Issues  |  Knowledge Base

ALM Works

  • Products|
  • Download|
  • Pricing|
  • Support|
  • Company
ALM Works Business Continuity During the COVID-19 Outbreak
  • Structure
  • Structure helps Atlassian's largest customers track, manage, and visualize progress across Jira projects
    • Try It
  • Structure Overview
  • Atlassian Marketplace
  • Structure.Gantt
  • Add the power of Gantt charts to Jira projects
  • Structure.Gantt Overview
  • Atlassian Marketplace
  • Structure.Pages
  • The Ultimate Jira-Confluence Collaboration Tool
  • Structure.Pages Overview
  • Atlassian Marketplace
  • Structure.Testy
  • Test checklists extension for Structure
  • Structure.Testy Overview
  • Atlassian Marketplace
  • Colors for Jira
  • JQL-based color highlighting for enhanced issue navigation.
  • Client for Jira
  • Now an open source product!
    Interactive desktop client for Jira. Available via open source or as a free product.
  • Structure Version: 6.5.2 Feb 23, 2021
  • Free 30-Day Trial
  • Download Archive
  • Structure.Gantt Version: 2.7.1 Feb 16, 2021
  • Free 30-Day Trial
  • Download Archive
  • Structure.Pages Version: 1.6 Feb 1, 2021
  • Free 30-Day Trial
  • Download Archive
  • Structure.Testy Version: 2.5 Feb 3, 2020
  • Free 30-Day Trial
  • Download Archive
  • Colors for Jira
  • Version: 2.1.1 Sep 25, 2017
  • Free 30-Day Trial
  • Download Archive
  • Client for Jira
  • Version: 3.8.4 Aug 21, 2017
  • Free Version
  • Download Archive
  • Structure
  • Choose your platform:
  • Cloud Pricing
  • Server Pricing
  • Data Center Pricing
  • Structure.Gantt
  • Choose your platform:
  • Cloud Pricing
  • Server Pricing
  • Data Center Pricing
  • Structure.Pages
  • Choose your platform:
  • Server Pricing
  • Data Center Pricing
  • Colors for Jira
  • Choose your platform:
  • Server Pricing
  • Structure
    • Support Request
    • Documentation
    • Suggest an Idea
    • FAQ
    • Training
  • Structure.Gantt
    • Support Request
    • Documentation
    • Quick Start Guide
  • Structure.Pages
    • Support Request
    • Documentation
  • Structure.Testy
    • Support Request
    • Documentation
  • Colors for Jira
  • Support Request
  • Documentation
  • Client for Jira
  • Support Request
  • Documentation
  • FAQ
  • Knowledge Base
  • Contact support by e-mail
  • Support Description & SLA
  • About Us
  • Our Customers
  • Partners & Resellers
  • Contacts
  • Join Our Team!
  • News and Press Releases
  • Press Kit
  • Blog
  • Events
Call sales: +1 617 600 4369
  • info@almworks.com
  • sales@almworks.com
  • ALM Works, Inc.
  • 181 Wells Ave., Suite 204
    Newton, MA 02459
    USA
  • ALM Works Ltd.
  • Times Center, Suite 214
    Kantemirovskaya Str., 2A
    Saint Petersburg
    Russia 197342
  • Company
    • ALM Works Blog
    • Structure for Jira in Life Sciences

Structure for Jira in Life Sciences

By Rina Nir, Founder & CEO of RadBee, an Atlassian Solution Partner specializing in life sciences. on July 25, 2018

Atlassian Solution Partner, RadBee recommends Structure for Jira to its MedTech, BioTech, and Pharma clients. In this guest blog post, RadBee CEO, Rina Nir, describes why.

UPDATE: In October 2018, Rina Nir, the author of this guest blog post, joined us for an ALM Works webinar on the same topic. A recording of that webinar is available on YouTube for your review and comments.


