If like most enterprises your organization builds its own software, it’s highly likely your developers are using Jira to plan their work. But are you using it to its full potential?
That depends on how you’re using Jira within the context of your software delivery value stream. The planning, building and delivery of software products at scale requires a complex network of specialist roles, tools and methodologies. And it’s how these elements work together that maximizes the value of Jira and all the other systems that you employ.
Just like developers need their own purpose-built tool in Jira, all other specialists in the software delivery process require their own specialist tool. This is because the role functionality they require either isn’t in Jira, or not to the level they need. Product need a proper product management tool, project managers need a proper project management tool, test needs a proper test management tool, and so on.
It’s important to remember that plugging too much workflow into Jira can flood the tool and undermine its productivity powers. As a ‘center of criticality’ in the value stream – Jira ties the developer to the working software in production and the original business need – it’s vital that all product-critical information can flow seamlessly through the tool, and work with all other centers of criticality.
To do that, you to identify your centers of criticality, which are systems that create product-critical information (artifacts such as requirements, features, epics, stories, tests, etc.). You then need to connect them to Jira so that all key information that pertains to a product’s development and delivery is accessible to the key stakeholders in the process.
To learn more about what a center of criticality is and why you should care, read our VP of Product Management Nicole Bryan’s DevOps.com article The role Jira plays in complex value streams.
For further information on Jira’s role in enterprise software delivery and why there’s no ‘one tool to rule them all’, download our white paper on why Jira works best in an integrated best-of-breed tool stategy.
Want to know more? Request a customized demo to connect your centers of criticality to extract even more value from your favorite tools.
