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Create a Program

Users with ‘Manage Programs’ permission can create a new Program from the Programs List screen.


On all Jira Cloud sites you’ll see the following six-step process.

If you’re using Easy Agile Programs on Data Center or Server, you can find instructions for the older Create program form here.

The create program workflow is a six step process:

Enter your program name.

Add a board from Jira for each team who’ll work in this program.

You can choose any Scrum, Kanban or team-managed board, including boards already used in other programs.

For more info on team boards, see: What is a "team" in Easy Agile Programs? Configuring Jira Boards

There are three options you can use as the issue source for your program roadmap issues (commonly called features).

The board(s) you choose will be used to create your roadmap backlog. It is these issues which you will schedule onto your program roadmap and program board.

(a) Jira epics from my team boards

This option is best suited to teams who manage their own feature backlog using Jira epics.

With this option, the issues that will be available to schedule on to the roadmap will be Jira epics from the team boards added during step 2.

Please note that epics from team-managed projects (on Jira Cloud) are not available for scheduling on the program roadmap. Learn more.


(b) Jira epics from a dedicated board

This option is best suited to release trains who use Jira epics as their roadmap items and manage these features in a single backlog.

With this option, the issues that will be available to schedule on to the roadmap will be Jira epics from the Jira board added during this step. This can be a multi-project board.

Please note, it is not possible to select a team-managed project. Learn more.


(c) Any issue types from a dedicated board

This option is best suited to release trains who want to schedule issue types beyond just Jira epics on to their roadmap (i.e. enablers).

With this option, any issue type from the board added during this step will be available to schedule on to the roadmap. This can be a multi-project board or team-managed board.

When choosing this option, you will need to select the link type that connects your team issues to your roadmap issues (instead of the epic-child link).

Connect your teams with higher level business initiatives (i.e. capabilities) by adding an additional level of hierarchy to your program.

Select the board that contains your third level issues. You may need to create a new board in Jira that contains the issues you wish to display.

Select the Jira link type that connects your features (i.e. Jira epics) with the third level issues.

This step is optional.

Keep your features (and third level hierarchy issues) in sync with Jira by selecting the start and end date fields used.

This will allow for real time integration between Easy Agile Programs, Jira and Advanced Roadmaps so there’s less manual work to keep everything up to date.

For date syncing to work correctly, the date fields selected must be shown on the Jira edit issue screen. This is something your Jira Administrator can help you with. For more details please click here.

This step is mandatory if you add a third level board (step 4).

Use the dropdown to select the dependency link type you want to visualise on your program.

For more details on dependencies, click here.

Once you’ve created your program, you’ll be taken to the new program to create your first increment.


Editing your Program

Users with ‘Manage Programs’ permission can edit their Program from the Program Roadmap.

From this screen you can:

  • Edit the Program Name

  • Add or delete team boards from the Program

  • Change the dependency link type visualised on the Program

  • Add a third level hierarchy board

  • Enable date syncing at the feature level for tighter integration with Jira. Learn more.


Deleting your Program

Users with Jira Administrator permission can delete a Program from the Programs List screen.

As an extra safe guard, your Jira Administrator will be required to enter the program name into the dialog to confirm the delete action.

If you are on Data Center or Server v5.2.1 or below, then users with ‘Manage Programs’ permission can delete a Program.


FAQs

What is a team board? What boards can I use in my Program? How can I configure boards for my Program?

See our guide on teams and boards in Easy Agile Programs!

Roadmap Board Configuration

For the Roadmap board we're going to include Epics from all the Team boards (Team A, Team B and Team C) and Epics from the shared project (Space Exploration). We recommend a Kanban board for your Roadmap. You may also wish to review Understanding the cycle time of Epics in Jira. The board filter for your Program Roadmap Board should look like this:

CODE
PROJECT IN (TEAMA, TEAMB, TEAMC, SPACE) AND TYPE = Epic ORDER BY RANK

Alternatively you could assign each Project to a Project category to simplify the JQL. If every Project was included in a category called "Space Program" your Roadmap filter could be:

CODE
"Project Category" = "Space Program" AND TYPE = Epic ORDER BY RANK

Order of features on the Edit Roadmap screen doesn’t match the Program Board

Programs enables you to order features on the Edit Roadmap screen so you can prioritize upcoming work. This order will also be reflected on the Program Board if Jira’s issue ranking is enabled on the board(s).

If the order of your features on the Edit Roadmap screen is not reflected in the Program Board, first check the board configuration to enable issue ranking.

To confirm issue ranking is enabled on your board, make sure the board filter query includes the following clause:

NONE
ORDER BY Rank ASC

See Enable ranking in the Jira help documentation for more information.

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