Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

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 (8th), Value Stream Management Software (1st)
ServiceNow Strategic Portfo...
Ranking in Enterprise Agile Planning Tools
5th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
31
Ranking in other categories
Project Portfolio Management (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Enterprise Agile Planning Tools category, the mindshare of Jira Align is 4.7%, down from 6.0% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management is 5.2%, down from 5.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Agile Planning Tools
 

Featured Reviews

ShyiamaKishun - PeerSpot reviewer
Has a straightforward setup process and efficient project management features .
Jira Align supports program increment planning by facilitating the planning aspect, including team setup, dependency management, and defining the layout for each step or stage in a project. The platform aids in breaking down targets into parts, aligning with Agile principles, and ensuring a structured layout. The most impactful feature of Jira Align for project management lies in its capabilities related to planning and setting up projects. The platform visually understands targets, offering a clear and detailed layout. We can determine when to speed up the process or access the project. We can address the issues related to planning and development efficiently. It is a great product to use, aiding in project planning and alignment. I recommend it to others and rate it a ten out of ten.
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

"The linking of PI Objectives with different features was one of the cool things. It had features, epics, and stories out of the box."
"The biggest advantage of Jira Align, in my opinion, is its user-friendly interface, making it simple and easy for end users to navigate and utilize. The most valuable feature of Jira Align for me is its automation capabilities, allowing us to create automation rules based on logical conditions for our projects. In terms of cross-team collaboration, Jira Align's integration with our project squads has been highly effective. It enables seamless creation of stories linked to incidents and changes, facilitating better visibility and understanding of the relationships between them. Regarding road mapping and dependency tracking, Jira Align enhances our project planning by aligning with our best practices and providing robust capabilities for mapping out dependencies and tracking progress."
"What I like about Jira is that I can easily keep tabs on the status of different issues and what the team is working on."
"Velocity and reporting provide good visibility, burndown charts, and particularly velocity measurement."
"Being able to do PI planning using the program levels is most valuable. I find that the program-level reporting is most useful."
"Jira Align helps us manage communication and tasks for a variety of teams without overlap."
"Jira Align's most valuable feature is the view of strategic control reports for high-level directors."
"The reporting structure is great."
"The resource manager is useful."
"The performance is good."
"The demand management tool is very strategic because it helps assess risk, gives you a visual of different demands, and rates those values."
"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 engineering teams. When there's an issue at the product or network level, we raise a ticket, and our team works together to resolve it."
"The product is quite convenient and user-friendly."
"ServiceNow brings to the market different layers with different pricing, so you can customize. And all the layers are really enterprise-ready."
"The program is stable."
"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."
 

Cons

"The product needs to improve its configurations."
"The solution needs to improve its pricing. It also needs to provide an integrated view of how other tasks are to be tracked. It would be also useful to see the integration of Confluence, Teams, and Slack into the product. I want to be able to communicate directly with others while using the product. I am also not sure if the integration of third-party alternate workflow tools like SAP would be possible."
"One area where Jira Align could improve is in its licensing model. There was a significant change in the licensing module about six months ago, which resulted in increased costs for customers like us. This change wasn't communicated clearly, and it made it challenging for companies to adopt Jira Align without facing higher expenses. In terms of features, I would like to see improved workflows in the next release, as that would greatly benefit our organization."
"For future releases of Jira Align, I would suggest making workflows simpler and more user-friendly."
"Someone who is new to Jira or doesn't have many years of working experience in Jira Align gets easily lost because everything looks the same in the product."
"I don't know if Jira provides training for people who want to be certified with the solution, so that is one of the problems."
"It should just have the integration with Jira. We haven't looked at it since Atlassian bought the product."
"I've encountered limitations in using Jira Align for certain aspects, particularly in implementing OKRs. Jira Align's highest hierarchy is Epic, which may not always align perfectly for specific initiatives. Additionally, while Jira Align offers functionality for tracking OKRs and generating dashboards, I've found that it lacks in some areas. As a result, we've explored alternative solutions that better meet our needs in these areas. Its Kanban feature is also limited."
"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."
"The solution needs a few things in terms of resource management."
"The interface is cluttered with a lot of names and areas. It may not be user friendly enough for a first timer."
"I would like to see some artificial intelligence incorporated into the management functions."
"The user interface could be more modern."
"ServiceNow need to focus on internal empowerment rather than awareness to drive the change."
"The portfolio managed is good for IT, but it's not good for non it's not necessarily great for construction projects, such as the building of physical infrastructure."
"The timing reporting module, and how it's used is a bit difficult to understand. Everything related to project management is quite extensive. It needs to be simplified. At first, our users didn't want to use it, because it seems a bit complex."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Jira Align is an expensive solution."
"Jira Align is an expensive solution."
"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."
"The license for Jira Align is priced fairly."
"On a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive, I rate Jira Align a seven out of ten."
"My company pays approximately 399 USD per month for the solution."
"Jira Align has price packages for different purposes."
"Jira Align was reasonably priced then, especially for a bundle license that accommodated around 50 monthly users."
"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 pricing is negotiable based on the contract and licensing perspective."
"The licensing is based on metrics and is tailored to customer's needs."
"The tool is expensive."
"It's more suitable for larger companies as the licensing cost is relatively high. Not everyone can afford this tool."
"It is a little expensive. We are in Brazil, and for us, it is a little expensive."
"The cost of the solution should not be more than $50,000 annually."
"The solution is expensive."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Enterprise Agile Planning Tools solutions are best for your needs.
831,158 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
28%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Insurance Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Manufacturing Company
13%
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?
The pricing is average. They always have some extra options to add. I rate the product’s pricing a six out of ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive.
What needs improvement with ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management?
If we have enough information, we can address issues from the cloud to the top level of the organization. This allows us to see if our resources are being allocated properly from an executive persp...
 

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: January 2025.
831,158 professionals have used our research since 2012.