to announce Jira Align v.10.100. Please note that the 10.100.0 feature release will not be deployed, as our developers work to resolve critical defects found in the build. As a result, the feature release for 10.100 is currently planned for version 10.100.1.

Environments on the continuous release track will remain on version 10.99.3 until September 17, 2021, when we plan to deploy version 10.100.1. Please look forward to future updates on this page.

• Enhancements and Features
• Defect Fixes

Enhancements and Features

These features for 10.100 were released to environments on the continuous release track on September 17, 2021, in version 10.100.1. The features will then be released to environments on the bundled release track on September 24, 2021, in version 10.00.2.

New objective statuses

We’ve added three new statuses to objective tracking in Jira Align. These statuses provide more nuance to the status of objectives than our current option (In Progress) allows. The new statuses are:

• On Track: Indicates that an objective is likely to reach its desired outcomes.

• At Risk: Indicates that an objective has uncertainty around reaching its desired outcomes. For example, work needed to complete the objective may be behind schedule, or risks might pose a future threat to completion.

• Off Track: Indicates that an objective is unlikely to reach its desired outcomes if action is not taken.

The new statuses are now available in the Jira Align UI, and will not change any existing status values. API users should also note that the status endpoint will include the new statuses, and no statuses will be removed or changed for this release.

We strongly recommend that you review your in-progress objectives and update any objectives that are at risk or off track before version 10.102 releases, as the In Progress status on objectives will be migrated to On Track in that release.

Improved loading behavior on Capability Backlog

As part of resolving JIRAALIGN-1730 and other related issues, we’ve improved the performance of the Capability Backlog page when using the Kanban > State View display. These improvements allow organizations to use backlogs that contain large amounts of capabilities, without encountering freezing or lagging behavior.

Columns inside the view now load 20 cards at a time while scrolling, similar to other backlog views. You can see how many total capabilities are in a column using the numbered icon at the top.

Click to play animation

When you move a capability to another column, the card will initially display at the top. This ensures the card is not lost in a large list after a move. We’ve added a warning message to the top of the page that clarifies this behavior.

After refreshing the page, the newly-moved card will be ranked according to the ranking chosen via your Configuration bar. We plan on bringing these performance improvements to other work items that use the Kanban > State View option in the future.

Additionally, we also updated the Move Program Increment menu options that display after right-clicking on a card. Now, the list of available program increments will be aligned with the choices available from the capability’s Details panel.

Retirement of Kano fields and reports

We’ve removed three legacy fields from capabilities and epics to better streamline filed choices and due to low usage. The following fields are no longer available on epic and capability Details panels and pages:

• Kano Category

• Kano Certainty

• Kano Complexity

Additionally, three seldom-used reports focused on these fields were also removed:

• Velocity by Certainty

• Velocity by Complexity

• Epic Analytics

API 2.0 access for all

By default, all instances now have access to API 2.0. Prior to this update, new instances would need to contact our support team to enable access. Also, the Enable API Token Access setting found at Administration > Platform > Security has been removed, and all users now have the ability to generate API 2.0 tokens from their user profiles.

Important: API 2.0 changes (previously mentioned in 10.99 release notes)

In an effort to match property names with the Align UI and standardize property naming conventions, we changed the properties listed below. We understand that these changes impact existing integrations, but believe the changes will significantly improve the usability of the API. We’re delivering all necessary changes to an object in a single release (e.g. all changes to the Epic API will be in this release), and we expect to complete the work for all objects within the next two to three releases.