My clients at RadBee come from some of the most tightly regulated sectors — pharmaceuticals, medtech, and biotech. We lead Agile transformations that are more complex than most, because they must respect exacting compliance guidelines. I spent nine years leading the R&D for a medical devices company, so I’m unsurprised when I hear the same question from every client:

How do we continue being compliant but also adopt Agile?

It’s a thorny matter, to be sure. I recently wrote about the unique challenges life sciences companies face during Agile adoption. Luckily, the Atlassian ecosystem is flexible enough to meet these demands. I mentioned Structure for Jira as a key element of our solutions — here I’ll go more in-depth about its role in our Agile transformations.

The Difficulty of Design Controls

Medtech companies must adhere to strict design controls — that’s the medtech-specific term for SDLC. Any medical software release must have a detailed set of documentation including design specifications, test cases, and test results. Companies must prove that they know what the software does, and they have tested it to specification.

Pharma companies face similar challenges when they roll out software to support their operations — their process is known as Computers Systems Validation (CSV).

In both medtech and pharma, everything must be documented. Everything must be traceable.

In short, traceability matrices are the nightmare of anyone who develops software in this domain.

To ensure compliance at release time, this documentation must be built and maintained throughout the development process. While Jira is wonderful at managing sprints, design control and traceability is a less natural fit. Many teams handle design control in Excel and Word, or other software specifically created for this purpose (like Rationale, for example).

Many of our clients’ teams desperately want to do design control in Jira, because developers love it so much. Having the right Jira setup can keep developers engaged and compliant — a necessity in any heavily regulated industry.

Traceability can be achieved in Jira by creating issue links, but this can leave project managers in the dark. Because the links are only visible from the issue itself, project managers won’t see the big picture without an appropriate app.

How Structure for Jira Helps

We discovered Structure for Jira in late 2017 — I only wish we had found it sooner. Project managers need to view many requirements on one screen and ensure everything has a related test case. Structure lets them do that in a familiar, spreadsheet-like view. With no need to use multiple tools, there’s much less room for error, because everything can be managed in Jira.

Purpose-built Structure views of relevant Jira issues and tasks make life much easier. The layout of Structure is very similar to a traditional traceability matrix. Because of this familiarity and convenience factor, Structure is now a standard part of our solutions for all our SDLC and CSV projects.

The most crucial power of Structure comes from its powerful automation features. We use the extend automation feature heavily, so that clients always know when a new requirement or specification is added. The ability to automatically add new items to a structure takes pressure off the project managers — they can rest easy knowing they won’t miss anything.

Our clients appreciate the interactivity of Structure. I’ve heard many people use Structure as their main view for Jira issues, because it’s easy to add issues directly, make quick edits, and see the big picture.


Need more efficient SDLC for your MedTech, BioTech, or Pharma related software? Contact RadBee to find out how Structure for Jira can help you stay compliant and make productivity gains. To learn more about Structure for Jira visit the Structure Overview page on the ALM Works website.

Tags: jira, atlassian, structure, radbee, life sciences,
Tweet
Structure

Hierarchical issues for great project management in Jira

JIRA Client

Desktop client for Jira

Structure plugin on the Atlassian Marketplace
Our Customers
  • logo
  • logo
  • logo
  • logo
Newsletter & Updates
Recent Tweets
Tweets by @almworks
Products
  • Deliver
  • Structure
  • Structure.Gantt
  • Structure.Pages
  • Structure.Testy
  • Colors for Jira
  • Client for Jira
  • Deskzilla
Resources
  • Documentation
  • Marketplace
  • Latest News
  • Blog
  • Support SLA
  • Legal
Company
  • About ALM Works
  • Customers
  • Contacts
  • Join our Team!
Quick Links
  • Customer Portal
  • Partner Portal
  • For Partners & Resellers
  • For Press
Site Map
Call Sales: +1 617 600 4369
info@almworks.com sales@almworks.com
Copyright © 2004-2021 ALM Works, Inc. All Rights Reserved.|Privacy Policy|Terms of Use