Havi
Rally vs. Jira: Feature comparison
Agile support
Winner: Tie
Rally provides robust support for agile methodologies, including scrum and kanban boards. With Rally, your teams can plan sprints, manage backlogs and track projects and portfolio progress with real-time updates. The agile metric charts offered by Rally include Throughput, Flow Efficiency, Flow Load, Flow Time and Flow Predictability. With such agile boards, Rally can handle large volumes of tasks and users, doubling down on its suitability for enterprise-level agile implementations.
In addition to being highly customizable, Jira’s agile boards can be integrated with sprint planning tools like version management, backlog grooming, story points and scrum boards, among other capabilities. With Jira, you’ll get scrum, kanban and hybrid methodologies with detailed tracking and reporting capabilities that include agile report features like cumulative flow diagrams and control charts.
The combination of customizability and out-of-the-box nature of Jira makes it an attractive option for software development teams or teams with similar agile workflows.
Gantt charts
Winner: Jira
Although it’s not outrightly labeled a Gantt chart, Rally has a Timeline view that gives its users the ability to visualize their portfolio items over a time-based view. Its Timeline view can be used to prioritize and schedule work, so you can visualize the plan data of multiple teams and how work relates across multiple schedules and teams.
Jira also offers a Timeline view as one of two native Gantt chart capabilities. The Timeline view offers Gantt charts for team-level management and is available in all plans, including the free plan. You can use it to visualize the timing, duration and dependencies of the tasks in your projects.
The second Gantt offering, known as Plans, is for organization-level management, allowing for much more complex visualization of organization-wide initiatives, dependency tracking and priority management. However, it’s only available from Jira Premium onwards.
Task management
Winner: Tie
Rally is great for task management, particularly for large teams. Rally describes itself as a single system of record for enterprise agile management, meaning its approach to task tracking, sprint planning and backlog management is not only detailed but also comprehensive. Its robust reporting and analytics tools provide lots of insights into team and portfolio performance and project progress. As a result, it’s highly suitable for complex, large-scale projects.
Integrations
Winner: Jira
Even though Rally offers third-party integrations, they aren’t as vast as Jira’s. It integrates with about 40 tools, including CloudBees, Jira, Git and Jenkins ServiceNow, though a number of its integrations are through OpsHub.
On the other hand, Jira is known for its extensive integration capabilities, offering over 3,000 apps and add-ons through the Atlassian Marketplace. This broad range of integrations adapts Jira to many project types. Some key integrations include development tools like GitHub, Bitbucket and Jenkins, as well as business applications such as Slack, Trello, Salesforce and Confluence.
Security
Winner: Jira
Rally offers enterprise-grade security features, including data encryption, secure user authentication and compliance with industry standards like AICPA SOC, ISO/IEC 27001:2013 and FISMA. It provides robust security controls suitable for large organizations handling sensitive data.
On the other hand, Jira provides comprehensive security features, particularly in its Premium and Enterprise Plans. These include permissions, advanced admin controls, SSO, SCIM for user provisioning, encryption, data residency options and MDM, among others. Jira’s Enterprise plan also provides additional security measures such as audit logs, data BYOK encryption and more, opening up different levels of security for teams and organizations with different data security needs.
Collaboration
Winner: Tie
Rally acts as a central hub for teams to collaborate on planning, prioritizing and tracking work and other agile best practices at a synchronized pace. Its users can visualize their work across views like list, timeline and board. It also offers features such as real-time status tracking, custom dashboards and iteration planning. It integrates with tools like Slack and GitHub to streamline communication and data flow.
Jira supports collaboration with its detailed issue and project-tracking features, customizable workflows and real-time notifications. Integrations with Atlassian products like Confluence and Bitbucket further enhance collaboration, which provides a unified environment for teams to work together seamlessly.
Choose Rally if . . .
- You need a focused agile solution.
- Your organization is of enterprise scale.
- You need enterprise-grade security.
- You need enterprise-level capacity planning tools.
Choose Jira if . . .
- You prefer straightforward pricing information.
- Your teams use agile workflows but aren’t enterprise-level.
- You want highly flexible and customizable agile workflows.
- You prefer a vast integration ecosystem.
Epics, Stories, and Tasks
In Jira, Epics, Stories, and Tasks are key components used to organize and manage work. Each serves a distinct purpose and operates at different levels of granularity within a project.