Programs

• isParent changed to isSolution
• categoryId changed to intakeFormId
• customFieldSetId changed to caseDevelopmentId
• lastUpdatedDate was added

Portfolios

• organizationId changed to divisionId
• categoryId changed to intakeFormId
• customFieldSetId changed to caseDevelopmentId
• lastUpdatedDate was added

Customers

• parentCompany was removed
• lastUpdatedDate was added

Ideas

• external changed to isExternal
• public changed to isPublic
• lastUpdatedDate was added

Milestones / Objectives

• blocked changed to isBlocked
• targetDate changed to targetCompletionDate
• startDate changed to startInitiationDate
• estimateDate changed to portfolioAskDate
• yearlyGoal changed to goalId

Key Results

• createdDate changed to createDate
• owner changed to ownerId
• scoreOveridden changed to isScoreOveridden, data types changed from boolean to integer
• lastUpdatedDate was added

Goals

• createdDate changed to createDate
• organizationId changed to divisionId
• lastUpdatedDate was added

Warning icon and message when splitting synced stories

When investigating reports of tasks not being moved correctly after splitting a story, we discovered that the API that enables the Jira connector does not currently support the reassignment of sub-tasks. To clarify this limitation, we’ve added a warning icon and message to the split story panel when a story synced to Jira is detected.

After splitting a synced story in Jira Align, you can log into your Jira project and move the desired sub-tasks to the new split story to complete this action. If you’d like Jira development to consider supporting these changes through the connector in the future, please add your votes to the existing feature requests for cloud and server.

Sprint Metrics performance improvements

While investigating a related defect, we were able to identify opportunities to improve the performance of the Sprint Metrics report. We’ve implemented those changes, and load times when accessing the report have been reduced significantly. Also, we were able to add logic that will cause the page to display a timeout error if the report cannot render data, instead of appearing to indefinitely load. We plan to work on more improvements to the report’s performance in the future. If you encounter a timeout error when accessing the page, please open a support request so that we can look into the cause.

Defect Fixes

The list of defect fixes will be updated to reflect changes in weekly maintenance releases. You can see the contents of individual maintenance releases in the Supplemental Release Notes section.

The Atlassian Jira Align team is pleased to announce Jira Align v.10.99. Please note that the 10.99.0 feature release was not deployed, as our developers worked to resolve critical defects found in the build. As a result, the feature release for 10.99 is version 10.99.1.

Environments on the continuous release track will remain on version 10.98.3 until August 20, 2021, when we plan to deploy version 10.99.1 to the continuous release track.

• Enhancements and Features
• Defect Fixes

Enhancements and Features

These features for 10.99 were released to environments on the continuous release track on August 20, 2021, in version 10.99.1. The features will then be released to environments on the bundled release track on August 27, 2021, in version 10.99.2:

Move child work items to the parking lot

To more easily align work items that are in the parking lot, we've added the option to push child work items along with their parents from the Epic and Capability backlogs.

 In the Epic backlog, when you move an epic to the parking lot, you can now choose to move all of its child capabilities and features to their respective parking lots at the same time.

Similarly, in the Capability backlog, when you move a capability to the parking lot, you can now choose to move all of its child features to the parking lot at the same time.

Updates to Process Flows

We’ve made a few updates to process flow fields:

• Developmental Step was renamed to Process Step, and was moved underneath the State field on Details panels for themes, epics, capabilities, features, and stories.
• Four previously disabled fields were removed:
  • Triggers
  • Inputs
  • Outputs
  • Includes

Updates to Planned vs Earned Velocity report

As part of correcting issues reported in JIRAALIGN-1307, we’ve made a few changes on the Planned vs Earned Velocity report to clarify how values are calculated:

• Average team velocity label renamed to Past 5 sprints velocity.
• Banner added to the top of the page, stating that velocity is calculated by looking at the 5 sprints prior to what is selected in the Sprint dropdown.

Disabling Team/Member Week Budget fields on epics and capabilities

To prepare for future retirement, we’ve disabled entry on the Estimation Budget fields inside of epics and capabilities.

These fields display as Team Week Budget or Member Week Budget in Details panels, depending on your portfolio settings.

Existing entries made in these fields will be retained until the fields are retired. We plan to retire and remove the fields in approximately three months.

