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.11.4. 

• Coming soon
• Enhancements and features
• Delivered suggestions
• Bug fixes

Last updated: October 11, 2024 to include bug fixes delivered in bug fix release 11.4.1

Coming soon

Removal of 40+ Jira Align pages and functions in 11.5 and beyond

Following up on our end-of-support announcement from last year, we’re preparing to remove the remaining functionality that is no longer supported in Jira Align. We’ve updated the announcement’s table to help you view which items have previously been removed, and which will be removed in version 11.5 or later.

The following items will no longer be available as of version 11.5, which first ships to test environments on October 25, 2024:

• Assessments
• Assessment report
• Business model canvas
• Capability maps
• Code reviews
• Code review groups
• Competitors
• Countries
• Customer visits
• Daily standup meeting
• Dashboard
• Defect suites
• Edit asset title
• Estimation games / estimation poker
• Feature maps
• Folios
• Folio viewer
• Functional maps
• Group metrics
• Innovation
• Journey maps
• Meetings calendar SOS
• Meetings list (grid)
• Metrics / Metric sheet
• Operational excellence vision
• Product vision
• Program increment defect trend
• Program increment vision
• Sprint planning
• Sprint review
• Strategy dashboard
• Story maps
• Team of teams meeting
• Team logos
• Velocity by certainty
• Velocity by complexity
• WIP by step
• Workday

The following remaining items will be removed sometime after version 11.5. We’ll provide additional notice in future release notes when a timeline is set.

• Design components
• Lean process
• Lean use cases
• Object promote
• Program vision
• Story review meeting
• Vision report landing page

Program room capacity-based widget and calculations toggle removal moved to 11.5

The planned removal of capacity-based widgets and calculations in the program room has been moved out one release to version 11.5, which will first ship to test environments on October 25, 2024.

In version 10.130, we introduced a toggle at the top of the program room page, which enables a new widget, forecast vs. capacity. This new widget focuses on forecasted work vs. available program increment capacity, and replaces the program PI load (estimates view) widget. The toggle also streamlines the calculations for the program PI load (actual view) and team load widgets by utilizing information from the new capacity page and removing the need for manual overrides.

As of version 11.5, the new widget and calculations will be active for all users in your environment.
Note: You will no longer have the ability to override program PI velocities from widgets.

API: Replacing the Milestones endpoint paused

The planned replacement of the Milestones API endpoint has been paused while we work with you to understand your needs for migration and use of the Objectives endpoint. We’ll provide an update in future release notes when ready to set a new timeline.

As part of the recent release of the Milestones tab, we will be replacing the Milestones API endpoint with the Objectives endpoint. All endpoint functionality will remain the same and provide the same data. The only change will be the naming and URL. Please encourage your users to utilize the objectives endpoint.

Enhancements and features

These features for 11.4 were released to environments on the continuous release track on September 27, 2024, in version 11.4.0. The features will be released to environments on the bundled release track on October 11, 2024, in version 11.4.1.

Log into Jira Align with your Atlassian account

If you have a subscription to Atlassian Guard, you can now set Jira Align to use your Atlassian account credentials for logins. Atlassian Guard provides a single source for connecting user authentication with your SAML single sign-on (SSO) provider and also offers a two-factor authentication (2FA) option. This option is only available on Jira Align cloud. Atlassian Guard is included with a Jira Cloud Enterprise plan.

To enable Atlassian Guard, you’ll need to change your authentication method in your security settings. When enabled, users will be redirected to id.atlassian.com to log in. Manual login to Jira Align or stand-alone SSO logins are not available with this option.

This authentication option matches the Atlassian Account ID (AAID) in the External ID field in user accounts in Jira Align with the Atlassian account in Atlassian Identity. By default, the AAID is set to auto-populate the first time a user logs into Jira Align and authenticates with Atlassian Guard. Jira Align also enforces the session timeout durations configured in your Atlassian Guard subscription.

This new option simplifies the administration of SSO across all of your Atlassian cloud products and enhances the experience when switching between Jira Align and other Atlassian cloud products. Another benefit of this option is that you will be able to leverage new security features released on the Atlassian cloud platform with Jira Align.

