6 min read

Agile Hive vs. Jira Align

Picture of Stephanie Gaye Stephanie Gaye : Oct 6, 2023 9:56:34 AM

Agile at Scale Jira Align

In the world of project management and agile development, Jira has been the undisputed champion when it comes to issue tracking and collaboration tools. But as enterprises continue to evolve and grow, so do their needs, prompting the development of specialized tools like Jira Align (formerly known as AgileCraft) and Agile Hive.

These enterprise management tools offer an impressive array of features designed to help organizations effectively manage their project portfolios, align teams, and achieve their strategic objectives. While both share this overarching goal, they do so in unique ways, each catering to specific preferences and requirements.

Without understanding the distinctions between these tools, users might find themselves uncertain about which one is the most suitable for their needs. Keep reading to discover which of these tools aligns best with your requirements!

Feature Comparison Chart

Feature Name	Jira Align	Agile Hive
Fully Integrated with Jira	Yes	Yes
Supports Jira Cloud	Yes	Yes
Custom Dashboard Gadgets for Jira	No	Yes
Custom UI, Separate from Jira standard	Yes	No
Comprehensive SAFe® Reporting	Yes	Yes
SAFe® Artifact Hierarchy	Yes	Yes
Visualized Dependencies and Risks	Yes	Yes
Automatic Documentation in Confluence	No	Yes
Team Meeting Facilitation	Yes	No
Comprehensive Suite of Categorized Reports	Yes	No
Provides Estimation Games and Meeting Facilitation Tools	Yes	No
Ability to Split Stories	Yes	No
Able to Identify Orphaned Stories	Yes	No
Supports the Creation of Custom Kanban Boards	Yes	No
Provides Program and PI Planning boards and tools	Yes	Yes
Hierarchical Views of All Artifacts (Epics, Capabilities, Features, and Stories)	Yes	Yes

Agile Hive

Agile Hive is an Add-On for Jira, which simplifies the installation and administration processes, though it does have some limitations compared to Jira Align. One of its standout features is the automatic documentation it offers in Confluence. However, when navigating between feature sets in Agile Hive, users utilize 'boards,' such as the program board and risk board. It's important to note that the term 'board' holds a different meaning than in native Jira, which might cause confusion for some users.

Jira Align

Jira Align looks and feels like a highly developed product, but it is entirely separate from Jira, relying on back-end data connections to synchronize data between these otherwise independent applications. While Jira Align lacks UI integration with Jira, it boasts an intuitive interface with UI elements specifically designed for its purpose. It is worth noting that Jira Align is a distinct cloud-based application. While some data may be shared between Jira and Jira Align, they can also have their respective data with no overlap. Being cloud-based, Jira Align supports cloud deployments of Jira, unlike Agile Hive.

Integration

Hosting Options

Server
Data Center

Agile Hive is integrated into Jira via a set of add-ons, building on the existing UI, rather than proving an entirely new interface.

Fully integrated with Jira – you do your work in a single, enhanced instance of Jira, no data sync required.
Includes Agile Hive-specific gadgets that can be used to create dashboards for reporting, team collaboration, etc
Single Agile Hive menu provided for more straightforward navigation, as opposed to adding options in multiple places that users may not be aware of.

Hosting Options

Cloud
Data Center

Jira Align integrates with Jira in several ways:

There is a bi-directional push/pull sync of data between the two systems.
Data is automatically mapped between Jira and Jira Align during a sync process that allows data to flow between the two systems.
Data can be configured so that specific attributes can be included or omitted during the sync.
Connections and mappings are handled via the GUI by admins.
The View in Jira button allows users to open items from Jira Align within Jira and the opposite around.
The Terminology of Jira Align does not exactly follow the Jira terminology, as it follows the SAFe terminology. The exact terminology can be defined by the user.
Every Jira issue that has a corresponding Jira Align work item will have an issue link linking it to the Jira Align item.
Stories can be added to Jira Align and written back to Jira after all appropriate info is added. Adding a story to an epic in Jira will add it to Jira Align automatically.
Ranking and workflow states are synced automatically between both systems.

Strategy level

Does not provide any strategy level tools.

In Jira Align the management has an own area where they can manage all strategic high-level objectives. You have the possibility to set a mission and vision, as well as values of your company to ensure that all tasks which are processed in the company are aligned with those.

