The Jira Align Support Guide provides an overview of the various help resources available for Jira Align, as well as guidelines for creating and monitoring support tickets, feature requests, and test instance refresh requests. We recommend reading this guide to assist you in creating better cases and getting issues resolved as quickly as possible.

Check it out in the Atlassian Community here.

The Atlassian Jira Align team is pleased to announce Jira Align v.10.104. 

• Enhancements and Features
• Defect Fixes

Enhancements and Features

These features for 10.104 were released to environments on the continuous release track on January 7, 2022, in version 10.104.0. The features will then be released to environments on the bundled release track on January 21, 2022, in version 10.104.2:

Coming soon: A new view for the Objectives Tree

Jira Align is updating its objective experience with a new and improved visualization of the Objectives Tree.

In an upcoming feature release, we’ll enable the new experience. We anticipate this to happen in the next 1-2 months. When we target the exact release version to turn on the new functionality, we will update our announcement with more info. 

For a short period after the feature’s release, you'll see the new Objectives Tree by default, but will be able to switch between the legacy (current) and new experience. Later, we will deprecate the current experience.

Note: This new experience will be visible in environments on the continuous release track (formerly known as test instances) during the week of January 10, 2022, while we test the removal of the feature toggle that controls access. The current experience will return to the continuous release track with the release of 10.104.1 on January 14, 2022.

Estimation and prioritization changes

As previously announced, we’ve made some major changes to how estimation and prioritization activities for epics, capabilities, and features can be accomplished in Jira Align, in order to provide you with a more flexible and streamlined experience. Here’s a full list of changes you’ll see in the platform. Check out our announcement for more context.

Automatic conversions

Going forward, any time you enter an estimate using either the Team Week / Member Week, Points, or T-Shirt Size systems, we’ll automatically convert your estimate into the other two systems, and store those values in the database. Conversions will happen according to your Estimation Conversions settings menu, found in the Administration section. This makes it easier to compare and contrast your estimations with calculations in other systems, like velocity. If you update your Estimation Conversions settings, we will process the new conversions in the background:

To see how your values convert from one system to another, you now have the option to display other values on grid pages like Epics and Epic Backlog:

After these changes are deployed to your environment, you may notice entries in your audit logs for work items that already have estimates. These entries simply record the first round of conversions done. 

If you’re using the Jira Connector with Jira Align, and have set up the syncing of Jira fields for both points and t-shirt size, please review our announcement for details on how estimates could change when being converted. 

Goodbye Fibonacci and Power of Two

Inside of the Points estimation system were three varieties of point-scaling: Fibonacci, Power of Two, and Open Text Field. We’ve simplified points values to an open field, where you may enter a number that represents the effort needed to deliver a work item. 

Note: You may still use Fibonacci and Power of Two point-scaling when estimating story effort points, which are not affected by these portfolio settings.

WSJF prioritization

Weighted shortest job first, or WSJF, is a system intended to help organizations prioritize proposed work items, based on multiple factors.

To further clarify the difference between estimation and prioritization activities, we’ve removed WSJF as a primary estimation system in administrative settings, added unique settings in Detail Panel Settings, and renamed some labels inside of work item Details panels. 

List of detailed changes:

• Removed the Admin > Platform > Portfolio > Use WSJF With Other Estimation Techniques setting.
• WSJF option removed from the Admin > Platform > Portfolio > Estimation System setting.
• WSJF toggle renamed as WSJF Prioritization in Details Panels Settings for features.
• WSJF Prioritization toggle added to Details Panels Settings for epics and capabilities.
• WSJF field found in Details panels renamed as WSJF Prioritization for epics, capabilities, and features.
• WSJF Estimate column name renamed as WSJF Prioritization inside the import/export template file.
• Estimation option renamed as Prioritization inside of the More Actions menu found on the Epics, Capabilities, and Features grid pages.
• Estimate button renamed as Prioritize inside of Backlog pages for epics, capabilities, and features.
• If WSJF was used as the primary estimation system, values will be converted into the Points system using your Estimation Conversion settings.

Estimation Conversions validations

The Estimations Conversions settings menu has been updated to ensure conversions between estimation systems and data synchronization with Jira Software may be completed successfully. 

