Creating and deleting programs
A program is a high-level view that helps you track status and progress across multiple plans in Portfolio for Jira. Programs let you see how deliverables and releases align across work streams, and aggregate scope data into high-level scope tables and schedule views.
Programs and plans are different in that they display information at different levels of granularity. Programs display issues of the epic hierarchy level and above, while plans display issues below the epic hierarchy level. By configuring your program to use information contained in a single or multiple plans, your program then provides an overview of how individual teams are tracking towards your initiatives.
See Programs for more information.
Before you begin
Before creating a program, it's important to decide first on the best and most sensible way to structure your work streams. Think of the best way to fragment projects and teams into separate plans, and then consider what programs would make the most sense when you're viewing a collection of these plans.
When deciding on the best structure, remember the following considerations:
- For a program to display information, it must have at least one plan added to it.
- A plan can only exist in one program at a time, which means Plan A can only be added to Program 1. If you want to add Plan A to Program 2, you'll need to remove it from Program 1 first.
Depending on scale, here are some examples on how you can structure your work streams:
Example 1
- You can use your program to represent your organization as a whole.
- The plans in your program can then represent the work streams of individual departments that comprise your organization.
- Note that depending on how your organization is scaling, this sample structure, where all departments are contained in a single program, may not be realistic. We recommend you consider some limitations when structuring your data in Portfolio for Jira. See example 2 below as an alternative structure for large scale organizations or large independent teams.
Example 2
- You can also use your program to represent just one department in your organization.
- The plans in your program can then represent the teams that comprise that department.
These structures of work streams for programs are just examples you can consider — you can even switch it up, and have your program as one department in your workplace, and the plans in the program as projects or boards.
The main point is to find the structure that works best for you, so you can capture all the information you need from your plans in Portfolio for Jira.
Creating a program
When creating a program, you can choose to add plans to the program later on. Note that a plan can only exist in one program at a time.
- In Jira, go to Portfolio (in header) > Create. The 'Create' page will be displayed.
- Click Program > Create.
- Give your program a name, and choose one of the privacy options:
- No restrictions (default option) – every Portfolio for Jira user will be able to access the program
- Private – only the creator of the program has view and edit permissions
- Select the plans you want to include in your program.
If there are no available plans just yet, you can add them to the program you're creating later on. - Click Create.
Adding plans to a program
You can add plans to a program that doesn't have any plans yet, or add more plans to a program that already has plans.
- Go to your plan via Portfolio (in header) > View Portfolio > click your program.
- Click more (
) next to the program name > Configure > Connected plans.
- Select the checkboxes for the plans you want to add to the program.
To remove any plans from the program, clear the corresponding checkboxes. - Click Save.
You can also add existing plans that are using the improved interface to a program. When doing so, note the following:
- The end date of a plan's timeline will be the latest possible target date from the issues assigned.
- In the scope view of a program, the target dates of the issues in a plan will be shown as the scheduled start and scheduled end dates.
- In the schedule view of a program, the schedule will be handled in this priority: Target dates first, then sprints, and then releases.
- Once a plan that's using the improved interface is added to a program, the Calculate button in the schedule view will change to Sync.
Deleting a program
When you delete a program, the plans in the program won't be deleted – but they will no longer be in any program. To use these plans in a different program, you'll need to add them to the other program.
- Go to your plan via Portfolio (in header) > View Portfolio > click your program.
- Click more () next to the program name > Delete.
- Click Delete to confirm deletion.