The mission can be broken down into different goal-levels, which can be used to define themes, epics and features. To always keep track of the goals Jira Align provides you several overviews.

If you use OKRs to manage your company, Jira Align also supports you in tracking the progress on all OKRs.

For managing the OKRs, Jira Align also provides an overview called “OKR Tree”, which breaks down all High-Level-Strategic goals through several levels into single team objectives. That gives the necessary transparency to the management to see where things need to be improved.

Portfolio level

Agile Hive handles Portfolios as a Jira issue type and provides an overview above some data like the Portfolio members, the owners, WSJF, status and progress.

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Jira Align provides a range of Portfolio planning and management tools. Beginning with the Portfolio room, which gives you a quick overview above all relevant data for each portfolio, like the financial portfolio information, the progress and most imports PIs which belong to the Portfolio.

Another interesting Portfolio feature is the roadmapping functionality, where you have a timely overview above all themes, epics and features of the Portfolio.

The objectives tree functionality gives you an overview above the progress of all objectives of your Portfolio, including quick filters to track the objectives which are at risk.

Program level

At the program level, Agile Hive offers an informative overview page that includes various elements. It displays information about ART Members, PI statistics (such as velocity, story points burned, elapsed days, business value, load vs. capacity), a burnup chart, an overview of all issues and their progress, an overview of ART objectives, and an overview of risks.

To visualize dependencies, Agile Hive utilizes the program roadmap, which presents issues with lines connecting to show their dependencies. These lines are color-coded to convey specific information about the dependencies.

The Program Roadmap provides a view of the issues at the Program level.

The columns represent individual PIs.
Issues can be dragged and dropped to move them.
When moving an issue to another column, the issue is transferred to the corresponding PI. This change is visible in the issue itself and the Program Board.

Jira Align offers a wide range of functionalities at the program level. The central hub for program management is the program room, which, like Agile Hive, provides an overview of the most critical PI (Program Increment) data and statistics.

Expanding on this, Jira Align goes further by providing an overview of the most crucial work items within a PI, including their connections, status, and the responsible teams involved.

Regarding teams, Jira Align offers a robust dependency management system that allows you to use various viewing styles to keep track of all dependencies between teams effectively.

Moreover, Jira Align enables you to manage the capacities of your teams and team members, allowing you to define the workload for a PI or sprint based on your teams' availabilities. This feature helps in optimizing resource allocation and ensuring teams are working at their full potential.

Product level

Agile Hive does not provide any specific tools for managing products.

Jira Align offers you tools like personas.

Team/Task level

Agile Hive provides a breakout room, as well as some reports, which support agile teams in conducting agile meetings. The Team Reports room is the central area, where different team reports are displayed.

These reports include:

A quick overview of the overall team progress,
An overview of the sprints and their respective tasks and statuses,
An overview of the PI objectives,
A burnup chart to visualize progress,
A risk overview to identify potential risks.

The team breakouts room gives an overview above all iterations and the issues which are assigned to those iterations:

Jira Align offers a variety of meeting scheduling and facilitation tools that can be utilized by all team members. These tools include estimation games, iteration planning, daily standup, iteration review, and iteration retrospective, helping teams efficiently manage their agile development process.

The team room serves as the central hub for supporting your team, providing an overview of the most relevant information for your team's activities. This feature ensures that team members have easy access to important data and can collaborate effectively to achieve their project objectives.

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Besides the team overview it also provides different functionalities to support team meetings, like the Planning Poker games.

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Conclusion

Agile Hive is designed to support small teams that do not plan to grow significantly beyond a few hundred participants in conducting essential SAFe^® (Scaled Agile Framework) processes. Being an add-on for Jira, it delivers a familiar UI for Jira users but has some functional limitations. While it provides basic overviews and reports for SAFe, it may not be the ideal choice for organizations aiming to work in a larger SAFe^®, LeSS (Large-Scale Scrum), or SaS (Scaled Agile Scrum) environment with 300-500 or more agile participants.

On the other hand, Jira Align is better suited for larger enterprises and organizations planning to scale their agile practices to support thousands of participants. It offers a wide range of tools to facilitate and track all SAFe^® processes effectively. While Jira Align's extensive functionalities might appear overwhelming to some users, others appreciate it as a versatile toolbox that allows them to choose the specific tools that best suit their needs and preferences.