Changes to security settings

To support this new feature, we’ve updated some setting names, values, and visibility in platform security settings:

• Enable SSO renamed to Authentication method
  • No renamed to Manual sign in
  • Yes renamed to SAML single sign-on (SSO)
  • Atlassian Guard added as a new value
• Auto-populate Atlassian Account ID (AAID) added as a new setting when Atlassian Guard is selected as the authentication method.
• SSO-specific settings have been changed to hidden unless the SAML single sign-on (SSO) option is selected as the authentication method:
  • Disable Manual Sign In
  • SAML 2.0 Identity Providers - Add SAML Provider
  • Sign In URL
  • Sign Out URL
  • Privacy Policy URL
  • Show Jira Align SAML 2.0 Service Provider metadata

Use Atlassian API tokens to authenticate with the Jira Align APIs

When you set up Atlassian Guard to use your Atlassian account credentials for Jira Align logins, you now have to ability to use Atlassian API tokens to authenticate with the Jira Align APIs. You can create an API token through your Atlassian account. See Manage API tokens for your Atlassian account for instructions on how to create Atlassian API tokens. We recommend that you switch from using the Jira Align API tokens to the Atlassian API tokens so you can take advantage of security features for the Atlassian API tokens such as revoking and blocking token access and new features rolled out in the future.

Blocked field on new objective details panel

On the new objective details panel, we’ve added a Blocked boolean field and a Reason text area field so that you can easily view and update the blocked status of an objective. If Blocked is set to Yes, the Reason field is required. The blocked data will be the same in both the new and legacy objective details panel.

Accessibility improvements through NodeJS and ADS upgrades

We’ve upgraded our infrastructure to use a more recent version of NodeJS, as well as the latest revision of the Atlassian Design System (ADS). This enhancement provides better accessibility for users in terms of contrast, highlights, and font size. You’ll notice these visual improvements across many of our newer pages and features. No changes have been made to logic, calculations, or general use of Jira Align.

Examples of changes include:

• Increased contrast on top menu bar items, form elements, and buttons in a hover state.
  
• Increased contrast and selection highlight on sidebar links and some dropdowns.
  
• Increased font size from 12px to 14px in some dropdowns, notably the sidebar program increment dropdown.
  

Delivered suggestions

Increased character limit in epic Additional Programs field

As part of delivering suggestion JIRAALIGN-7251, we’ve increased the text limit on the Additional Programs field for epics. Previously, the limit was 1000 characters. The new limit of 4000 characters will accommodate large lists of additional program assignments.

Task and Defect information added to the Jira change log

As part of delivering suggestion JIRAALIGN-6513 We’ve enhanced the Jira change log to include task and defect sync errors. Task and defect work items sync errors between Jira and Jira Align should now be logged in the Jira Change log under Jira Settings > Manage Projects > View Log, similar to features and stories.

Bug fixes

Last updated: October 11, 2024 to include bug fixes delivered in bug fix release 11.4.1

User-reported issues

This list of resolved bugs will be updated weekly to reflect changes from maintenance and bug fix releases. You can see the contents of individual bug fix releases in the Bug fix release notes section.

Internally-found issues

We’ve corrected the following bugs that were discovered while investigating related issues, building new enhancements, and performing maintenance:

11.4.0

• OKR hub: Teams were not displayed in the All teams dropdown when navigating to the page from a higher-level context.
• OKR hub: Program increments were not displayed in the All program increments dropdown when navigating to the page from a solution or portfolio context.
• OKRs: Tags, creation date, and publish date data was removed when updating an objective through the API.
• Goals: An error message displayed when attempting to delete a goal associated with multiple snapshots.
• Work tree: When using the Theme Group view, incorrect items were displayed when filtering by portfolios, solutions, or programs.
• Themes: Duplicate records regarding process step changes were captured in the audit log after saving edits.
• Epics: Epics could be created with an empty required Theme field.
• Features: Edits to a feature were not saved if the feature’s name was changed to match an existing feature.
• Work item details panels: Saving changes would fail when attempting to add a link to a work item with a matching ID in the Links tab.
• Program increment progress: Pagination was not displaying properly when using the drill-down charts.
• Program increment progress: In the drill-down theme burnup chart, the Scope line was not counting points from epics not associated with a theme.
• Program increment progress: Drill-down charts would not render when orphan stories were found within a program.
• Stored XSS security vulnerability potential related to enterprise hierarchy grid was identified and closed.
• Stored XSS security vulnerability potential related to managing projects in Jira connector settings was identified and closed.

11.4.0.1004

• Objectives: Inconsistent colors displayed in guide panels after switching to the new creation experience.
• Performance slowdowns related to Atlassian Guard authentication were identified and closed.
• Infinite loop security vulnerability potential related to markdown text was identified and closed.

11.4.1

• Objectives: The Blocked reason field on blocked objectives was labeled incorrectly. The field name has been shortened to Reason.
• Objectives: Blocked objectives could be completed.
• Objectives: The selectable area of the Blocked radio buttons was too large.
• SQL injection vulnerability potential related to assessments was identified and closed.
• Defect: Find Story field on slide-out didn't display stories with special characters in the title.

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.

Note: Jira Align is moving from version 10.X to 11.X, and simplifying our numbering. See more details about these changes

Release tracks

Production environments are set to use the bundled release track, while sandbox environments 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 .1 maintenance release. 

