Release Notes for 10.85

• Enhancements and Features
• Defect Fixes

Enhancements and Features

Updated: Value Streams are now Process Flows

Note: There was a reported issue in which platform terminology configurations for value streams were not persisted in test instances. We have modified the production release so that your current configurations are maintained, with only the label changing as designed. If you are running a test instance of Jira Align and would prefer terminology other than "Process Flow", you may reconfigure it in your platform terminology settings.

The term “Value Stream” is developing into a robust market and has outgrown the way it was being used in Jira Align. As a result, we’ve updated the Value Stream object name label to Process Flow in the platform terminology settings. We've persisted your prior configurations for this object name, even if they used the old "Value Stream" or "Value Streams" terms.

We also changed the Value Streams grid page, Process Step Cycle Time report, and labels, cards, and the view name on the backlog Process Step views (now Value Stream views) to use the values entered in platform terminology for the Value Stream term. If you have customized the terminology beyond the previous default values of “Value Stream” and “Value Streams”, you’ll see page name and/or label changes on all three pages.

When creating a new value stream, the Triggers, Inputs, Outputs, and Includes fields have been removed.

• Existing entries in these fields have been retained

• Existing process flows with blank copies of these fields cannot be edited

Lastly, the Hours field inside of a process step’s Details panel has been renamed to Efficiency (Hours in Step).

Estimation Conversions enhancements

As previously announced, we’ve updated the Estimation Conversions settings menu found in Administration > Platform > Portfolio.

Conversions are now separated by work item type for epics, capabilities, and features. Use the Work Item dropdown to select what work item you want to configure estimations for.

The settings now use Member Weeks (MW) as the primary pivot to drive conversions to other estimation methods. A member week represents the efforts of one team member, working for one week. The conversion from 1 MW into story points is controlled through the How many story points does a person deliver in one week? field. We encourage you to collaboratively determine this value as an organization, as Estimation Conversions apply to all portfolios in a Jira Align instance.

Once you set your points conversion, you can enter values in the Member Weeks column for each estimation system: T-shirt sizing, Fibonacci, or Power of 2. Member week values will convert into other estimate columns as follows:

• 6 Member Weeks = 1 Team Week
• 4 Member Weeks = 1 FTE/mo (full-time equivalent per month)

We have retained previous values entered into the Estimation Conversions menu prior to this enhancement. If you would like to keep your current conversions, no action is required. Admins can visit the new settings page and experiment with changing values for each estimation system – no changes will be made to prior conversions if you leave the menu without saving. However, once you save new settings, prior configurations cannot be retrieved.

For a list of key pages and reports that use conversions, please see our detailed announcement.

Strategy Room enhancements

We’ve resolved an issue where the Strategy Pyramid and the Progress by Snapshot sections of the page had different calculations for counting the number of work items associated with levels of hierarchy. Now, both sections include work items in counts when the items are assigned to program increments parented to the strategic snapshot.

Inside the Strategy Pyramid, we’ve added labels for misaligned item counts in the Themes, Features, and Epics sections. Misaligned items are work items that are associated with the goal hierarchy tied to the snapshot, but are not scheduled for a program increment parented to the snapshot.

Inside Snapshot Progress, we added Accepted labels inside of progress dials to better communicate the percentages displayed. We also removed the Stand-Alone Features row. You may continue seeing the impact of stand-alone features in context, by hovering over the value or the progress bar in the Features row.

Report calculation and consistency changes

We’ve updated several report names, calculations, and labels to provide more consistency across views of similar data.

Backlogs:

Notes:

• Program PI Velocity is referenced as a value to perform multiple calculations below. Program PI Velocity is the average number of level-of-effort (LOE) story points accepted by a program during the past two completed program increments.
• View names that are newly compatible with platform terminology are marked below with an asterisk (*) and use the term listed in the Process Flow field.

