Configuring Jira for Easy Agile Programs

Easy Agile Programs is designed to integrate with your existing Jira data.

We’ve prepared this guide to make it easy to identify any changes you might need to make in order for set-up to run smoothly.

What is a “Program” made of?

A Program is a single view of work across multiple teams or boards from Jira. This lets you plan and track work for a team-of-teams (or Release Train) and work together towards shared goals.

A Program will have:

A roadmap, split into a series of Increments. Each Increment is a series of Sprints.
A set of Teams. Each team is a Scrum or Kanban board from Jira.

The Program Roadmap page in Easy Agile Programs, with the Program, Increment and Team sections labeled — The Program roadmap page in Easy Agile Programs shows the series of Increments in a Program.

What do you need to have in Jira before you create a Program?

To create a new Program and the first Increment in it, you’ll need to have:

One Jira board for each team
A set of issues to build the roadmap: either the Epics from your team boards, or one dedicated Jira board with all roadmap issues
(Optional) A Jira board for issues above Epics
(Optional) A pair of start date and end date fields to sync roadmap issue schedules
An link type to use for Dependencies

For more detail on configuring each of these, read on!

Hierarchy in Easy Agile Programs

You can visualize up to 3 levels of issues in Easy Agile Programs:

(Optional) Higher-level issues, e.g. Initiatives
Roadmap-level issues, e.g. Epics or Features
Team-level issues, e.g. Stories, Tasks, etc.

Screenshot of Program board page in Easy Agile Programs app, labelling sections for third level initiatives, roadmap issues, and team issues

Team boards

Each team in the Program will need one Jira board.

Issues from this board can be scheduled from the board’s backlog on the Team Planning page.
Scrum teams can sync Sprints and Estimates from their Jira board with Easy Agile Programs.

If you use a Jira project for each team, you’ll want to use the “main” or default Jira board for that Project. By default, new Projects have a single-project board with a simple board filter query project IN (ABC) ORDER BY Rank ASC.

Learn more about team boards in Easy Agile Programs.

Can I change it later?

Yes: you can add or remove team boards from a Program at any time.

You can change what issues are in a team board at any time by editing the Board filter query in Jira.

Roadmap issues (e.g. Epics, Features)

The roadmap in Easy Agile Programs will be made of Jira issues. By default, these will be Epics from Jira. Sometimes this issue type is renamed “Features”.

You’ll need to select a Roadmap issue source when creating your Program. This will be EITHER:

Epics from your team boards OR
One Jira board for all your roadmap issues
- You can change what issues are in this board at any time by editing the Board filter query in Jira. You can also switch to a different Jira board.
- To make the order of issues sync between Easy Agile Programs and the Jira board, enable Ranking in Jira board configuration.
- Quick Filters from that board will be available in Easy Agile Programs.

The Epic issue type and other issue types

Epics are a special issue type: they’re part of the default hierarchy. In many versions of Jira, Epics are the only issue type that can be “parent of” a standard-level issue like a Story or Task.

Renamed the “Epic” issue type?

If the Epic issue type has been renamed, Easy Agile Programs will still detect and use it the same way.

Not using Epics?

If you’re using a new or different issue type to build your Roadmap, you’ll need to select “Any issue types from a dedicated board” as your Roadmap issue source when creating a Program.

Since this can’t use the default Epic-child relationship, you’ll need to also specific a hierarchy link or link type that connects your roadmap issues to their team issues.

If you enable date syncing, date fields on your roadmap issues will be used and updated when making plans in Easy Agile Programs.

This means you’ll be able to see and edit the same timeline in other tools such as Plans for Jira Cloud Premium or Advanced Roadmaps for Jira Data Center.

Can I change it later?

You can’t swap the Roadmap issue source later (e.g. from “Epics from team boards” to “Epics from a dedicated board“). You’ll need to create a new Program to change the source type.

If you’re using a dedicated board, you can change to a different board.

Higher-level initiatives (optional)

You can visualize a set of issues representing higher-level business initiatives on the Program board page. These will be the level above Epics/Features.

