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Vani Bandargal - PeerSpot reviewer
Customer Manager at DXC
Real User
Quick to set up, user-friendly, and fast technical support
Pros and Cons
  • "The reporting structure is great."
  • "It would be helpful if they had something for capacity planning that was simpler to understand."

What is most valuable?

The epic linking part is the most valuable aspect of the solution. Of course, the story point where we give and it really gets displayed in the scrum board. It helps us a lot.

The reporting structure is great. It has a good burndown chart. Those are really good.

It's quite straightforward to set up. It's very user-friendly.

Support responds very quickly.

What needs improvement?

I remember in my previous engagement, there was a plugin we enabled to add features. One is the epic, and then comes the feature, and then comes the user story. If you go with the standard version, you have an epic and try to do a user story. I also remember we used the feature using a plugin in the previous project. If that can be made available not as a plugin but as a standard way of doing things. That feature kind of category is missing.

What happens with the plugins, is that not every customer will agree to install a plugin. Some are paid and they come back asking, "Why do you need this plugin? You have to pay an extra cost." Rather, if you make it as a built-in functionality, it would be better. It should be part of the standard solution, not as a plugin.

There is some capacity planning kind of a feature out there. I tried to use it, however, it was really not clear how to use it, how it gets reflected and all. It would be helpful if they had something for capacity planning that was simpler to understand. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used the solution for six or seven years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable and reliable. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. 

Buyer's Guide
Jira Align
November 2024
Learn what your peers think about Jira Align. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
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What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

If there is any scale from one to five, it's really good. I would give it five out of five.

The entire team uses the Jira board. The scrum master or the project manager is given additional privileges to configure the swimlane, configure the team, and all those things. 

How are customer service and support?

We are given an email ID. I'm not a Jira admin, however, I am an owner of a few projects within the Jira in the customer instance. However, whenever there is an issue, we do send out an email. Ultimately, internally, it is aligned to one of the Atlassian support people. I have hardly seen them taking more than an hour or two to get back to us. 

Recently, we had an instance where the Jira was completely down, and we were worried about all the stand-up calls, how to run, them, et cetera. However, within an hour, it was all back up and running again. The support is good. they are very quick.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is easy to set up. It's not complex or difficult. 

There is not too much maintenance needed.

What about the implementation team?

The deployment is completely outside of Jira, except for putting it up for tracking purposes. No integration is done from Jira itself to handle any deployment activities.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I don't have visibility of the cost.

What other advice do I have?

We have our own instance of Jira. That is not used for any customer project. It's more for our internal. When I work for a customer, the customer has their own instance and there is a license and we use their Jira. We don't expose our internal Jira instance to any of them unless they want to pay for a license and set up their board, which no customer would do.

We have a licensed version. It's the latest version, definitely. However, I haven't really checked it and therefore don't know the exact version number. On the customer sites, I don't have any information as to what version they use. 

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
reviewer1512726 - PeerSpot reviewer
Project Manager at a consultancy with 201-500 employees
Real User
Useful customization, technical support responsive, scalable and reliable
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable features are the ability to customize the entries and to update them quickly. Since the new version they released, we started utilizing the customization features to create specific codes and symbols for our teams that were not available before. For example, in team A each person had their own symbols and we had our own demarcation. When our project or task was completed, we had a code that we could enter online that let the main project managers know that it was time to remove it."
  • "One of the biggest issues I found in the new version was once we clicked on one of the tasks that were specifically for our group and went to look at the other portfolios in other areas we had to browse all the way back to the beginning. If you click the back button, it would not work, it stayed the same place. Additionally, if you click on page B, but then you wanted to go back to page A it would not go back to page A. You would have to browse back to the portfolio and then find your group again and open it. This was the only issue that I had with it and I am not sure if it is a Jira issue or it was because of the way the site was laid out."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution for schedule management and to do any updates on projects that we have had. I am a project manager and our organization put together a portfolio for each of us to have our own set of projects listed specifically under Jira that we had to provide regular daily updates for.

How has it helped my organization?

This solution helped our organization by allowing us to do customizations easily for our fast-paced team environment.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features are the ability to customize the entries and to update them quickly. Since the new version they released, we started utilizing the customization features to create specific codes and symbols for our teams that were not available before. For example, in team A each person had their own symbols and we had our own demarcation. When our project or task was completed, we had a code that we could enter online that let the main project managers know that it was time to remove it.

What needs improvement?

