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Jira Align vs ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 18, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Jira Align
Ranking in Enterprise Agile Planning Tools
3rd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
41
Ranking in other categories
Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites (9th), Value Stream Management Software (1st)
ServiceNow Strategic Portfo...
Ranking in Enterprise Agile Planning Tools
5th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
33
Ranking in other categories
Project Portfolio Management (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Enterprise Agile Planning Tools category, the mindshare of Jira Align is 5.3%, up from 5.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management is 5.9%, up from 4.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Agile Planning Tools
 

Featured Reviews

Tonia Spight-Sokoya - PeerSpot reviewer
User-friendly with good documentation and the ability to integrate with other third arty vendors
I am really focused on identity access management and getting access to the vendors. Right now, I'm setting up vendor access through Azure. You can do that or with the IAM. Sometimes we have to create several different types of access because we have vaulted databases. We have the Unix databases, I have MySQL, and we have Mongo, where I get access to those user classes or to the databases in the host group. Those are all different access scenario forms that I submit after I do the configuration in the form with the security team. I need clarity on the IAM. I'm not clear on PAM eighter. Is there a form that they have to submit to get access to the internal cyber-risk teams to get their access for people to be able to use the tool on the Confluence side? Do they have to send some kind of form to the operation's security or enterprise security? To be able to get the access for privileged access, do they need to be working on projects that have vaulted databases? I still need to figure out how that works. Other companies that are competitors of Jira and Confluence, are able to create their active directories for the vendors that don't come in internally. They only do access through the cloud and through third-party, two-factor identification. That's something I was wondering if that was already implemented in the packages, the package for Confluence. It would be nice to have that right in the solution.
Srinivasa Neelapu - PeerSpot reviewer
Strategies and goals are aligned with demands and partners, making it a strategic approach for the enterprise but the finance part needs improvement
SPM is definitely strong for project management, but its finance capabilities are not as robust. While there is a separate Financial Management product, it would be beneficial to have more out-of-the-box support for finance integrations within SPM. I’m not suggesting replacing systems like SAP for finance, but there should be better support for financial integrations. Currently, connecting to SaaS solutions is complicated, and getting into detailed financial calculations is challenging. Forecasting is manageable, but handling actual financials is not as straightforward. The finance area needs improvement, specifically making finance application integrations easier. Generic finance capabilities should be more user-friendly and integrated into SPM. Although they have started this journey, it hasn’t been fully released yet. There seems to be a roadmap, and once complete, it will be very useful. Additionally, incorporating a Q&A feature for entire strategies or project demands and enhancing text analytics within SPM would be beneficial.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Jira Align's most valuable features are the roadmap, the program board, and the reports."
"Velocity and reporting provide good visibility, burndown charts, and particularly velocity measurement."
"The tool helps us to stick with the timeline and budget of our projects. It also helps me to identify dependencies and red flags and intervene wherever possible. I have found the key metrics tab also useful."
"It's easy to set up."
"Jira Align is an easy-to-use and user-friendly solution."
"The deployment phase of Jira Align wasn't difficult."
"Defect tracking and dashboards are the most valuable features of Jira Align."
"In my previous experience, the Portfolio and Structure feature in Jira is really valuable because it assists with forecasting for projects."
"The demand management tool is very strategic because it helps assess risk, gives you a visual of different demands, and rates those values."
"The most valuable feature of ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management is its end-to-end processes, which enable us to manage strategies from start to finish. It covers idea management to implementation and beyond. Real-time analytics in ServiceNow SPM significantly supports our operational decision-making processes."
"ServiceNow brings to the market different layers with different pricing, so you can customize. And all the layers are really enterprise-ready."
"Everything is valuable. It is tough to choose a particular feature, but project portfolio management along with agile 2.0 are two key product features that I would suggest for services companies like us."
"ServiceNow support is awesome."
"As a product, the primary reason we like it is it gets integrated with our ITSM solution so that we don't have to go for an external product for project management like Jira."
"It manages portfolios and aligns our current portfolio with internal changes."
"The most important feature of ServiceNow IT Business Management is flexibility."
 

