Tempo logotype
ITSM6 min read

SAFe reporting in Jira: How to measure the flow of your Agile Release Train

So you’re implementing the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe®) and you’re wondering what reporting you have to do.
From Team '23

Tempo Team

So you’re implementing the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe®) and you’re wondering what reporting you have to do. Well, there are three core areas that should be measured in SAFe.

  • Competency: is your organization proficient in the practices that enable business agility?

  • Flow: how efficient is your organization at delivering value to the customer?

  • Outcomes: are your solutions meeting the needs of customers and the business?

Competency and outcomes are the before and after of SAFe. You measure competency to see how ready you are to practice SAFe (through doing assessments). Then you measure outcomes once your solutions have been delivered, e.g. metrics such as sales statistics, feature acceptance, and customer satisfaction scores.

Reporting on flow in SAFe is reporting on the progress and performance of the teams delivering the solutions, as they deliver them. In SAFe, these teams form the Agile Release Train (ART).

How to measure flow in Jira

As Jira is the tool teams use to manage their work to completion, you can use Jira reports to measure flow in SAFe.

The six main flow metrics are as follows:

1

Flow distribution

the proportion of each work item type in the flow, e.g. how many features versus bugs across Planning Intervals (PIs) – formerly known as Program Increments

2

Flow velocity

the number of tasks completed in a given time period, such as a sprint/iteration or PI

3

Flow time

the same as lead time, i.e. the time that elapses from when an item enters the workflow to when it is released to a customer

4

Flow load

total number of work items in progress across all steps of the flow (active or waiting)

5

Flow efficiency

active work time (not including time spent waiting) versus overall lead time (including time spent waiting)

6

Flow predictability

how many work items you completed versus how many you planned

In Jira, there are two types of reporting: project reports, which only measure one project or team, and dashboard reports, which span multiple projects and teams. Therefore, as the Agile Release Train is a collection of different teams working together, your Release Train Engineer (the chief Scrum Master for the entire ART) will need to use dashboard reporting to measure progress.

Several dashboard gadgets capable of measuring flow come out of the box with Jira. You could, for example, use a created vs resolved issues line chart to measure flow predictability. But native Jira won’t let you customize it if you wanted to change colors or labels, show/hide certain data, or use a different chart type. And there aren’t any native dashboard gadgets that let you measure the flow time, load, or efficiency of your ART.

This is where Tempo’s modular suite of solutions comes in, specifically Custom Charts for Jira. This solution lets you build program dashboards displaying all your flow metrics (and more) in an array of fully customizable charts.

Let’s review some examples.

Flow Distribution Report

Flow distribution report in Custom Charts for the ART blog

Flow distribution is about making sure you have the right balance of items being worked on. Features and enablers (work required to support future functionality) offer the most value to customers whereas risks and defects do not, so you want your teams working more on the former than the latter.

Looking at this Custom Charts 2D stacked bar chart, we can see that the ART is working on 79 features compared to 29 defects. This means they’re delivering value.

However, there were quite a lot of defeats in PI 4, which is worth investigating to stop this from becoming a trend in future PIs.

Flow Velocity Report

How fast is your ART delivering value? This Custom Charts funnel chart looks at the number of completed story points across PIs. It shows that the flow velocity of the ART increased a lot between PI 10 and 11, but dropped heavily in PI 12.

What does this mean? Were team members absent? Did teams deliberately slow down because they delivered so much in PI 11? Or could one team in the ART be blocking another?

Flow Time Report

In this Custom Charts tile chart, we're measuring the total time elapsed for releases within each PI. We can see that releases within PI 11 took the longest: 18.5 days on average (which we have highlighted with an orange tile). The fact that flow time has improved by PI 12 can prompt a discussion about what was different in PI 11, so that going forward we can stay on the right track.

Flow Load Report

This Custom Charts 2D stacked bar chart shows work in progress or waiting across three PIs. Flow load increased a lot between PI 10 and PI 11, and since there is nothing in testing, it may be that the ART is struggling with excess work.

In this scenario, PI 12 is a future interval, which is why all the story points are still in “to do”. It means that a lot of to-do items are about to get added to any work left unfinished in PI 11. If we don’t look at reducing our flow load, we could start seeing queues building up.

Flow Efficiency Report

In this Custom Charts table, we can see how the active work time (not including time spent waiting) compares to the overall lead or flow time (including time spent waiting) between PIs.

We can also use the totals to get a flow efficiency percentage. If we divide 8.3 days by 16.2 days and multiply by 100, we get 51%. Therefore the ART’s flow efficiency is only 51%, which should trigger discussions about what’s causing the excess waiting time and how it can be reduced.

Flow Predictability Report

This Custom Charts 2D line chart is displaying our flow predictability, tracking how many story points the ART completed against how many they had planned to complete in each PI. The closer the lines are to each other, the better the teams are at predicting how much they can deliver.

But this chart shows that our predictability in PI 10 and 11 is low. In PI 10, our teams delivered much more value than they planned, and in PI 11, they delivered much less.

Again, PI 12 is a new interval and our teams are yet to complete any work, so there is still a chance to change things. As they complete work, the chart will update in real time and the green line will go up. The more it coincides with the red line, the better our flow predictability will be.

SAFe success with Tempo

If you’re looking at how to report on SAFe in Jira, you may already be in the throes of a SAFe implementation. If, however, you’re still exploring whether your business is ready for SAFe, then you may want to look at how the wider Tempo toolset can help you get started.