Removal of multi-estimation fields from epics and features

On Details panels for epics and features, the legacy multi-estimation field has been removed. You may continue using the standard estimate fields found on the main tab of Details panels to estimate these work items.

Removal of Forecast modal from the Forecast page, accessed by clicking the highlighted PI Estimate/Allocated columns

To simplify the workflow for forecasting effort, we have removed the estimation modal from the forecast page. Now, forecasting effort can be done only from the Forecast tab on the work item or within the table of cells on the forecast page.

Announcement types and rich text support

New announcement types were added so that you can create one-time announcements (will only display once to each user) and ongoing announcements (will display until they expire). We also added a new rich text editor so text can be formatted, lists can be added, and external pages can be hyperlinked.

The modal shown on login will display the ongoing announcements at the top, followed by the one-time announcements. When a user clicks continue, the modal will be dismissed and the one-time announcement will not be shown to that user again.

The previous announcement types were removed as they were labels only - no functionality was tied to the different types.

When creating announcements, you’ll see an option to select one-time vs ongoing and the new rich text editor. Once created, you’ll see the announcements in the appropriate table with a type column. Instead of displaying the full text in the table, there is now a preview link to view the announcement.

New system role toggles to manage solution objectives

As part of a defect fix to allow the Solution Objectives option to display in the Configuration bar, we've added new system role permissions to add, save, and delete solution objectives. You can find the new toggles under Solution >  Manage > Solution Objectives.

Feature flag to hide global connector status mapping button

A feature flag was created to hide the red Update all Jira Projects button (see the screenshot below) on the State Mapping modal linked from the Manage Projects connector settings page. This button allows users to mass update all Jira project status mappings even if the projects are using different workflows, and was leading to inadvertent or incorrect updates. With the feature flag enabled, the button will be hidden and project mappings will need to be set up individually. To enable the feature, please reach out to your TAM or to the Support Team.

Changes to creating stories from templates

Previously, tasks in stories created from a template would be assigned the same External ID as the task from the original template). To resolve this issue, when creating a story from the template, we now do not copy the external IDs of the tasks.

We also changed the behavior of the modal when creating a story from a template. When a template is selected in the modal, we check if the template has a Jira project assigned. If it does, you’ll see this warning message on the modal:

"Jira project assignments on story templates do not copy to stories created from the template. To sync this story with Jira, assign a Jira project to the story manually."

View long requests in Jira change logs

We’ve made a couple of adjustments to the Jira API change logs (accessed from the Jira Settings page) to make viewing long requests easier so that you can analyze and understand what’s happening at a glance.

First, the details of each request were moved to the Request column for each separate request (row).

Whenever a request is over 200 characters long, the text is truncated. You can click on the text of the request to expand the cell and view the full request if needed. Copy functionality works well for that URL, so you can select and copy the full request, too.

Important: API 2.0 changes (previously mentioned in 10.98 release notes)

In an effort to match property names with the Align UI and standardize property naming conventions, we changed the properties listed below. We understand that these changes impact existing integrations, but believe the changes will significantly improve the usability of the API. We’re delivering all necessary changes to an object in a single release (e.g. all changes to the Epic API will be in this release), and we expect to complete the work for all objects within the next two to three releases.

Products

• lastUpdatedDate was added

Regions

• lastUpdatedDate was added
• flag was removed
• code was removed

Cities

• lastModified changed to lastUpdatedDate
• image was removed

Value Streams

• lastUpdatedDate was added
• active changed to isActive
• processSteps.active changed to isActive
• processSteps.hours changed to efficiencyHours

Epics

• kanoComplexity was removed
• kanoCertainty was removed
• kanoCategory was removed

Important: API 2.0 changes planned in 10.100

To allow for more time to prepare for property changes, below are the planned changes for 10.100:

Programs

• isParent changed to isSolution
• categoryId changed to intakeFormId
• customFieldSetId changed to caseDevelopmentId
• lastUpdatedDate was added