• A No estimate row has been added for t-shirt sizes so that blank entries can be processed.
• The menu will now check entries in the Member Weeks and Sort fields, and issue a warning message if duplicates are detected.
• A warning message displays at the top of the menu if an active Jira Connector using t-shirt size mapping is detected, reminding users that only default t-shirt size names may be used
  • If a custom t-shirt size is created by modifying a default name or by adding a new row, any features in Jira Align that contain the custom size will not sync with Jira.

Label name changes

To make the intent of various estimation fields more clear, we’ve updated the following labels inside of Details panels for epics, capabilities, and features:

• The top-most estimation field, Points / Team or Member Weeks / T-shirt has been renamed as Initial Estimate (Points / Team or Member Weeks / T-shirt) in order to clarify this field is to enter a rough, upfront estimation for the work item before it is assigned to a PI.
• PI-specific estimation fields have been renamed using the following format: [PI name] Estimate (estimation system name). For example, a field for a work item assigned to PI-5 in a portfolio using points would display as PI-5 Estimate (Points).

Removal of Member Week Budget field

We’ve removed the Member Week Budget field from epics and capability Details panels, as this field was separate from standard estimation fields and saw very low usage. As a result, we’ve also removed the No Budget section from the Orphan Objects menus found inside of Backlog pages for epics and capabilities.

Jira Cloud user sync improvements

In the 10.90 release, we fixed an issue with the Jira Cloud and Jira Align integration where duplicate user accounts could be created because Jira user email addresses were not accessible through the public REST API (and the email address is used to link the user to a Jira Align user account).

In this release, we updated the Jira connector’s Pull Jira User Data functionality with the same fix.

We also added functionality to the connector to automatically consolidate duplicate user accounts that were not previously manually consolidated. The duplicate user, which was created by the connector with a Jira ID as an email address in Jira Align, will be deactivated and consolidated with the user account that has the correct email address. All assignments (e.g. objects, team, sprints) from the duplicate user will be updated to the correct user. All changes will be captured in the audit log.

API 2.0: Custom field support for epics and features

The API 2.0 has been updated to support multiple operations with custom fields. The following actions are now enabled:

• Epics and features: Use GET to collect all custom field metadata through the /{id}/editmeta URL:
  • Example: GET /rest/api/2/epics/123/editmeta
  • This step is necessary to understand what custom field values currently exist, before using POST, PUT, or PATCH to modify them.
  • For epics, custom fields found on the Intake and Benefits tabs of Details panels are also included.
• Epics and features: Add and modify values for existing custom fields managed from Details Panels Settings — POST, PUT, and PATC.H
  • Custom Text Input
  • Custom Text Area
  • Custom Dropdown
  • Custom Multi Dropdown
• Epics: Add and modify values for existing custom fields managed from Intake Set settings, which are displayed on the Intake tab of Details panels — POST, PUT, and PATCH.
  • Custom Text Input
  • Custom Dropdown
• Epics: Add and modify values for existing custom fields managed from Case Development settings, which are displayed on the Benefits tab of Details panels — POST, PUT, and PATCH.
  • Custom Text Input
  • Custom Dropdown

API 2.0: Links support

You may now perform GET operations against the Links section found within Details panels for epics, features, and stories.

API 2.0: Financial endpoints

We’ve added the following financial values to our API 2.0: 

Values that support GET

• Team Spend per Point
• Normalized Team Spend per Point
• Program Spend per Point
• Program Spend per Point by Anchor

Values that support POST

• Epic Accepted Spend
• Capability Accepted Spend
• Theme Accepted Spend
• Feature Accepted Spend
• Release Accepted Spend
• Epic Estimated Spend
• Capability Estimated Spend
• Theme Estimated Spend
• Feature Estimated Spend
• Release Estimated Spend
• Epic Forecasted Spend
• Capability Forecasted Spend

Portfolio Room enhancements

We’ve made a couple of usability improvements to the Portfolio Room. First, we’ve added a link from the page for users who may be interested in viewing epics that are not currently associated with a program increment.

