How-to guides

Easy Agile Programs and Advanced Roadmaps

Exploring the benefits and features of Easy Agile Programs and Advanced Roadmaps in Jira

You often ask us how Easy Agile Programs compares to Advanced Roadmaps. Advanced Roadmaps and Easy Agile Programs are both strong tools to plan work across multiple teams and projects in Jira, truth be told, they are great complimentary products.

Easy Agile Programs is a native plug-in that extends how you visualize your Jira data. Just like Advanced Roadmaps, you can visualise, create, schedule and manage native Jira issues across projects and boards/teams without the need for double-handling or complex configuration - or leaving Jira.

There is no need to choose one over the other, as they both offer unique functionality and views of the same data. We understand that for some businesses, a Gantt style view has its place. Easy Agile Programs, however, offers a flexible Program Board / ART Planning Board right inside Jira, to offer a place not only to support the PI Planning ceremony, but also as a source of truth beyond planning as things adjust and teams continue to collaborate.

If we consider levels of agile maturity, Advanced Roadmaps is great for those in the early stages of adoption or as we like to say the “crawl” stage. Easy Agile Programs can help you level up and take you through various stages. If you’re finding customers need to Use Advanced Roadmaps for the foundation and Easy Agile Programs can help you level up with the Program board.

Easy Agile Programs, Advanced Roadmaps and Jira Align

We have taken your frequently asked questions and provided all the answers you need. If there is anything we have missed or you would like to explore further, reach out, we’re always happy to chat.

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FAQs

Why would my customer use Easy Agile Programs instead of Advanced Roadmaps?

A key difference between Easy Agile Programs and Advanced Roadmaps apart from our user-friendly and simple UI is how we visualise the data. Easy Agile Programs provides multiple views:

1. Program Roadmap

2. Program Board

3. Team Planning Board

If you’re looking for a tool that can help you implement SAFe or to do PI Planning, keep in mind that Advanced Roadmaps is a Gantt view - and while you are able to save views within it, it lacks the Program Board which is a friction point for those working with the Scaled Agile Framework for PI Planning.

How can I use Easy Agile Programs and Advanced Roadmaps together?

If you consider levels of agile maturity this is where Advanced Roadmaps and Easy Agile Programs can be complimentary. Advanced Roadmaps is a great tool for those in the early stages of agile adoption (crawl). If you’re finding customers need to use Advanced Roadmaps for the foundation and Easy Agile Programs can help you level up with the Program board.

We typically see customers use both Easy Agile Programs and Advanced Roadmaps together in the following way:

Advanced Roadmaps helps establish an issue hierarchy that extends beyond the default Jira Story > Epic issue hierarchy.
Advanced Roadmaps provides a Gantt style view that allows you to create what if roadmaps/scenarios
Easy Agile Programs can take up to 3 levels of the issue hierarchy created in Advanced Roadmaps to provide a user-friendly and highly visual solution for:
- PI Planning
- ART Syncs

The date syncing functionality in Easy Agile Programs tightens the integration with Advanced Roadmaps. When you schedule or reschedule Roadmaps Issues (Jira Epics) in Easy Agile Programs, you can be confident that these dates are reflected elsewhere in Jira and therefore Advanced Roadmaps.

What are the unique features of Easy Agile Programs?

#1 Our native plug-in for Jira integration and intuitive UI means quick to set up and easy to use

#2 Flexible views and highly visual makes it easy to unblock teams and keep them on track

#3 Powerful but simple: to plan and maintain alignment across multiple teams in Jira

#4 Implement SAFe in Jira using native Jira issues and little to no configuration

Why would I pay for Easy Agile Programs when I can get Advanced Roadmaps for free?

Easy Agile Programs may be a better fit if:

You’d prefer a tool that is easier to use and configure for you and your teams
You’d like a tool that is more visual overall, and want views that would support you and your teams in a more a agile way of working
You would like to visualise data longer term, for a quarter/PI, and a team level
You would like a Program Board in Jira to support PI Planning and execution

What is the pricing structure of Easy Agile Programs? Is there a free trial?

Yes, we provide a fully functional version of Easy Agile Programs for 30 days. A Jira Administrator is required to install the evaluation license.

Easy Agile Programs is free for up to 10 users on Cloud.
If you have more than 10 users, you pay a per user amount based on the user tier. You must purchase a license that matches your highest Jira application tier.
Easy Agile Programs for Cloud is sold as a monthly or annual subscription.
Easy Agile Programs for Data Center is sold as an annual subscription.

You can find the cost to purchase Easy Agile Programs on your Jira Cloud instance here.

I’m looking for a tool to help implement SAFe or to do PI Planning?

One of the two key outputs of PI Planning and the source of truth throughout the Program Increment (PI) if the Program Board/ART Planning Board. Easy Agile Programs has all you would expect from a Program Board (team swimlanes, milestones, committed features, and visualised dependencies) so sets your teams up for effective PI Planning and a productive PI. Advanced Roadmaps lacks the Program Board view.

Do you have any customer case studies or testimonials?

Hear from some of our customers:

5 minute video: Powering up Team Planning with Easy Agile Programs & Advanced Roadmaps

Watch this 5 minute video where we will walk you through how you can help your customers really power up team planning by using these two products together.

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