Portfolios

• organizationId changed to divisionId
• categoryId changed to intakeFormId
• customFieldSetId changed to caseDevelopmentId
• lastUpdatedDate was added

Customers

• parentCompany was removed
• lastUpdatedDate was added

Ideas

• external changed to isExternal
• public changed to isPublic
• lastUpdatedDate was added

Milestones / Objectives

• blocked changed to isBlocked
• targetDate changed to targetCompletionDate
• startDate changed to startInitiationDate
• estimateDate changed to portfolioAskDate
• yearlyGoal changed to goalId

Key Results

• createdDate changed to createDate
• owner changed to ownerId
• scoreOveridden changed to isScoreOveridden, data types changed from boolean to integer
• lastUpdatedDate was added

Goals

• createdDate changed to createDate
• organizationId changed to divisionId
• lastUpdatedDate was added

Defect Fixes

The list of defect fixes will be updated to reflect changes in weekly maintenance releases. You can see the contents of individual maintenance releases in the Supplemental Release Notes section.

Below is our upcoming release schedule. Sandbox and production environments will be unavailable during our maintenance window, which starts at 11:00PM EST on the day listed below and ends at 2:00AM EST on the following day.

* — Dates may change due to scheduled deployments occurring near a holiday

Release tracks

By default, production environments are set to use the bundled release track, while sandbox environments (previously known as test instances) use the continuous track. We recommend using this default setup for your environments, as it allows you to test new features released in a .0 feature release for two weeks in your sandbox environment. Those changes will then deploy to your production environment in a .2 maintenance release. 

You may change the release track from bundled to continuous in your production environment by submitting a request to our Support Team. Note that we do not guarantee a timeframe to make a release track change, but will strive to complete the request as quickly as possible. 

The 10.99.3 maintenance release will be deployed to environments on the continuous release track and environments on the bundled release track on September 3, 2021. Maintenance releases contain high-priority defect fixes and fixes for any features deployed in version 10.99.1. 

Defect Fixes

Jira Align's Enterprise Insights (EI) was updated and deployed to 10.99.X instances on the continuous track on August 22, 2021, and will be deployed to instances on the bundled track on August 28, 2021. The following enhancements were made:

• Release highlights
• Updated tables

Release highlights

• New content:

  • Added Metric (Key Results) for goals.

  • Added program velocity override for program increments.

• Defect fixes:

  • Added forecast capacity float value.

  • Corrected dependency reason mappings.

  • Added missing row identifiers for tables.

  • Adjusted logic to flag deleted sprints.

  • Adjusted logic to flag teams for deleted programs.

Updated tables

You can subscribe to three Help Center sections to receive notifications the instant release note articles are published:

• Main Release Notes: These articles contain compiled information on a Jira Align version, initially published for the 10.X.0 feature release and updated each additional release through 10.X.3.
• Supplemental Release Notes: These articles contain information on individual supplemental releases, published each release from 10.X.1 through 10.X.3.
• Enterprise Insights Release Notes: These articles contain release notes specific to Jira Align Enterprise Insights (EI).

We recommend subscribing to both the Main and Supplemental Release Notes sections to get weekly notifications on the latest Jira Align version.

What you need to do

To receive real-time release notes publication notifications, you'll need to create a Help Center account and follow the section or sections you want to receive notifications about. Please note, this will most likely be a different username and password than your Jira Align and Atlassian username and password. 

 To create an account (or reset your password if an account already exists), click the SIGN IN button on the Help Center (see the pink arrow).

Next, click the Sign up link, enter your name and email, and then click the Sign up button. You'll receive an email to finish setting up your account. If you receive a message that says a user has already signed up with the given email, click the Forgot my password link to reset your password.

Once logged in, from the Help Center home page, click the WHAT'S NEW section (bell icon).

Then click the header for the section you want to follow. Finally, click the FOLLOW button and then the New articles link.

That's it! As soon as we publish new release notes, you'll receive an email notification with a link!