Sign up for a demo

Register

Explore More Content

Jira Time Tracking

Timesheets by Tempo

#1 Jira Time Tracking & AI Apps: Log Tempo Timesheets for Planning, Project Management & Billing. Plugin Office365, Google & Slack

Go to marketplace

Jira Portfolio Management PPM

Structure by Tempo

Jira Project Portfolio Management (PPM): Visualize data and manage projects within spreadsheet-like tables — in less than a minute

Go to marketplace

Align your organization with proactive portfolio management

Portfolio Manager (LiquidPlanner)

Predictive scheduling and the ability to forecast project timelines and spot risks so you can meet deadlines with confidence.

Learn more

Monitor financial health at every level

Financial Manager for Timesheets

Monitor projects and portfolios to get simple, clear, and real-time views of your costs, budgets, and profits that can be shared throughout your entire organization.

Learn more

Unified time and team management

Integration: Timesheets and Capacity Planner

Seamlessly manage project timelines and resources while accurately tracking time spent on tasks. This integration enhances visibility, improves planning accuracy, and supports data-driven decision-making for better overall project outcomes.

Learn more

Unified time and team management

Integration: Timesheets and Structure

Combining Tempo Timesheets and Structure PPM provides a unified view of time tracking and project progress, enabling more accurate reporting and effective portfolio management. Simplify workflows, enhance collaboration, and ensure projects stay on time and within budget.

Learn more

Get the data you need to succeed

Time Tracker

Extend your Jira with prebuilt and highly configurable reports for straightforward time tracking.

Learn more

Jira Team & Resource Management

Capacity Planner

#1 Jira Resource Management App: Optimize team allocation, skillset utilization, capacity planning & project management

Go to marketplace
Colleagues interacting around a desk

No-Code Power BI Jira Integration

Power BI Connector for Jira

Effortlessly bridge Jira with your preferred BI tool, unlocking unparalleled insights and enhancing decision-making

Learn more

No-code BigQuery Jira integration

BigQuery Connector for Jira

Integrate Jira with Google BigQuery to seamlessly export and sync data for advanced analytics and customized reporting

Learn more

Roadmapping software for teams of all sizes

Strategic Roadmaps (Roadmunk)

The roadmapping tool designed for high-performing teams delivering boardroom-ready strategic roadmaps.

Learn more

Centralize real-time plans in one view

Integration: Structure and Gantt Charts

Gain a more complete project management solution, simplifying project reporting, improving collaboration, and ensuring projects stay on time and within budget.

Learn more

Project and program management for Jira

Structure PPM

Visualize all your Jira data & manage portfolios of projects in real-time.

Learn more

Jira ITSM Solutions with Tempo

ITSM

Build and scale a custom ITSM solution at your own pace with Tempo's modular suite of integrated tools. Enhance Jira's capabilities and take control of your entire IT portfolio.

Learn more

AI-enabled capacity visualization

Capacity Insights - Open Beta

Deliver visibility into how your team's time and efforts align with business objectives and project ROI - without the manual effort

Learn more

Take control of your projects

Integration: Portfolio Manager and Jira

Portfolio Manager integrates seamlessly with Jira to give you predictive scheduling, real-time scenario modeling, and advanced resource management – ensuring you stay on track, no matter what challenges arise.

Learn more

Strategic Portfolio Management

Strategic Portfolio Management

Modern modular PPM solutions that scale with your business. Align your teams with the integrated platform that bridges the gap between strategy and execution.

Learn more

No more reporting limitations

Custom Charts for Confluence

Create and share all kinds of highly visual and customizable charts directly on your Confluence pages.

Learn more

Powered by Structure’s custom hierarchies, visualize your roadmap, project plans, timeline & dependencies within Jira Gantt charts

Go to marketplace

Time Tracking Software for Jira

Timesheets

Tempo’s intuitive automation and Jira-native design make it the most trusted time tracking tool for enterprise organization.

Learn more

Industry-leading project plan and roadmap visualizations with a Gantt chart extension

Gantt Charts for Structure PPM

Visualize project plans and roadmaps with a Gantt chart extension for Jira

Learn more

Agile at Scale Software

Agile at Scale

Adapt to changing business needs, rapidly adjust plans, and reallocate investment.

Learn more

No-code Tableau Jira integration

Tableau Connector for Jira

Effortlessly bridge Jira with Tableau, unlocking unparalleled insights and enhancing decision-making

Learn more

Real-time collaboration and capacity planning in Jira

Capacity Planner

A powerful team resource management tool designed to optimize capacity planning and project management in Jira

Learn more

Never lose track of a brilliant idea again

Idea Manager for Strategic Roadmaps

Never lose a brilliant idea again. Idea Manager for Strategic Roadmaps has built-in best practices to help.

Learn more

Custom charts and dashboards for Jira

Custom Charts for Jira

See how work is progressing and where blockers are with the most flexible reporting app in Jira.

Learn more

Jira Project Cost Tracking

Financial Manager

Project financial management for Jira & Timesheets. Monitor project costs, expenses, revenue, billing & budgets. Track Capex/Opex

Go to marketplace

For planning leaders looking to add a big-picture roadmap view to their structured Jira data, this integration is essential. Improve visibility to leadership, reduce reporting admin, and keep your team aligned.

Learn more