Advanced Roadmaps in Jira: Visual Planning

Managing multiple teams, projects, and timelines in Jira can get messy fast. That’s where Advanced Roadmaps (formerly known as Portfolio for Jira) comes in. It’s a powerful tool from Atlassian that helps Agile teams plan work across teams, track progress visually, and make better long-term decisions. Whether you’re a product manager, Scrum Master, or program lead, this tool can bring clarity to your planning and delivery process. Let’s break down what Advanced Roadmaps is and how it helps you plan smarter. What is Advanced Roadmaps in Jira? Advanced Roadmaps is an advanced planning tool in Jira Software Premium. It allows teams to: It takes the chaos out of multi-team planning and helps teams stay aligned, even as priorities change. Key Features of Advanced Roadmaps 1. Timeline View (Gantt-style Planning) Advanced Roadmaps gives you a visual timeline of all your work items. You can see Epics, Stories, and Initiatives across sprints or longer timeframes. Drag-and-drop functionality makes it easy to adjust plans and shift dates when needed. 2. Multi-Team Support You can bring in multiple Jira boards and projects into one roadmap. This is ideal for programs or initiatives that involve more than one team working toward a shared goal. 3. Capacity Planning You can view each team’s availability per sprint and make sure you’re not overloading anyone. This helps balance workloads and ensures realistic delivery dates. 4. Dependency Tracking You can link tasks across teams and see how one delay can affect other work. These dependencies are clearly marked on the roadmap, helping teams coordinate better. 5. Scenarios for What-If Planning Need to adjust plans quickly? Use the Scenario Planner to try different approaches without affecting your live roadmap. This is perfect for responding to changes or testing new priorities. 6. Custom Hierarchies Unlike standard Jira, Advanced Roadmaps lets you define your own issue hierarchies (e.g., Initiative > Epic > Story). This gives you more control over how you plan and track work. Why Use Advanced Roadmaps? ✅ Better Visibility You get a big-picture view of what all your teams are working on, when it’s expected to be delivered, and how the work connects. ✅ Stronger Alignment When teams can see how their work contributes to larger goals, collaboration improves. Advanced Roadmaps helps connect daily tasks to business outcomes. ✅ More Flexibility With real-time editing, drag-and-drop features, and what-if scenarios, you can adapt quickly when things change (because they always do in Agile). ✅ Risk Management With dependency tracking and team capacity info, you can spot problems before they grow. That’s key for hitting deadlines and staying on track. Who Should Use It? Getting Started Tips Final Thoughts Advanced Roadmaps is a great tool for scaling Agile in Jira. It brings structure, visibility, and flexibility to large, complex environments. If you’re dealing with multiple teams, changing priorities, and big goals, this tool can help you stay aligned and deliver with confidence.