Select the Don’t see the epic you are looking for? link from the grid to access the View epic grid button, which will navigate you to your Epics page, filtered to show epics that do not have a PI assigned.

We’ve also updated the All Themes dropdown that displays at the top of epic grids in the Portfolio Room. The dropdown is now named All work items, since this grid can also display stand-alone features. The dropdown also provides an additional option to view all work items that do not belong to a parent theme.

Investment vs. Spend enhancements

The Investment vs. Spend report has also been updated with a few usability improvements. 

• Values inside of the Epic and Stories columns are now links. Clicking on a link will navigate you to the corresponding Epics or Stories grid page, filtered by the theme in the row (or items without a theme parent, if selecting a value from the No Theme row). 
• Highlighted values in the No Estimate row now properly navigate you to the corresponding Epics or Stories grid page, filtered to show items that do not contain an estimate.

For any of these highlighted values, note that the count displayed in the Epic column includes any stand-alone features that match the row’s criteria. When stand-alone features are present, clicking the link will display a warning message when navigating to the corresponding page:

Performance: Improvements when updating themes

To create a more consistent and usable experience when working with a long list of options, we’ve updated the Program Increments and Programs fields inside of theme Details panels. The new experience allows you to search for a specific option instead of scrolling through a lengthy alphabetical list.

Capitalized column consistency

We’ve updated the behavior of the Capitalized column and its values to ensure consistency across pages. The column is now tied to the corresponding Capitalized toggles found in the Details Panels Settings page, for epics and features. 

When the field settings toggle is switched on for both epics and features, the Capitalized column will display in all views of the Portfolio Room, and will be a selectable option in the Columns Shown menu of the Epic Backlog, Feature Backlog, Epics, and Features pages.

If the field settings toggle is only switched on for either epics or features, but not both, a warning message will display when hovering over the column in the Portfolio Room:

Values inside the column now use a consistent pattern:

• Work items without an entry in the Capitalized field will display as blank.
• Work items marked Yes will display as Yes.
• Work items marked No will display as No.

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.

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 10.104.1 maintenance release will be deployed to environments on the continuous release track on January 14, 2022. Maintenance releases contain high-priority defect fixes and fixes for any features deployed in version 10.104.0. 

Defect Fixes

Upcoming changes

• In version 10.105.0, which will deploy to the continuous release track on February 4, 2022, we will update the Progress column inside the Status Reports page to follow global color settings for progress bars:
  • This is a highly-requested enhancement made by multiple users.
  • Changes apply to epics, capabilities, and stand-alone features.
  • Global color settings can be found at Administration > Platform > General. 
    
    
• We have targeted the 10.106.0 release, which will deploy to the continuous release track on March 4, 2022, for the launch of the New Objectives Tree.

Jira Align's Enterprise Insights (EI) was updated and deployed to 10.103.X instances on the continuous track on January 5, 2022, and was deployed to instances on the bundled track on January 8, 2022. The following enhancements were made:

• Release highlights
• New tables
• Updated tables

Release highlights

• New content:

  • Added User Modified By Foreign Key to Acceptance Criteria. (Capability, Epic, Feature, Story)

  • Added Estimation Conversion table.

  • Added epic persona mapping.

  •  Corrected [Date DW Modified] mapping for [Customer List].

  • Added Jira connector configuration for object-specific statuses.

  • Added Strategic Initiative object.

  • Added risk and dependency foreign keys for external references.

  • Added program/team-tier program mappings to [MAP Objective to Program]. These mappings are already present as a direct foreign key on the Objective table. Including them in the mapping table allows the table to be used for all program mappings.

• Defect fixes: 

  • Defect allocations are NULL for Product Owner role

  • Added [Epic Intake].[Epic Intake Float Value] to export_dw schema.

  • Corrected deletion logic for strategic snapshots.

  • Corrected data load for defect and risk attachments.

  • Updated source query to map Discussion Parent ID for objectives, risks and stories.

  • Added [Deleted Flag] & [Date DW Modified] where missing to export_dw schema objects.

    • Capability Link, Capability Milestone, Customer, Defect History, Epic Link, Feature Link, Feature Team Sprint, Story Link, Theme History, Theme Link.

