ALM Works

As of version 3.4, Structure automation now supports Portfolio's Parent Link field, which means you can fully recreate Portfolio plans right inside Structure - great for tracking and collaboration purposes.

Once they're there, you can work with them using Structure's filters, transformations, link extenders and many other features. Structure will keep these plans synced with all changes pushed from Portfolio to JIRA, so you can be sure it's always up to date.

Here's how to easily track a Portfolio plan in real time using Structure's flexible progress calculation.

Plan in Portfolio, Track in Structure

As soon as you've configured your issue sources in Portfolio, you're ready to pull the same issues into a structure. To do this, we'll use the Inserters from Structure's automation tools.

Issue sources in Portfolio can be projects (in their entirety), saved filters and Agile boards.

This example assumes that all our Sub-tasks are assigned to Stories, and all Stories are assigned to Epics.

Step one - Pull Portfolio Issues Into Structure

First we need to get the issues that are in our Portfolio plan pulled into our structure. We'll start by pulling in Epics from projects and saved filters using a JQL Inserter.

Pulling in Epics from projects and saved filters

If our plan sources include projects and saved filters, we can address any number of them with a single JQL query in the format:

We only need Epics at this stage (you'll see why in a moment) so we add AND issuetype = Epic to our query and we're all set:

Epics only, no Stories

Pulling in Epics from Agile boards

Next, we'll use an Agile Board Inserter to pull in issues from of the boards defined as issue sources for our plan. We're given the option to insert Epics or everything except Epics – we still only need Epics, so we choose the first option.

Epics only, no Stories

Now our structure should contain all the Epics from our Portfolio plan:

It's not a big plan, but it's a plan

And we're ready to add the higher levels from our Portfolio hierarchy.

Step two - Recreate Portfolio Hierarchy

We add a Grouper to group our Epics by Parent Issue (defined by the Parent Link field in Portfolio):

Be sure to add this grouper at the top (root) level of the structure

Now we have the top two levels (in this example, Initiative^* > Epic) of our Portfolio plan hierarchy in Structure:

Bonus - now you can move Epics between parent issues via drag-and-drop.

Next we add an Extender to put Stories under Epics:

Nearly finished...

And another Extender to put Sub-tasks under Stories:

All done!

Ready to Use

Our structure will be updated in real time as issues are edited in JIRA (or as changes are committed in Portfolio). It's important to remember that if issue sources change in Portfolio, they must be updated manually in Structure to keep everything in sync (for now, at least).

With our Portfolio plan in Structure, we can track important metrics such as remaining estimates, time spent and progress, all rolled up to the top level of the Portfolio hierarchy. We can quickly get totals across all our top-level issues simply by toggling Automation editing mode to expose the root-level structure element:

Quick way to see aggregate values for an entire structure

Structure has multiple options for calculating progress based on time tracking, status (where you can assign a percentage to every workflow status) or a custom percent field, with options for weighting aggregate values according to business value, story points and time estimates.

Next up - Track Multiple Portfolio Plans in Real Time.

^*If you have more levels of hierarchy in your Portfolio, just keep adding Parent Link Groupers at the top level, making sure to check the 'Consider other groups' box (because effectively you'll be grouping groups).