To use this, you’ll need:

All the higher-level issues for this Program in one Jira board
Standardized start and end date fields (see below)
A link type that connects the roadmap issues (e.g. Epics or Features) to your higher-level issues
- If you’ve used Jira Cloud Premium or Advanced Roadmaps for Jira Data Center to configure issue hierarchy above Epics, you can use the “Parent link” connection from that hierarchy.
- You can also use any default or custom link type from Jira Cloud or Jira Data Center.

Easy Agile Programs will show higher-level issues from this Jira board when the dates on the issues overlap with the period of the Increment. Clicking a higher-level issue will filter the Program board page to only show children of that issue, based on the link type configured.

Learn more about higher-level initiatives in Easy Agile Programs.

Can I change it later?

Yes: you can add, change or remove the higher-level issue configuration at any time.

Standardized fields

1 link type for Dependencies

Easy Agile Programs uses one link type from Jira to represent dependencies. The app will use these issue links to show dependency lines and generate reports.

By default, the app uses “blocks” / “is blocked by”.
It isn’t currently possible to select more than one link type. This means that all teams in a Program will need to use the same link type to represent dependencies.

The option to select more than one link type for dependencies is on our roadmap as a potential improvement. Track this feature here, or reach out to let us know how you would like to use multiple dependency link types!

Learn more about configuring dependencies.

If issue linking is completely deactivated on your Jira site, the Easy Agile Programs app will fail to load. Jira Administrators can activate issue linking on Jira Cloud or Jira Data Center

Can I change it later?

Yes: you can swap the link type used for a Program at any time.

Standardized start and end date fields for date sync (optional)

If you enable date syncing, date fields on your roadmap issues will be used and updated when making plans in Easy Agile Programs. This means you’ll be able to see and edit the same timeline in other tools such as Plans for Jira Cloud Premium or Advanced Roadmaps for Jira Data Center.

To use date syncing, you’ll need:

One start date field and one end date field for the dates on all roadmap-level issues in the Program
Both fields are on the Issue Screen(s) used for these issues / Jira projects, so that users can edit the fields

If you don’t use date fields, schedule issues manually on the roadmap using drag-and-drop. Schedules will be stored in a hidden property on the issue.

Learn more about date syncing.

Can I change it later?

Yes: you can add, change or remove the date fields used for a Program at any time.

Integrating with existing planned work

Can I start using Easy Agile Programs mid-Increment?

Yes: you can create a new Increment that starts before today.

You’ll be able to add your existing plans to the roadmap using date sync or drag-and-drop.
Existing sprints from Scrum boards can be synced to the Increment, and will show the work that was planned/completed during that time.
- In older versions of the app, completed sprints do not always appear when selecting sprints to sync. We recommend updating the app before creating a new Increment with dates in the past.
Kanban teams will not be able to schedule team-level issues on dates in the past; they will only be able to schedule future work or roadmap-level issues.

Can I use my existing plans from Jira’s Plans / Advanced Roadmaps?

Yes: Easy Agile Programs will work with existing plans made in Plans for Jira Cloud Premium or Advanced Roadmaps for Jira Data Center. This is because the tools will visualize the same issues from Jira.

To best synchronize with Plans / Advanced Roadmaps:

When configuring date syncing in Easy Agile Programs, select the same start date and end date fields that are used in Plans / Advanced Roadmaps.
If you have an additional level of hierarchy above the Epic issue type, configure Higher-level initiatives by selecting the “Parent Link” link type to use this hierarchy.

Next steps

Explore an existing Program on our sandbox demo site at demo.easyagile.com.
- On this site, you’ll have “Manage Programs” permission. This will allow you to see and edit the configuration of Programs and Increments, and create new ones.
- You’ll also be able to explore the Jira boards and issues that are used in these Programs to see how they fit together.
Install a free evaluation of Easy Agile Programs on your Jira site from the Atlassian Marketplace.
Learn how to create a Program in the app using the Jira data you’ve set up.
- Alternatively, grant “Manage Programs” permission to users so that they can create Programs.

If you have more questions about configuring Jira and Easy Agile Programs, reach out to our support team here!