Leveraging your JIRA investment with PPM

How can we make better use of JIRA data with PPM that supports and compliments operational processes.

In many organisations JIRA is a valuable tool to manage and coordinate the work across individuals and teams, projects and BAU. Establishing the work to be done, estimation, scheduling, and time tracking are just a few of the processes that gravitate around the JIRA dataset. When these activities are are done at the source of the work, they are often most reliable, timely and form a natural workflow.

As JIRA offers great flexibility for managing a variety of entities such as work packets, products, projects, and much more, often we explore the limits of what can be done.

• How far can it go to support Project and Portfolio management?

• Can we manage confidential costs and budgets?

• Can we create effective management reporting, but also enjoy flexible structures to respond to changes from the executive?

Until recently, the choice was to accept that the JIRA toolset would be limited in achieving these higher goals, and would then need to be supplemented by a set of other mechanisms. Else, add PPM and attempt to manage the unwelcome housekeeping of synchronising two constantly diverging systems, with resulting friction between the JIRA camp and the project & portfolio management. This is a thankless task for any PMO team caught in this position, and can lead to a huge waste of resources.

And yet, as many vendors claim JIRA integration capabilities why is this not happening with PPM toolsets?

Part of reason lies in the flexibility of JIRA. It enjoys great success as it is easily configurable and can be deployed in a cost effective manner, often under the corporate radar. Initially introduced in a small independent pilot team, without attempting to win agreement on company wide processes. There is often initial enthusiasm to tailor issue types, workflows, language, as part of demonstrating its ability to align to each teams nuances. The variations then grow unabated with every group that joins the pilot. The proposals of standards and centralised control of any sort may be unwelcome and soon alignment becomes a daunting prospect if there is much history and activity in progress. And so it should be, if the reasons for change are not understood, and the final goal cannot be envisioned.

To consider a JIRA/PPM integration does then require a very sympathetic but firm consolidation exercise. It is only possible if the end state is clearly defined, and a journey undertaken to achieve it. It may be disruptive, as undocumented features are revealed, compromised by the necessary changes for alignment, and local change champions will have to play a part to keep the processes working. If the JIRA landscape is sizeable, then the journey will take time and iterations, and the pace of change must be kept under control to keep teams on side. As the journey progresses, many opportunities will arise about process improvements, that will need to be considered in the context of the intended end state, albeit requiring tactical concessions to support in flight work. Fortunately, as the alignment takes shape, team working benefits materialise, and overall efficiency gains become compelling in their own right.

As the entities of the JIRA landscape become consolidated, and verified in their roles, the PPM integration can then start with confidence. The plan for integration needs careful thought for data ownership. JIRA does many thing well, and is embedded in the day to day activities of many very focused teams. JIRA captures and masters data in its workflows, and that same data can also be harvested by PPM, to enable real time information of progress. This can be reported at all management levels as appropriate, and we take a step closer to that often illusive goal of real time project information for the executive.

For the operational teams, there can be a major unexpected benefit of PPM integration. PPM can provide incisive reporting of JIRA operational data, now from a new perspective, and delivered with a more sophisticated reporting suite.

Once integration has achieved critical mass, then progressively work can be transitioned between the systems as appropriate, depending on where the data should be originated and mastered. It may well be that some elements are partially or fully re engineered back into JIRA to be at the true source of the operational work.

As JIRA, PPM tools are also becoming easier to use and highly configurable, so it may be wise to maintain central administration of the evolving architecture of the total solution to ensure it remains scalable and readily adaptable to changing needs. It is likely that controls may still be required to monitor that integration maintains full integrity, but for management there is confidence that systems overall remain consistent and mutually complimentary.

On this basis the resulting PPM system benefits hugely from the JIRA integration, but also that JIRA benefits from the PPMs strengths. This combination then becomes an effective and well received platform for a wealth of developments and executive information.

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