Organizations with ambitious growth goals often struggle with alignment—connecting executive vision with delivery-team execution. It’s not about effort or talent alone, but about visibility, coordination, and shared context across departments and leadership levels.

That’s where Jira Align comes in. Atlassian’s enterprise strategy and planning platform helps large organizations link corporate objectives to the work happening on the ground. At Clovity, we’ve seen how the right tools shape outcomes—by bringing structure to decision-making and delivery, without adding complexity.

This post explores how enterprise teams can apply strategic planning principles in Jira Align to set realistic goals, make informed trade-offs, and stay on course as conditions evolve.

Bridging Strategy and Execution

In many enterprises, business units use their own priorities, tools, and timelines, making it hard to answer questions like:

• Are we allocating resources to the initiatives that matter most?
• How quickly can we pivot if market conditions change?
• Which efforts tie back to company OKRs or strategic themes?
• Are we duplicating work across teams?

Traditional project-tracking tools fall short here. Jira Align was built to bridge this gap for organizations practicing agile at scale.

1. Strategic Themes and Objectives: Setting a Shared North Star

Strategic Themes in Jira Align form the foundation for long-term planning. Aligned with corporate goals—customer expansion, platform modernization, regulatory compliance—they cascade through your work structure. From themes, you define objectives and key results (OKRs) or business outcomes, giving measurable targets at portfolio and program levels.

• Define and communicate company-wide goals
• Link initiatives and epics to those goals
• Track progress against outcomes over time

Clovity works with leadership to configure this foundation, ensuring strategic intent informs every decision.

2. Portfolio Planning: Making Investments Visible

Portfolio Kanban visualizes the intake and prioritization of high-level initiatives. Planners evaluate initiatives by estimated value, cost of delay, funding requirements, and capacity. This transparency clarifies trade-offs—what to start, pause, or fund.

• A retailer comparing ROI of mobile-app upgrades vs. a new payment gateway
• A public-sector agency adjusting grant-funded programs based on staffing and deadlines

Jira Align doesn’t decide for you—it makes the decision-making process clearer.

3. Program and Team Alignment: From Roadmaps to Sprints

Once priorities are set, Jira Align connects epics and capabilities to team-level work in Jira Software. Teams build sprints and stories while staying aware of their impact on larger goals, and RTEs access aggregated views across teams without manual reporting.

• How many sprints are needed for a capability?
• Which teams are blocked, and why?
• Are we ahead or behind on this quarter’s objectives?

Clovity customizes roll-ups, dashboards, and PI Planning modules so dependencies, milestones, and risks stay visible across workstreams.

4. Financial Tracking and Capacity Management

Spreadsheets and slide decks can’t keep up with shifting priorities. Jira Align offers built-in cost tracking, capacity modeling, and resource forecasting:

• Cost tracking at initiative, epic, or feature level
• Capacity modeling based on actual or projected team velocity
• Resource forecasting aligned with funding decisions

Clovity configures these models to fit your finance team’s needs and integrate with ERP or time-tracking tools.

5. Real-Time Reporting for Smarter Decisions

Jira Align’s out-of-the-box reports serve both strategic oversight and daily coordination:

• Value Engineering reports to measure ROI
• Program Room views to monitor PI progress and risks
• Team Load and Velocity charts to assess capacity
• Multi-level roadmaps spanning portfolio, program, and team

These real-time dashboards eliminate manual status updates. Clovity augments reporting with training so stakeholders interpret data confidently and drive meaningful discussions.

Getting Started with Jira Align

Implementing Jira Align is more than installing software—it’s establishing the framework for your way of working. Clovity’s structured onboarding includes:

• Stakeholder workshops to identify goals, users, and reporting needs
• Architecture planning to define hierarchy—from themes to stories
• System configuration aligned to your Jira Software setup, structure, and cadence
• Training for executives, program managers, delivery teams, and admins
• Ongoing support to evolve the system as needs change

Why Work with Clovity?

Jira Align’s power relies on thoughtful implementation. Clovity focuses on outcomes—aligning strategy, execution, and reporting with how your business operates. Our experience includes:

• Supporting federal agencies, healthcare providers, and financial institutions with agile-at-scale solutions
• Guiding teams through SAFe®, LeSS, and custom frameworks
• Building integrations and custom reporting with tools like Tableau, Power BI, and Salesforce

Let’s Talk

If you’re ready to bring more structure and visibility to strategic planning and delivery, Jira Align might be the right fit. Clovity is here to guide you—from day one through every quarterly planning cycle ahead.