The 11.4.0.1004 bug fix release was deployed to environments on the continuous release track on October 4, 2024. Bug fix releases contain high-priority fixes for any reported issues and for features deployed in version 11.4.X.

Bug fixes

Internally-found issues

• Objectives: Inconsistent colors displayed in guide panels after switching to the new creation experience.
• Performance slowdowns related to Atlassian Guard authentication were identified and closed.
• Infinite loop security vulnerability potential related to markdown text was identified and closed.

The 11.3.1.1004 bug fix release was deployed to environments on the bundled release track on October 4, 2024. Bug fix releases contain high-priority fixes for any reported issues and for features deployed in version 11.3.X.

Bug fixes

Jira Align's Enterprise Insights (EI) version 11.4 was deployed to environments on the continuous release track on September 27, 2024. It will then be deployed to environments on the bundled release track on October 11, 2024. The following changes are included in version 11.4

Coming soon

As a result of planned removals from Jira Align in version 11.5, we're updating the schedule to remove views from Enterprise Insights:

• The following views will be removed in EI version 11.5:
  • Canvas
  • Canvas Block
  • Canvas Block Item
  • Countries
  • Design Component
  • MAP Capability to Design Component
  • MAP Capability to Country
  • MAP Epic to Design Component
  • MAP Epic to Country
  • MAP Feature to Design Component
  • MAP Feature to Country
  • Team Meeting
• The following views will be removed in EI version 11.6:
  • Assessment
  • Assessment Answer
  • Assessment Answer Set Value
  • Assessment Question
  • Assessment Result
  • Assessment Schedule
• Multiple changes and removals are planned in version 11.6. See Upcoming changes in future Enterprise Insights versions for full details. Please back up any data in these views and columns, which will be removed from Enterprise Insights in version 11.6.

The following removals, renamed views and columns, and other significant changes are planned for future versions of Enterprise Insights (EI):

Version 11.5

In version 11.5, the following changes will be made: 

• Views removed as a result of planned removals from Jira Align in version 11.5:
  • Canvas
  • Canvas Block
  • Canvas Block Item
  • Countries
  • Design Component
  • MAP Capability to Design Component
  • MAP Capability to Country
  • MAP Epic to Design Component
  • MAP Epic to Country
  • MAP Feature to Design Component
  • MAP Feature to Country
  • Team Meeting

Version 11.6

In version 11.6, the following changes will be made: 

• The Matric Measured Increment column in the Success Criteria view will be removed and replaced by a new column, Metric Measure Increment.
  • Please update reports and queries to use the new Metric Measure Increment column. 
• Views removed as a result of the removal of all skills functionality, and the Time/Skills tab from epic details panels:
  • Epic Skill 
  • Epic Skill Allocation 
  • Skill 
  • MAP User to Skill
  • Epic Schedule
• Views removed as a result of the new milestones tab available for capability details panels:
  • Capability Milestone (replaced by Capability Milestones)
• Columns removed from the Epic Milestone view as a result of the new milestones tab available for epic details panels:
  • Completed Flag
  • Date Portfolio Ask
  • FK User Created By ID
  • FK User Completed By ID
• Views removed as a result of new capacity functionality in Jira Align:
  • Forecast Capacity
  • Forecast Buffer
• The Date Portfolio Ask column will be removed from the following views as a result of the future removal of portfolio ask from Jira Align:
  • Capability
  • Capability History
  • Epic
  • Epic History
  • Feature
  • Feature History
  • Theme
  • Theme History
• Views removed as a result of planned removals from Jira Align in version 11.5:
  • Assessment
  • Assessment Answer
  • Assessment Answer Set Value
  • Assessment Question
  • Assessment Result
  • Assessment Schedule

Please back up any data in these views and columns, which will be removed from Enterprise Insights in version 11.6.

Below is our upcoming release schedule for Enterprise Insights (EI). 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.

See the Release calendar article for the schedule of releases for the Jira Align platform. 

Last updated: September 3, 2024 to include the planned release of a hotfix for on-premise environments.

On Tuesday, September 3, 2024, we are planning to begin rolling back a previously-delivered Jira connector enhancement in order to prevent unintended changes to story and defect sprint assignments in Jira.

Because a specific combination of settings and actions in Jira Align can cause the unintended sprint changes to occur, you are unlikely to encounter this scenario. Review this announcement to understand if you may be affected and the actions you can take to prevent unintended changes.

• Why we're rolling back
• Conditions that cause unintended sprint changes
• Root cause
• Actions we're taking
• Actions you can take
• On-premise environments

Why we’re rolling back

Multiple stories and/or defects in Jira can be moved from their current sprint assignment to the backlog unexpectedly after performing steps in Jira Align to correct sprint misalignments.