One of the biggest issues I found in the new version was once we clicked on one of the tasks that were specifically for our group and went to look at the other portfolios in other areas we had to browse all the way back to the beginning. If you click the back button, it would not work, it stayed the same place. Additionally, if you click on page B, but then you wanted to go back to page A it would not go back to page A. You would have to browse back to the portfolio and then find your group again and open it.

This was the only issue that I had with it and I am not sure if it is a Jira issue or it was because of the way the site was laid out.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Jira Align for approximately four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is very stable. We had one issue but I cannot say if it was because of the network that we were on or if it was a limitation of the solution. Everything else about the solution was stable. The only time it was down was when our administrators announced they were going to take it down.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is good because when we started utilizing the solution we only had three teams and three different sections then from December to January the developers came together and it expanded to 76 different tasks across the teams. When we hit February we had over 300. It is easy to expand and it did not only encompass our teams but also had links to other teams that were outside of our main sets of teams.

Our whole agency was using the solution which is approximately 100 people.

How are customer service and technical support?

When I sent an email out to the technical support I received a couple of answers back. I would say their technical support is good.

How was the initial setup?

When I had to set up my own pages, it was quite easy. I had an enjoyable time creating my own test pages and it allowed me to change many features and test out the different settings. It was very easy to import new documentation and attachments and to set up sub-pages for our team to check in to Jira Align.

What about the implementation team?

It was a large-scale effort for the implementation of the solution and there were three main supervisors overseeing the operation. We have a total of 12 administrators maintaining this version of Jira Align. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I have evaluated ServiceNow.

What other advice do I have?

My advice to others is this is a good solution and if you have multiple teams as we did that require you to provide daily updates then it is the ideal choice. You can track every entry and you can see when it is inputted by a timestamp. If you have a lot of mission-critical or time-sensitive activities, Jira is good for tracking and helping to keep everything organized.

This is an excellent solution and has great functionality.

I rate Jira Align an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Jira Align
November 2024
Learn what your peers think about Jira Align. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
816,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Systems Engineer at Ortho Clinical Diagnostics
Real User
Useful for earned value calculations, tracking tasks, and posting a schedule so that engineers can update their tasks
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature is that engineers can access the Jira database and just search for the tasks that are assigned to them. They can then update the status on their own in those records that are assigned to them."
  • "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."

What is our primary use case?

We have a semi-detailed project plan, and our software groups break down design feature X into sub-tasks in Jira and assign estimates, resources, and due dates. Then they manage a sort of agile sprint. They'll look at task items within the next two weeks, and they track that at the beginning of that two-week sprint. At the end of the two-week sprint, they again see where they ended up. We have had people using it to do essentially earned value calculations. They look at what percentage of work has been completed by estimating the total work for a task or set of tasks, and then they track hours spent against those tasks and percentage complete. 

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is that engineers can access the Jira database and just search for the tasks that are assigned to them. They can then update the status on their own in those records that are assigned to them. 

What needs improvement?

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.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I have not heard anybody complaining about it.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I suspect it is scalable. We have had semi-large software projects managed through it.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We can also use Microsoft Project. However, we generally can't post a Microsoft Project schedule and have each individual engineer go in and update their own tasks or even look at it. In fact, most of the engineers don't even have Microsoft Project as a tool on their PCs. So, they rely on the project manager to post a PDF version of the schedule, and essentially, we end up having to have a meeting every week to say, "Okay, you guys were working on these things, and they were due this week. Did you get them done or not?"

What other advice do I have?

It is not a project management solution in itself. I would call it an adjunct tool to something like Microsoft Project. In Jira, I don't see a way to show project or task dependencies or even a high-level schedule layout. It is more for the individual tasks that are going to be done in the next two-week period, but the big picture of why you have to do those things in that two-week period is kind of missing.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten. It is not perfect, but I also don't see any big problems with how we're using it.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Nishant Pofale - PeerSpot reviewer
Executive Director at Claim Genius
Real User
Top 20
A solution offering an easy deployment phase but needs to consider improving its integration capabilities
Pros and Cons
  • "The deployment phase of Jira Align wasn't difficult."
  • "In my company, we found the solution to have many issues regarding its ability to handle claims and other processes since the solution is not available on a single window."

What is our primary use case?

My company uses the solution for processing claims, specifically motor claims.

What needs improvement?

In my company, we found the solution to have many issues regarding its ability to handle claims and other processes since the solution is not available on a single window. The solution needs to be more simplified and should have more integration capabilities.

In my company, we found that the solution has a lot of integration problems between the communication channel and other related areas, because of which we cannot find any dashboards to connect directly from our client. It is difficult to integrate Jira Align with other products. We currently use Smartflo for communication purposes offered by Tata Tele Business Services since we want to integrate it with Jira Align to get our toll-free number as 1800. We face issues because of the integration problems between Jira and Smartflo. The aforementioned areas can be considered for improvement in the solution.

