How to Run Multiple Jira Instances Intelligently

Jira is the #1 software development tool used by agile teams, but after several workshops with new clients we’ve noticed that it’s troublesome to run several Jira instances in parallel. When this agile tool spreads throughout an organization, however, different teams often prefer to spin up their own Jira instances. For C-level managers, this turns out to be a nightmare, as their projects, tasks, and resources get scattered around the organization and become impossible to orchestrate from a single place. One of our clients had to administer more than ten Jira instances in parallel! A few months ago, the client didn’t know how to manage a federated environment, but now we’re trying to help them get better visibility over their projects with Epicflow.

Run Multiple Jira Instances in Parallel

So far, managers haven’t been able to find a solution for managing several Jira instances simultaneously. Nevertheless, smart linking of instances in this agile application is possible. We’ve discovered that even within the same company, each Jira instance can have its own setup. Deadlines, versions, components – it appears that every team has its own interpretation of Jira. Asking team members to align how they work with Jira meets resistance. Instead of forcing employees to change their way of working, we’ve built an advanced mapping module that translates all Jira “accents” into one common language: Epicflow. The power of this common language is that it enables you as a manager to track and compare project and team performance in one place. For your people working on multiple projects at the same time (not allowed in Scrum, though this happens quite frequently in practice), the software gives clear task priorities across all projects, increasing speed dramatically.

Epicflow proves that you can manage multiple projects in a unified environment with less overhead and minimum overload. It’s a foolproof project management method for establishing a high-level view of many projects on a single dashboard with early warning signals before projects get out of hand. This software can integrate data from several Jira instances and bring all tasks and resources under one roof. You’ll be able to monitor your projects – historically and in real time – and get early access to the information that drives your business.

Read an interview with our PM scientists to find out more about Epicflow.

 

Apply High-End Prioritization Tactics

Managing a portfolio is far beyond any person’s physical and psychological capacity, especially when it comes to re-planning and prioritizing large numbers of projects hosted on different Jira instances. It’s exceptionally complicated to deliver on time and on budget and determine the urgency of tasks when practically everything seems to be the number one priority. If you have a tough time scheduling, this project flow app will map out an alternative set of priorities. Our algorithms make it possible to compute NP-hard problems or problems with “infinite” possible combinations of task and resource dependencies. In the short run, priorities will restore your team’s focus on the most important things.

Learn how to prioritize like a world-class leader.

Manage Across Multidisciplinary Teams

Our clients find Epicflow intuitive and analytical. We’ve drawn on thousands of hours of project management research to ensure that your complex environments are translated into simple graphs and clear visualizations. This PM solution is for industries that embrace coordination across R&D, engineering, marketing, and other departments. The software aligns multiple parties, and project leaders can monitor an entire organization’s backlog. The only requirement for this SaaS solution to work properly and create perfect flow is to make sure that team members update their work statuses. The tool is highly recommended if you apply Waterfall, Critical Chain, or Agile project management methodologies, or even if you combine them. Epicflow increases productivity by an average of 50% for waterfall projects and 20% for Agile projects independent of currently used software. We consider Epicflow the next generation of critical chain project management based on the problems it solves and our client’s results.

Predict the Impact and Feasibility of Future Projects

To date we aren’t aware of any other multi-project management software that allows business experts to assume control over future projects. Our resource management tool makes it possible to estimate whether your team will be able to embark on one more project. The future load graph only needs your resource data that’s integrated from Jira. Epicflow is the best portfolio management software to add predictive analytics to the tool you’re currently using and create smooth flow for projects.

Spot Dynamic Bottlenecks

Jira is frequently used along with Scrum and can solve distraction problems by eliminating multitasking between projects: one product, one team. But this approach eliminates good multitasking, thus creating losses in productivity at the same time. By good multitasking we mean channeling spare capacity to save projects that are really in trouble. Our message is that all teams are cross-functional and everyone should be a generalist. Epicflow was designed to track bottlenecks, not ignore them, and that’s the core value this project management tool brings to Agile environments. Respect the process, but back yourself up with knowledge of where all your projects stand.

Have you ever experienced difficulties running several Jira instances? Get a bird’s-eye-view of your parallel projects in Jira with our smart solution. Sign up for a live Epicflow demonstration below.