How do we integrate Jira Align and Jira Software? Any documentation for Jira Align Overview/Admin?
Asked by Vinay Sharma:

Is there out of box functionality available for Jira Align and Jira integration?

Is there any documentation available for Jira Align Overview and Jira Align Administration?


Answers:
author: Yogesh Mude
body: HI [@Vinay Sharma](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/1201401)

Please have a look at the below article.

<https://agilecrafthelp.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000088894-10X-Jira-Integration-Prerequisites>

comments: author: Peter Jessen
body: Hi [@Vinay Sharma](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/1201401)

See my response in the separate answer below.

Regards,

Peter


author: Vinay Sharma
body: Thanks Peter for the detailed response.

Does Atlassian provide Jira Align evaluation access? How can I get it?

Regards,

Vinay Sharma


author: Peter Jessen
body: Hi [@Vinay Sharma](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/1201401)

See my response in the separate answer below.

Regards,

Peter


author: Peter Jessen
body: Moving my solution to a separate post so I get credit for the answer. :-)

Hi [@Vinay Sharma](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/1201401)

The link provided by [@Yogesh Mude](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/3503074) provides the prerequisites for the integration.

This link provides a list of all of the Jira Integration-related articles. - <https://agilecrafthelp.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/sections/115000484553-10X-Jira-Integration-Guide>. The [10X: Jira Data Synchronization](https://agilecrafthelp.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000088393-10X-Jira-Data-Synchronization) article explains how the non-normalized data in Jira is transformed into the (mostly) normalized data in Jira Align.

Even after reading the articles, you will only have started to scratch the surface on the integration. If you are running a plain-vanilla Jira instance, adhering to Atlassian best practices and good agile discipline, then the integration is relatively straight-forward.

I've been implementing Jira Align for 4 years now and I have yet to find a client with a plain-vanilla Jira instance with anything close to following Atlassian best practices and consistently good agile discipline.

Bottom line, in my experience, you need to work with an experienced Jira Align implementation expert to make sure your integration is actually properly configured for your organization. The connector is extremely robust, and fragile at the same time, due to the lack of any type of data integrity within Jira. The power of Jira (its flexibility) is also its Achilles' heel when attempting to integrate through the Atlassian Jira API to an outside system (such as Jira Align).

Regards,  
Peter

Hi [@Vinay Sharma](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/1201401)

I am not an Atlassian employee, so I can't speak to their current licensing, etc.

I can tell you from experience that there was, and I think still is, a demo-type version known as Launchpad that is available to qualified individuals. You need to speak with the Jira Align sales team to see if you qualify for access.

Launchpad was very thorough when I went through it. You are guided through different functionality in a structured manner and are then able to try what you learn in each lesson with the demo data. I highly recommend your company request access to Launchpad through Jira Align Sales, if you are interested.

I don't know how much you know about Jira Align. It is a true enterprise agile platform, so there is no way for an individual to try it out like you can do with Jira, Confluence, etc. I personally have 10-pack licenses for Jira and Confluence, and I was able to first try and then buy with my credit card. Jira Align doesn't work that way because you're looking at a platform that only makes sense (in my experience) when you are rolling it out at the program/Agile Release Train level and above. When integrating Jira Align with Jira, there is a significant effort required to make sure Jira is configured properly so the data rolls up accurately for metrics and strategic decision making. Here is where Jira's flexibility - a strength for team level usage - becomes an Achilles' heel. Even the most plain vanilla Jira implementation requires thoughtful integration to Jira Align.

For example, to properly set up the integration between Jira and Jira Align, assuming an ongoing Jira environment (potentially with years' of data and customization) requires an analysis of all Jira projects that you intend to sync with Jira Align to determine the potential modifications needed to existing workflows, templates, team-to-project relationships (one team per project, multiple teams per project), use of custom fields (very common in Jira environments), non-standard use of standard functionality (such as allowing multiple teams to share sprints across board, "bucket sprints" - using sprints as buckets for types of work, and others). If all of these things are not configured properly (and many configurations are client preferences based on how they want to see data roll up) then you have a garbage-in-garbage-out situation.

I've had clean Jira Align - Jira integrations get out of whack in a matter of months because Jira admins who were used to using Jira without external systems connected via the Atlassian Jira API (like Jira Align) started changing workflows, create/update templates, custom fields, and issue types without understanding the impact to the data in Jira Align.

There is, currently, no way (in my opinion) for a company to implement Jira Align on their own without the support and guidance of someone experienced in both implementing and coaching Jira Align. I know Atlassian is working diligently to further integrate Jira with Jira Align, and I've already seen the benefits of those improvements.

Regards,

Peter


Tags: jira-software