Conditions that cause unintended sprint changes

This issue only occurs when the following settings are enabled and specific actions are performed:

Settings

From the Jira Setup tab of the Jira settings page:

• Allow story sync from Jira Align to Jira is set to Bidirectional sync
  AND/OR
• Allow defect sync from Jira Align to Jira is set to Bidirectional sync
  
  
  

Actions

To correct sprint misalignments between Jira Align and Jira, users resync sprints from Jira through these actions:

1. Delete the misaligned sprints from Jira Align.
2. Force a sync between Jira and Jira Align inside connector settings by doing one of the following:
   1. Run a JQL query from the Jira Integration tab of the Jira settings page.
   2. Select the Resync Future Sprints or Sync Board Now buttons from the Jira Sprints tab of the Jira management page.

Root cause

In version 11.1.0, we delivered suggestion JIRAALIGN-4006 by making a change to how sprint assignments are matched through the Jira connector. When a story or defect in Jira Align is moved from a sprint to the unassigned backlog, the connector moves the matching issue in Jira from its sprint to the backlog.

Prior to this change, when sprints are deleted in Jira Align as part of correcting sprint misalignment, any stories and defects assigned to the sprint are moved to the unassigned backlog. However, the update of the story or defect’s sprint assignment would not sync over to Jira.

Following this change, when sprints are deleted in Jira Align and stories/defects assigned to the sprint are moved to the unassigned backlog, the behavior is matched in Jira. Synced issues are moved out of the Jira sprint.

Actions we’re taking

The change responsible for this unintended behavior was released through a system toggle. For environments on the bundled release track running 11.2.X versions, we are planning to disable the toggle through a hotfix release on Tuesday, September 3, 2024. For environments on the continuous release track running 11.3.X versions, the toggle will be disabled in a bug fix release planned for Friday, September 6, 2024. These releases will return the connector’s behavior to how it worked prior to version 11.1.0

In a future release, we will re-introduce the sprint synchronization changes with a way to account for deleting sprints in Jira Align.

Actions you can take

If you do not regularly delete sprints from Jira Align, or don’t sync stories/defects bidirectionally, no action is required.

If you need to delete Jira Align sprints as part of correcting sprint misalignments, please wait until the planned rollback is completed. Should you need to delete Jira Align sprints prior to this time, contact Atlassian Support to have the system toggle for JIRAALIGN-4006 manually disabled.

On-premise environments

Update: We plan to deploy a hotfix version of Jira Align 11.2.1 on-premise, which will be available for download on Wednesday, September 4, 2024. This version will disable the toggle responsible for the connector logic change.

If you have an on-premise Jira Align environment and may be affected by the error conditions, you can review the steps in the Actions you can take section for options prior to the hotfix or version 11.3.X.

The rollback of the connector logic change will also be included in on-premise version 11.3.1, which is scheduled to be available for download on September 25, 2024.

Check out the latest news on new Jira Align features and development efforts we’re working on. Our Q3 2024 Product Roadmap presentation is now available.

Note that you will need to be logged into our Help Center site to be able to access the recording. If you don’t already have a login, select the Sign up link to create a new one. This account is not tied to your Jira Align user credentials.

We’re removing the Portfolio Ask field from themes, epics, capabilities, and features in Jira Align. Although we do not have exact timing for removals yet, the field will remain until at least November 22, 2024, when we first deploy version 11.6.X to test environments. We are letting you know now so that you have ample time to prepare, and will provide another notice once an exact version for removal is confirmed.

We are removing portfolio ask as part of our work to evolve the roadmap page and simplify the product. This removal is part of our broader effort to streamline the user experience.

Portfolio ask does not surface on the roadmap today, nor will it in the future. Instead, we are working to more prominently display milestones on the roadmap and across Jira Align. We believe milestones effectively solve the need of portfolio ask while also offering more information and functionality.

As such, we are planning to migrate all portfolio ask dates that are part of work items to milestones. This migration will take place in the version that we set for future removals. We will create new milestones for environments with portfolio ask dates with the following information:

For accepted work items:

• Name: Portfolio ask
• Description: Migrated by Jira Align
• Category: None
• State: Completed
• Start date: None
• Due date: The portfolio ask date

For all other work items:

• Name: Portfolio ask
• Description: Migrated by Jira Align
• Category: None
• State: On track
• Start date: None
• Due date: The portfolio ask date

We understand this change may require process adjustments for some organizations. To ask more about our migration, please raise a support ticket titled, “Portfolio ask migration.” We also recommend updating your queries and custom reports that use portfolio ask data in Enterprise Insights (EI) over the next couple of months, as the field will also be removed from EI.

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!