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.10.107. 

• Enhancements and Features
• Defect Fixes

Enhancements and Features

These features for 10.107 were released to environments on the continuous release track on April 22, 2022, in version 10.107.0. The features will then be released to environments on the bundled release track on May 6, 2022, in version 10.107.2:

Azure DevOps connector: Select a default role for users created by the connector

On the General tab of the Azure DevOps connector slideout, you can now choose the system role for users created by the connector with the Default Jira Align system role for ADO users setting. Changing this setting won't automatically change the role of existing users, only those created by the connector going forward.

API 2.0: Custom field support for defects and tasks

The API 2.0 has been updated to support multiple operations with custom fields. You can now perform these actions:

• Defects and tasks: Use GET to collect all custom field metadata through the /{id}/editmeta URL:
  • Example: GET /rest/api/2/defects/123/editmeta
    This step is necessary to understand which custom field values currently exist, before using POST, PUT, or PATCH to modify them.

• Defects and tasks: Add and modify values for existing custom fields managed from Details Panels Settings — POST, PUT, and PATCH.

  • Custom Text Input

  • Custom Text Area

  • Custom Dropdown

  • Custom Multi Dropdown

• Note: Custom Fields are only returned as part of the GET to specific work items. They will not be included as part of queries (i.e. using $filter operations) or other operations. For example, GET /rest/api/2/defects/123 will return custom fields, but GET /rest/api/2/defects/?filter=id eq 123 will not.

API 2.0: Dynamic validation

We implemented the dynamic required fields validation for all the default fields tied to the Details Panels Settings page, so the API validation mirrors the validation in the UI.

You can also get information on whether a field is required with the endpoint/id/editmeta request. This may result in a change of behavior if your API workflow did not take into account required fields properly.

Upcoming changes to API 2.0: Removal of old fields from Defect, Task, and Theme objects

As we roll out our new support of custom fields across all supported work items, we will continue our efforts in ensuring consistency and usability for API usage. In that respect, we will be removing the usage of old custom fields for the Defect, Task, and Theme objects. Removal will occur no earlier than 10.109.0.

In version 10.109.0, we will remove these fields from DefectDto, TaskDto and ThemeDto:

• ctext1
• ctext2
• carea1
• cdrop1
• cdrop2
• cdrop3
• cdrop4
• cdrop5

Please update any workflows that may use the removed fields and move to the new custom fields workflow using the customFields field.

Additional spend details on features

We’ve added the Progression of spend section to the Spend tab of feature Details panels. This lets you quickly see financial values for a feature parented by an epic or capability. Previously, only stand-alone features displayed this section in Details panels. Select either value in the section to open the Estimated Spend or Accepted Spend panel, where you can see more info on how the value is calculated.

CSV exports for dependencies

You now have the ability to export a list of dependencies in .csv format. This replaces the previous file format of .xls. You can export from the Dependencies grid page by selecting the More Actions menu and then selecting Export All Dependencies or Export Action Required Dependencies.

Consolidated process flow fields in Details panels

We’ve updated the experience inside of Details panels when a work item is associated with multiple program process flows. Now, when more than one program with a unique process flow is associated with a theme, epic, capability, or feature, the Process Step field from the primary program’s process flow will display. Selecting the + Show More link will display the remaining Process Step fields from other programs in alphabetical order, using the program’s name.

Corrected logic for Work Tree > Strategy View

The Strategy View of the Work Tree page has been updated to resolve an issue when moving from another view that supported the Narrow to Program and PI toggle. After enabling the toggle and changing the view to Strategy, the list of work items displayed was incorrect. Now, the view shows the same data regardless of the toggle selection inside other views. We’ve also updated the view’s info message confirming this behavior.

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 10.107.3 maintenance release will be deployed to environments on the continuous release track and environments on the bundled release track on May 13, 2022. Maintenance releases contain high-priority defect fixes and fixes for any features deployed in version 10.107.0.

Defect Fixes

Jira Align's Enterprise Insights (EI) was updated and deployed to 10.107.X instances on the continuous track on April 25, 2022, and will be deployed to instances on the bundled track on April 29, 2022. The following enhancements were made:

• Release highlights
• New tables
• Updated tables

Release highlights

• New content:

  • Added Custom Team Mapping.

  • Added [Design Hypothesis] to features and feature facts.

  • Added [Work Code] to current_dw and export_dw schemas. These were previously only available through the time schema.

  • Added Extra Details for program increments.

• Defect fixes: 

  • Corrected attachments for defects and risks.

  • Added [FK User Modified By] to export_dw.[Epic Acceptance Criteria].

New tables

Updated tables

Jira Align will be updating our objective experience with a new and improved visualization of the Objectives Tree.

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!