In the future, Jira Align should integrate and include an Indian toll-free number in its communication channel.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Jira Align for about six months. I don't know the version of the solution I use. My team uses the solution in our organization. My company is a customer of Jira Align.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

In my company, ten people use the solution.

How are customer service and support?

My company has contacted the solution's technical support. My team is not updated about the current situation regarding support since our company's IT manager handles the part related to technical support. Compared to the past, the support has improved a bit.

I read the technical support team of Jira Align a five out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

How was the initial setup?

The deployment phase of Jira Align wasn't difficult. Jira Align does need a third-party component, like Twilio, that doesn't work in India if I want to integrate Smartflo's phone dialer in Jira Align.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The pricing aspect of the solution falls under the higher side of the spectrum. I have been looking at solutions available at lower rates.

My company pays approximately 399 USD per month for the solution. Maintenance and support are already included in the monthly costs paid towards the solution.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I am not satisfied with Jira Align, and because of this, I am looking at other solutions, like Zoho Desk, since it offers a complete ticket management system. Zoho Desk provides a single window compared to Jira Align, so we can integrate every solution in a single window. Jira Align is a little bit complicated to handle my ground-level work since it is a project management tool and not a ticket management system. My company is specifically looking for a solution that functions as a ticket management system.

Our company is currently looking at Zoho Desk since one of our technical members can easily handle the product going to previous experience with the tool.

What other advice do I have?

My company is looking for a tool with a single dashboard that allows us to integrate Smarflo's phone dialer, but Jira could not provide any API links for such an integration.

I rate the overall product a six out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Kaleefa  R - PeerSpot reviewer
Business and Functional Specialist at Danske IT and Support Services India Pvt Ltd
Real User
Top 10
A stable tool to manage day-to-day admin activities that allow its users to build dashboards and reports
Pros and Cons
  • "Jira Align has been quite a helpful tool for us because, without it, we would be juggling with all our story points or our backlog items, which would be difficult to manage."
  • "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."

What is our primary use case?

In my company, the solution is used for managing our day-to-day activities like kanban and scrum.

We have a scrum team in our company. We had adapted scrum long ago. We have been an agile team for a long time now. We do have many use-case stories and backlog items. As and when we get any backlog items, we record all those things in Jira and then build a kanban board and scrum board to take care of with our daily activities.

How has it helped my organization?

Jira Align has been quite a helpful tool for us because, without it, we would be juggling with all our story points or our backlog items, which would be difficult to manage. We were earlier managing all those things in Excel and other document tools. With Jira Align, everything looks quite organized since it gives us one place or acts as one solution for all our admin activities. Jira Align does not just help with the admin activity. Jira Align helps with the planning and helps its users know what was completed and is still pending. We can see all the backlog items and then analyze the workflow, which is quite helpful. We do have the reporting functionality in Jira Align, allowing us to take care of all the tasks and the backlog items from Jira and then build up some dashboards and other reports for senior management.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features of the solution are Jira Align's dashboards and its ability to build customized reports because we have multiple teams here. Multiple people work on the same big chunk of activity, usually broken down into many tasks. With Jira Align, we get to know what task is assigned to which employee while analyzing the workload and identifying what is still pending, what is in process, and what or how many tasks were completed, which is helpful for us to manage a project. To manage our day-to-day activity, dashboard and reporting features are the most helpful.

What needs improvement?

An area of room for improvement is related to Jira Align's simplicity. 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. The navigational and other workflow features in Jira Align aim to provide ease of use that sometimes creates difficulty for a newcomer or someone new to Jira to get to know where they are once they are in the system. In Jira Align, the navigational feature or the ability to cross over to each screen should be made more precise, and then it would be much more helpful for someone new to Jira.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Jira Align for seven years. Our organization is a customer of Jira.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is a stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability-wise, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

In my workplace, we have 15 members, who are IT specialists, and mostly developers or architects working with Jira Align.

As of now, we haven't considered increasing the product's use.

How are customer service and support?

I haven't had any experience with the solution's technical support since the tool was always intact and running.

How was the initial setup?

I rate the initial setup a seven on a scale of one to ten, where one point is difficult, and ten is easy.

As a new user, I faced some difficulties when just starting to use Jira Align.

The deployment process takes around half a day, like four to five hours.

What about the implementation team?

The installation phase was done in-house.

What other advice do I have?

Two people, including the agile lead and product owner, are required for the maintenance of the solution.