Cons

"The tool's corporate pricing is expensive."
"The tool must provide better bulk editing features."
"Jira Align has price packages for different purposes. Users must do their own research and see if it fits their purpose."
"The vendor should implement automation features"
"There is no linkage between the Jira records and the overarching schedule. We maintain the overarching schedule in Microsoft Project, and there is no linkage back and forth with the Jira tasks. They are independent of each other."
"There are fewer customization options in Jira Align due to how it was designed."
"The workflows are scalable from portfolio to individual level but can sometimes be complex to navigate."
"I would like to see Jira Align merge and integrate better with Jira as a whole. A lot of the time, the data from Jira won't map very well into Jira Align."
"The adoption of the Common Service Data Model in an organization to leverage best practices is where the challenge lies. It's not that the product lacks features, but rather organizations often adopt it at a maturity level beyond their capacity."
"The interface is cluttered with a lot of names and areas. It may not be user friendly enough for a first timer."
"ServiceNow needs to invest more in integration. That's the only thing. It could always extend its portfolio a little bit."
"When we originally set it up, we had some kind of success manager free of charge, and now it's an additional charge over and above what we're paying."
"ServiceNow need to focus on internal empowerment rather than awareness to drive the change."
"It could be more user-friendly."
"The portfolio management tool is not as good as DevOps or Jira because it requires a Russian site and BitLocker to train users or run projects."
"SPM is definitely strong for project management, but its finance capabilities are not as robust."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Jira Align is an expensive solution."
"On a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive, I rate Jira Align a seven out of ten."
"Our customers buy licenses. We are not involved in its purchase."
"Jira Align is an expensive solution."
"The license for Jira Align is priced fairly."
"I would rate this solution a nine out of ten for pricing. The price of the solution depends on the number of people using it and the projects you are working on."
"The pricing and licensing costs are rated lower, around six mainly due to significant increases in licensing costs that were not well-received by users."
"Jira Align was reasonably priced then, especially for a bundle license that accommodated around 50 monthly users."
"I rate the price of ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management a seven out of ten."
"I would rate the cost as five out of ten."
"They sell some things in bundles, and it could be handier that some of those things could be sold in another way, like purity models and other packages. Another thing that I'm struggling with is the pricing of ServiceNow's FYE experience, which includes the tools that are positioned for supporting HR."
"The solution is expensive."
"The tool is expensive."
"We have a team of about 6,500 employees across the globe. So, the amount of money I'm going to save by putting the money on the table for the implementation and licenses is very high."
"The licensing is based on metrics and is tailored to customer's needs."
"The pricing is negotiable based on the contract and licensing perspective."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
25%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Insurance Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Government
9%
Healthcare Company
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Jira Align?
I joined the company because they had a large project, and as a startup company, they needed to scale up efficiently. My task was to review the current baseline, assess the team's capabilities, and...
What needs improvement with Jira Align?
The platform's communication features could be more robust for better team integration.
What is your primary use case for Jira Align?
We use Jira Align for business strategies, collaboration, and reporting. The solution allows us to manage the various products and features delivered on that platform.
What do you like most about ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management?
We mainly use the solution to support operations and align our ITSM operations with our business goals. This involves coordinating between our application development, support teams, and network en...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management?
It's a bit costly currently. Efforts are being made to explore cost-benefit measures for investing in it.
What needs improvement with ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management?
There is always scope for improvement. As of now, making the product more cost-beneficial would help more organizations consider investing in it.
 

Also Known As

AgileCraft
IT Business Management, ServiceNow IT Business Management Suite, ServiceNow ITBM Suite, ServiceNow ITBM
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Anthem, nielsen, Homeland Security, NCR, dimension data
Proximus, UNT SYSTEM, SAP SuccessFactors
Find out what your peers are saying about Jira Align vs. ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
845,040 professionals have used our research since 2012.