{"id":8597,"date":"2025-10-26T21:29:46","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T19:29:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.almtoolbox.com\/blog\/?p=8597"},"modified":"2025-10-30T10:40:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T08:40:12","slug":"jira-case-study-targeted-plans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.almtoolbox.com\/blog\/jira-case-study-targeted-plans\/","title":{"rendered":"Case Study: Targeted Jira Plans"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In Jira Cloud<\/em>, you can create an extended hierarchy using Jira Advanced Roadmaps<\/em><\/a> (previously called  Portfolio for Jira<\/em>), which are available in Premium <\/em>and Enterprise <\/em>plans.
This allows you to define custom levels above the standard Epic, Story, and Task hierarchy to represent larger strategic goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Usually, the top-level  work item type being added is Initiative<\/em>. An Initiative is a high-level, strategic goal that serves as a container for multiple epics and other work items, providing a broad view of large-scale projects that may span multiple teams or even entire departments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This results in the following hierarchy:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Initiatives \u2192 Epics\u2192 Stories \u2192 Tasks\u2192 Subtasks<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often such a structure is implemented by keeping Initiatives and Epics in one \u201cmanager\u201d project and delegating Stories, Tasks and Subtasks to multiple \u201cspecialist\u201d projects:<\/p>\n\n\n

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In this way, to have a top-level view, company managers can look only at the manager project, without being bothered by lower-level work items.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For an example, we have built a Jira plan for an imaginary Ministry of Transportation UI development program. Here is a top-level view, showing only the Initiatives:<\/p>\n\n\n

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The Problem: Too Much Irrelevant Information<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There is no problem viewing the whole structure in a single plan. It will show you all Initiatives and all their child Epics in the manager project , and all child Stories and Tasks (and Subtasks) in all specialist projects. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, such a plan would be a headache for a specialist project\u2019s manager. With tens of Initiatives, he would see a lot of irrelevant information and will have difficulty drilling down to his project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore a PM at one of our customers asked us to build a plan, which would include all work items of his project and only<\/em><\/strong> <\/em>those Epics and Initiatives, which are ancestors of his Stories. Here is a diagram showing what items he would like to see:<\/p>\n\n\n

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We tried to build such a plan, but it turned out that Jira does not provide an off-the-shelf solution to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our Solution<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To solve this problem, we have written a Python program, which uses the Jira Cloud API and builds and\/or updates such a plan. Since we expect all project managers to wish for plans, which would contain only relevant data, our program builds a separate plan for each specialist project. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is a plan of the VL project, which works on the \u201cMT-1 Vehicle license renewal\u201d initiative. We see an Epic (MT-16), Stories (VL-1 and VL-2) and Tasks (VL-8 and VL-17).Note that the Initiative and the Epic are in the \u201cManager\u201d MT project, while the Stories and the Tasks are in the \u201cSpecialist\u201d VL project.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Thus the VL project\u2019s manager can see his own work items and only relevant MT project\u2019s work items.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continuous Updates<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

We have uploaded that program to the company\u2019s GitLab and created a CI pipeline, which runs every night and updates plans in all projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now every morning when a project manager comes to work, he needs only to refresh the screen to see the updated plan of his project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Do you have a similar problem? We can help you too.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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We can help you analyze the problem, plan and implement a Jira resolution that 100% fits your needs. Contact us: jira@almtoolbox.com<\/a> or call us:
866-503-1471 (USA & Canada) \/ +31 85 064 4633 \/ +972-772-405-222<\/em><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Alex Karnovsky (B.A. in Maths, D.Sc. in Operations Research) is an experienced Jira specialist\u00a0and a certified GitLab one. He has an extended expertise in the ALM \/ DevOps \/ SDLC methodologies and
tools (Jira, git, GitLab, GitHub, Jenkins, ClearQuest, ClearCase, BitBucket and more).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related links:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n