I recommend Jira Align to those who do not have to handle a lot of backlog items because it gives you a one-stop solution to manage the workflow and then build insights, dashboards, or reports. Jira would be a much more enhanced option rather than using simple Excel sheets or other primary tools.

As a product, I am very much comfortable with it. My only suggestion related to its improvement would be simplifying its overall navigation.

Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
reviewer2345013 - PeerSpot reviewer
Domain Specialist Team Leader at a retailer with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Has an efficient service desk management feature, but the scalability needs improvement
Pros and Cons
  • "The product's most valuable feature is CMDB for services desk management and backlog projects."
  • "Jira Align's cost needs improvement."

What is our primary use case?

We use Jira Align for service desk and backlog project management.

How has it helped my organization?

The product provides better logging and reporting, particularly for tracking changes and incidents. Service desk management has a straightforward process for handling incidents and problems. However, a notable challenge lies in managing multiple projects created by numerous stakeholders, which can lead to a lack of control and understanding of project purposes.

What is most valuable?

The product's most valuable feature is CMDB for services desk management and backlog projects.

What needs improvement?

Jira Align's cost needs improvement.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using Jira Align for three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I rate the platform's stability a nine out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We are working on making the scalability more user-friendly for non-technical people. It is challenging for business users and requires some training. There could be specific documentation for stakeholders to understand the process.

How are customer service and support?

We take help from a certified third party for technical support services. It needs improvement. They could provide a better contract agreement.

How was the initial setup?

We take the assistance of a third-party partner to ensure proper support and project configuration. My role involves scrutinizing the impact of proposed changes or tools on our processes and workflows. I have to ensure that it aligns with organizational requirements.

What about the implementation team?

We are getting help from a consultant and using in-house resources for implementation.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We can purchase the platform's yearly or quarterly subscription, depending on licensing packages. We have to utilize many add-on functionalities only available in the box. At the same time, most of the add-ons are free. We have to incur the cost of a few.

What other advice do I have?

The platform's most valuable features for aligning teams with business objectives include its capacity to offer clarity on implementing ITIL methodology within the organizational framework.

We are planning to transition to Jira Cloud for better reporting. We are currently using the data center version with the eazyBI plugin, which has proven fairly usable, particularly in addressing reporting needs.

I recommend it for a development team. It is an efficient ITSM tool.

I rate it a seven out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Sravan G - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Project Manager at Resolve Technology, Inc.
Reseller
Top 5Leaderboard
A stable solution that can be used for defect tracking and new development
Pros and Cons
  • "Defect tracking and dashboards are the most valuable features of Jira Align."
  • "Jira Align should reduce the many information fields we need to provide while closing defects."

What is our primary use case?

Our clients use Jira Align for new development and defect tracking.

What is most valuable?

Defect tracking and dashboards are the most valuable features of Jira Align.

What needs improvement?

Jira Align should reduce the many information fields we need to provide while closing defects.

Jira Align should improve the ease of use for developers.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Jira Align for the last five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Jira Align is a stable solution.

I rate Jira Align an eight out of ten for stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Our clients are mostly medium-sized businesses.

I rate Jira Align an eight out of ten for scalability.

How was the initial setup?

I rate Jira Align an eight out of ten for the ease of its initial setup.

What about the implementation team?

Initially, Jira Align's deployment takes some hours. Otherwise, it is quick to deploy. Initially, to deploy the solution, we had to check the prerequisites on the server and connectivity. Based on these factors, we can install and set it up.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

On a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive, I rate Jira Align a seven out of ten.

What other advice do I have?

I suggest users go through the free training first, understand, and then start using Jira Align instead of using it right away.

Overall, I rate Jira Align an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
AbhijitUpadhyaya - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior QA Engineer at Calsoft
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
A stable and scalable product that has a good UI and enables users to track and update testing progress
Pros and Cons
  • "I like the way the UI functions."
  • "The initial setup was a little bit complex."

What is our primary use case?

The solution can be used to track and update testing progress. We can use it for test management, creating stories, and grading test cases and plans.

What is most valuable?

I have been using the tool to write test cases, prepare test plans, and create bugs. I like the way the UI functions.

What needs improvement?

The initial setup was a little bit complex. It involved many things.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The product is quite stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The product is scalable. More than 100 people are using the solution in our organization.

How was the initial setup?

The admin team deploys and purchases the license. We use it whenever there is an account created in our name. We simply log in with our credentials and use the tool.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The tool is moderately expensive.

What other advice do I have?

I recommend the solution to others. Overall, I rate the tool an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Jira Align Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: November 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Jira Align Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.