What are the best practices for using Jira Portfolio to manage software project portfolios?

1 Plan your portfolio hierarchy

Before you start creating your portfolio plan, you need to define your portfolio hierarchy. This is the structure that organizes your work items into different levels of granularity and alignment. For example, you might have a hierarchy that consists of initiatives, epics, stories, and subtasks. Or you might have a different terminology, such as themes, features, and tasks. The key is to have a clear and consistent hierarchy that reflects your business objectives, dependencies, and priorities. You can customize your hierarchy in Jira Portfolio by going to Portfolio > Administration > Portfolio Hierarchy.

2 Map your portfolio sources

Once you have your portfolio hierarchy, you need to map your portfolio sources. These are the Jira projects, boards, or filters that contain the work items that you want to include in your portfolio plan. You can add multiple sources to your portfolio plan, as long as they share the same hierarchy level configuration. You can also choose whether to import all issues from a source, or only those that match certain criteria, such as status, label, or assignee. You can manage your portfolio sources by going to Portfolio > Sources.

3 Configure your portfolio settings

After you have your portfolio sources, you need to configure your portfolio settings. These are the parameters that affect how your portfolio plan is calculated and displayed. For example, you can set your scheduling options, such as whether to use target dates or calculated dates, how to handle dependencies and constraints, and how to account for team availability and skills. You can also set your reporting options, such as how to group and filter your data, how to show or hide fields and columns, and how to customize your views and charts. You can access your portfolio settings by clicking on the gear icon in the top right corner of your portfolio plan.

4 Review and adjust your portfolio plan

Once you have your portfolio settings, you can review and adjust your portfolio plan. This is where you can see the impact of your portfolio sources and settings on your portfolio schedule, scope, and resources. You can use the timeline view to see the planned start and end dates of your work items, as well as their dependencies and milestones. You can use the scope view to see the hierarchy and status of your work items, as well as their estimates and progress. You can use the teams view to see the allocation and capacity of your teams and team members, as well as their skills and availability. You can also use the releases view to see the distribution and delivery of your work items across different versions and sprints. You can make changes to your portfolio plan by dragging and dropping items, editing fields, or using bulk actions. You can also use the scenarios feature to create and compare different what-if scenarios for your portfolio plan.

5 Sync and share your portfolio plan

After you have reviewed and adjusted your portfolio plan, you need to sync and share your portfolio plan. This is where you can update your Jira issues with the changes you made in your portfolio plan, and vice versa. You can choose whether to sync your portfolio plan automatically or manually, and whether to sync all changes or only selected changes. You can also choose whether to sync only your portfolio plan or also your portfolio sources. You can manage your portfolio sync by clicking on the sync icon in the top right corner of your portfolio plan. You can also share your portfolio plan with other stakeholders by exporting it as a PDF, CSV, or XML file, or by using the share icon in the top right corner of your portfolio plan.

Jira Portfolio is a versatile and valuable tool for software project portfolio management. By following these best practices, you can leverage its features and functions to align your strategy and delivery, monitor your performance and risks, and optimize your outcomes and quality.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?