New tables

Updated tables

Jira Align is updating our objective experience with a new and improved visualization of the Objectives Tree. With version 10.106.0 on March 4, 2022, we'll be revealing the new Objectives Tree to the world!

For a short period after the feature’s release, you’ll see the new Objectives Tree by default, but will be able to switch between the legacy (current) and new experience. Later, we will deprecate the current experience.

The new experience completely rethinks the visual representation for objectives and key results based on your actual goals and needs.

What else you'll find in the new Objectives Tree

• Simplified high-level reporting with quick filters helps portfolio managers focus on what’s most important, what needs attention, and how things are related. This helps organizations better visualize goals by providing a visual format that represents the status of objectives.
  
• Richer status reporting vocabulary provides greater nuance to in-progress objectives.
  This new view has enabled us to mimic the statuses of objectives tracked within Jira Align to the status options available in Team Central, which provides greater nuance than the previous statuses could. Instead of just a Not Started, In Progress, and Completed status, the new experience provides more options. These include Pending, Paused, On Track, At Risk, Off Track, and Completed. These statuses are displayed at the top of the page and the objectives can be easily sorted by status for further investigation into why something may be at risk or off track.
  
• Easier management-by-objective and course correction with at-a-glance portfolio views and drill-down capabilities including simpler reporting supported with visual controls, i.e., traffic-light indicators, progress bars, etc. The streamlined view puts the most important information on a single page and makes course correction conversations faster with a visual roll-up of the most pressing issues.
  • Portfolio objectives that drill into program level and team level objectives with the click of a button.
  • Track how much work still needs to occur to achieve the objective with Work progress bars.
    
  • Easily visualize how many key results are associated with each objective in the Key results column. Key results are tied to the specific work item as in, you will only see portfolio-level key results associated with the portfolio-level objective, not a roll-up of all key results associated with ALL program and team level objectives tied to the portfolio-level objective.
    
  • Easily see who is responsible for each objective in the Owner column.
    

Why are we making this change?

Enterprises at scale are transitioning towards thinking and aligning on business outcomes (or the desired result) as opposed to focusing on work output or outputs. Enterprises also want to unlock ambition and inspiration at every level, encouraging all teams to strive above and beyond without fear of failure culture.

Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) are important in identifying the change organizations want to see in order to have an impact on the highest level needles or KPIs in the business.  More importantly, using them to develop hypotheses and measure impact, otherwise work will continue to be tracked by the traditional on time on budget with a focus on outputs as opposed to the impact it has on a business outcome or validating a hypothesis.

We are making this change for several reasons:

• To provide a better user experience through improved visual representations of OKRs
• To make high-level reporting more actionable by improving the nuance for in-progress OKRs
• To ensure better understanding and prioritization of the work surrounding OKRs to achieve objectives faster

Note: This article has been deleted and re-published to send a new notification, as the release timeframe for these changes has been updated.

For versions 10.100.1 and later, we'll be making some big changes to objective statuses that will also affect the API:

What’s coming in version 10.100.1

In this release, we will be adding three new statuses to objective tracking in Jira Align. These statuses will provide more nuance to the status of objectives than our current option (In Progress) allows. The new statuses will be:

• 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.

In version 10.100.1, the new statuses will become 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, as the In Progress status on objectives will be migrated in a future release.

What’s coming later

In a future release, any remaining In Progress objectives will receive the On Track status. At this time, the API status value for In Progress will also be removed.

What this means for the API

Any objectives with the In Progress value will now return as On Track. There are also two new values: Off Track and At Risk. In any scenarios where the In Progress value is specified, there would need to be a change to specify On Track and depending on the use case, include the new status values as well. Otherwise, there is no action needed with this change.

Why are we making this change?
This change is in preparation for a new end-to-end objective experience including a new creation workflow, a cleaner Details panel, and a more powerful objective tree experience. As we continue to respond to feedback, it has been evident that we need the ability to provide better status updates around objectives.

For our customers utilizing OKRs, the objectives often appeared to be “at risk” when they had low scores, even if it was just too early in measuring. These new changes, along with the updates to the objective tree around the corner, will provide a much clearer picture of which objectives need attention (and which don’t) when reporting on status.

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!