Inside of Feature/Capability/Epic Backlogs, using the Kanban > Column View, with the Estimated mode button selected:

• The progress bar at the top of a PI section has been labeled Estimated PI Load. Estimated PI Load is calculated as:
  • ((Sum of estimate points from features/capabilities/epics assigned to the selected program and PI) / (Sum of Program PI Velocities)) * 100
    • For epics, the sum of estimate points includes values from stand-alone features
    • For epics and capabilities, estimates are the values entered in the PI-specific estimate fields on the main tab of Details panels
    • Estimates are converted into points using the Estimation Conversions menu in Administration settings
    • If an override PI velocity has been entered for a program, that value will be used instead of an average
• Program Load progress bar label at the top of a program section renamed to Estimated Program PI Load. Estimated Program PI Load is calculated as:
  • ((Sum of estimate points from features/capabilities/epics assigned to the selected program and PI) / (Program PI velocity)) * 100

    • For epics, the sum of estimate points includes values from stand-alone features

    • For epics and capabilities, estimates are the values entered in the program-specific total estimate fields on the Forecast tab of Details panels

    • Estimates are converted into points using the Estimation Conversions menu in administration settings

    • If an override PI velocity has been entered for a program, that value will be used instead of an average

Inside of Feature/Capability/Epic Backlogs, using the Kanban > Column View, with the Actual mode button selected:

• The progress bar at the top of a PI section has been labeled Actual PI Load. Actual PI Load is calculated as:

  • ((Sum of level-of-effort (LOE) points from stories parented to features/capabilities/epics assigned to the selected program and PI) / (Sum of Program PI Velocities)) * 100

    • Misaligned sprint stories are excluded

    • Orphan stories assigned to the selected program and PI are included

•  Program Load progress bar label at the top of a program section renamed to Actual Program PI Load. Actual Program PI Load is calculated as:
  • ((Sum of level-of-effort (LOE) points from stories parented to features/capabilities/epics assigned to the selected program and PI) / (Program PI Velocity)) * 100

    • Misaligned sprint stories are excluded

    • Orphan stories assigned to the selected program and PI are included

    • If a capability belongs to multiple programs, only LOE points from stories planned in the specified program will be included

Inside of Feature/Capability/Epic Backlogs, using List View, Kanban > State View, or Kanban > Process Flow* View:

• The progress bar to the right of the Pull Rank button at the top of a program section has been labeled PI Progress. PI Progress is calculated as:

  • ((Sum of level-of-effort (LOE) points from stories with a state of Accepted, assigned to the selected program and PI) / (Sum of LOE points from stories assigned to the selected program and PI)) * 100

    • Misaligned sprint stories are excluded

    • Orphan stories assigned to the selected program and PI are included

    • The progress bar accounts for any stories dropped, deleted, or canceled after the start of the PI, as the bar shows work planned, not work committed (planned in a PI before the start date)

    • The progress bar now only displays if one or more PIs are selected in the Configuration bar

Inside of Feature Backlogs, using List View, Kanban > State View, or Kanban > Process Flow* View:

• The Velocity label at the top of a program section has been renamed to Program PI Velocity
• The Load label at the top of a program section has been renamed to Feature Estimate

Inside of Capability/Epic Backlogs, using List View, Kanban > State View, or Kanban > Process Flow* View:

• The Story Points label and value at the top of a program section have been removed

Inside of Story Backlogs, using List View, Kanban > State View, or Kanban > Process Flow* View:

• Average Velocity label at the top of a team section renamed to Avg Team Velocity
  • Click the value to open the team’s Details panel, focused on the Sprints tab. The sprints used to calculate the average velocity will be highlighted
  • If viewing a Kanban team, the label will display as Throughput: #/week

     

•  The progress bar to the right of the Pull Rank button at the top of a sprint section has been labeled Sprint Progress. Sprint Progress is calculated as:

  • ((Sum of level-of-effort (LOE) points from stories with a state of Accepted, assigned to the selected team and sprint) / (Sum of LOE points from stories assigned to the selected team and sprint)) * 100

• Velocity overriden label at the top of a sprint section renamed to Override Velocity
• Sprint Load label at the top of a sprint section renamed to Points Planned

Inside of Defect Backlogs:

• Average Velocity label at the top of a team section renamed to Avg Team Velocity
  • Click the value to open the team’s Details panel, focused on the Sprints tab. The sprints used to calculate the average velocity will be highlighted
  • If viewing a Kanban team, the label will display as Throughput: #/week

Capacity Planning:

The Sprint Story Load header for the left-side section of the Capacity Planning page was removed. Within that section:

• Story Load label renamed to Points Planned
• Team Velocity Last 5 Sprints label renamed to Points Planned in previously completed sprints
• Average Velocity Last 5 Sprints label renamed to Avg Team Velocity

In the main section of the page:

• Total Capacity label renamed to Total Team Allocation
• Ramp Up / Estimate label renamed to Planning / Estimation
• Task Capacity label renamed to Available Team Capacity
• Team Load label renamed to Task Hours Planned
• Actual Spent label renamed to Task Hours Spent
• Available Capacity label renamed to Available Team Capacity

• Planned to Burn in Sprint label renamed to Task Hours Planned

  • Previously, this value only displayed task hours that were committed (assigned to the sprint prior to the start date). Now, the value displays all task hours planned (assigned to the sprint at any time).

•  Remaining to Burn in Sprint label renamed to Task Hours Remaining

Within the user table below the main stats, using the View as Table option:

• Capacity Hours label renamed to Member Allocation
• Loaded Hours label renamed to Hours Planned
• Spent Hours label renamed to Hours Spent
• Remaining Hours label renamed to Hours Remaining
• Remaining Capacity label renamed to Remaining Allocation
• Removed the Threshold field and corresponding Save button

Within each user’s section below the main stats, using the View as Chart option:

• Hrs Loaded label renamed to Hours Planned
• Hrs Spent label renamed to Hours Spent

Process Step Cycle Time:

Note: We’ve made several names, labels, and values compatible with platform terminology. Those terms are marked below with an asterisk (*) and use the term listed in the Process Flow (Value Stream) field.

We changed the report name to Process Flow* Cycle Time and made the following changes:

• Value Stream view dropdown menu renamed to Process Flow*
• Value Stream Process Step Cycle Time chart header renamed to Process Flow* Cycle Time, and additional changes were made within the chart:

  • Avg Time hover label renamed to Avg Time in Step

  • Avg Percentage hover label renamed % Avg Time in Step

  • Avg Time in Value Stream label below the chart renamed to Avg Time in Process Flow*. This value is calculated as:

    • (Sum of days work items spent transitioning from the first to the final step in the flow) / (Count of work items that spent time in the process flow)

      • During the Date Range selected at the top of the page

For the line chart directly below Process Flow* Cycle Time:

• Added Rolling Avg Time in Step header

• Updated calculations for all steps displayed:

  • (Sum of days work items spent in the step) / (Count of work items assigned to the step) = Rolling Avg Time in Step

    • During the Date Range selected at the top of the page

• When dragging to zoom in on the chart, the Date Range at the top of the page and other charts are no longer affected

We changed the Value Stream WIP chart name to Process Flow* WIP and made the following changes:

• Avg Work Items hover label renamed to Avg WIP by Step
• Avg Percentage hover label renamed to % Avg WIP by Step

   

• Avg Value Stream WIP label below the chart renamed to Avg WIP for Process Flow*. This value is calculated as:

  • (Count of work items assigned to any step in the process flow during the selected date range) / (Count of days in the selected date range)

For the line chart directly below Process Flow* WIP:

• When dragging to zoom in on the chart, the Date Range at the top of the page and other charts are no longer affected

For the Cycle Time Control Chart:

• Overall Average line label renamed to Overall Rolling Avg Time in Flow
• Updated calculation for the Rolling Average line:

  • (Sum of days work items spent in each step) / (Count of work items assigned to each step)

    • During the Date Range selected at the top of the page

Program Increment Scope:

As part of the Estimation Conversions enhancements above, we've renamed the Team Weeks column to Estimate and restored its visibility. In the release of version 10.82, this column was temporarily hidden to address a prior defect. The column now supports both Member Weeks and Team Weeks, depending on the choice made in the Display Week Estimates In setting, found in Administration > Platform > Portfolio.

Defect Fixes