Release Notes for 10.104.X

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.

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.