Epic
An Epic represents a large body of work that can be broken down into smaller, manageable pieces such as Stories or Tasks. It is typically goal-oriented and spans multiple sprints or iterations. Epics are used to track high-level objectives or features that require significant effort and coordination across teams.
Example: If you're launching a new website, the Epic could be "Launch New Website," encompassing tasks like designing the layout, writing content, and developing the site.
Story
A Story, or user story, focuses on delivering value to the end user. It describes a specific feature or functionality from the user's perspective, often following the format: "As a [user], I want [capability], so that [value]." Stories are smaller than Epics and are typically completed within a single sprint.
Example: For the website launch, a Story could be "As a user, I want a responsive homepage so that I can access it on any device."
Task
A Task is a specific piece of work required to complete a Story or Epic. It can also stand alone for non-user-facing work. Tasks are more granular and focus on actionable steps that contribute to the overall project.
Example: For the Story about a responsive homepage, Tasks might include "Design the homepage layout" and "Implement responsive CSS."
Key Differences
- Scope: Epics cover large goals, Stories focus on user-centric features, and Tasks handle specific actions.
- Timeframe: Epics span multiple sprints, Stories are completed in one sprint, and Tasks take a few days or less.
- Hierarchy: Epics are at the top, followed by Stories and Tasks. Subtasks can further break down Tasks or Stories.
Practical Use
- Use Epics to manage large projects or features, such as "Migrate to the cloud."
- Use Stories to define user-focused requirements, like "Enable users to reset passwords."
- Use Tasks for technical or operational work, such as "Set up database backups."
Understanding these distinctions helps teams plan effectively, prioritize work, and maintain clarity in project management.
Effectively managing Jira Epics involves clearly defining epics, breaking them into manageable user stories, prioritizing based on business value, visualizing progress with Jira features, and fostering team collaboration through regular reviews and automation.
1. Understand What an Epic Is
An Epic in Jira represents a large body of work or a significant feature that can be broken down into smaller user stories or tasks. It typically spans multiple sprints and helps organize complex work into manageable parts, aligning efforts with strategic goals.
2. Create and Define Epics Clearly
- Naming: Give your epic a clear, descriptive name that reflects its purpose.
- Summary & Narrative: Add a meaningful summary and description explaining the goal, scope, and expected outcome.
- Scope boundaries: Define what the epic covers to prevent scope creep.
- Establish clear completion criteria or definitions of done to know when an epic can be closed.
3. Break Down Epics Into Stories
- Divide epics into smaller, actionable user stories or tasks.
- Each story should represent a testable feature or deliverable achievable within a sprint.
- Use story points or other estimation methods to assess effort and complexity.
- Group related stories for easier tracking and prioritization.
4. Prioritize Based on Business Value
- Use prioritization frameworks like MoSCoW or weighted scoring.
- Focus on high-impact stories first, aligning with business goals.
- Maintain a prioritized epic backlog to plan sprint work effectively.
5. Visualize and Track Epic Progress
- Use Jira’s Epic Panel, Timeline view, and Roadmaps to plan and monitor epics.
- Set start and due dates to manage timelines.
- Utilize Jira reports like Epic Report, Burnup Charts, Velocity Charts, and Cumulative Flow Diagrams to visualize progress and identify bottlenecks.
- Use swimlanes on boards grouped by epics for clearer work segmentation.
6. Collaborative Management and Regular Reviews
- Hold regular backlog refinement sessions to update priorities, add acceptance criteria, and remove obsolete items.
- Foster open communication via daily standups and collaborative tools within Jira.
- Assign clear ownership of epics and stories for accountability.
7. Automate Routine Tasks
- Use Jira Automation to:
- Auto-close epics when all child issues are completed.
- Notify stakeholders about status changes.
- Update fields and transitions automatically to reduce manual effort
8. Close Epics Properly
- Mark epics as "Done" once the main objectives are completed.
- It’s acceptable to leave irrelevant or deprioritized child items open.
- Conduct retrospectives to capture lessons learned for future epics.
Bonus Tips
- Avoid making epics too large or too small; aim for meaningful bodies that deliver value within a reasonable timeframe (often 6 months to a year).
- Use custom fields and labels for enhanced categorization.
- Leverage Jira add-ons like Structure or Salto to create hierarchical views for deeper insight.
- Review and update your epic roadmap regularly to keep everyone aligned.
By following these best practices, Jira Epics become powerful tools that streamline agile project management, enhance visibility, and improve team collaboration, ensuring successful delivery of large
Jira Task vs Story vs Epic: Unraveling the Hierarchy of Agile Work Items