Modular, flexible, and Jira native: The Tempo way to Agile at Scale

We’ll let you in on a secret: Most Enterprise software solutions are too expensive, take too long to implement, and a lot of your team think they suck.

According to a study by Gartner, the average implementation time for an enterprise portfolio management (PPM) solution is 18 months. The study also found that the average cost of an enterprise PPM solution is $1 million.

So what’s the answer? How do you avoid the high risk, measly reward of a full stack Enterprise PPM solution that over promises and under delivers?

For Tempo, it all comes down to three guiding principles for building Agile at Scale solutions: Modular, flexible, and Jira native.

Modular

A modular enterprise software solution is one that is made up of smaller, independent modules. Each module can be implemented, used as a standalone solution, and configured separately, which allows organizations to choose the modules they need and to customize them to meet their requirements.

There are several benefits to using this modular approach:

• First, modularity allows you to start with your greatest need or greatest area of comfort. If aligning on the product roadmap and communicating the strategy is your greatest need, start with Roadmunk. If it's project and program management across teams, start with Structure. Build on success and improve as you go.

• Second, because of being able to pick and choose, modular solutions help to reduce the cost of implementation. You don't need to purchase a full suite and try to change the entire company all at once. Adjust at your own pace and save money on licensing fees and consultancy costs.

• Third, a modular solution can help to reduce the risk of failure. If a particular module is not the right fit, it can be replaced or modified and that means the overall solution can always meet the organization's needs.

This approach seems to be popular as a third of Fortune 500 companies use one or more of Tempo’s tools. 

Being available through the Atlassian marketplace, and simple to get up and running, gives teams the confidence to get started with one and add more as needed.

Flexible

Enterprise environments are dynamic and subject to constant change. Agile at Scale allows organizations to adjust quickly to shifting market demands, customer preferences, and industry trends. Every business — even if they’re using the same methodology — approaches Agile in a different way.

So does a one-size-fits-all approach to tooling make sense? Should a large bank using SAFe have the same software stack as an airline running Scrum at Scale? We think not.

Tools and processes need to stretch to reach the teams where they are, not make your teams bend to the needs of a new product. The process of becoming Agile at Scale isn’t an overnight revolution, it is iterating, changing, and developing over time to improve everyone’s efficiency and effectiveness.

The more complicated or rigid a tool is, the less likely you are to get smooth and complete adoption from your teams. 

Tempo’s modular approach means whatever ‘flavor’ of Agile you’re running, there’s a viable solution that will fit in with your way of working.

Jira native

One of the reasons Agile transformations fail is internal resistance to change, and tooling is a significant part of this. Your product owners, scrum masters, and developers get pretty attached to their favorite tools and ways of working! And for most teams that means Jira.

Everything we do at Tempo is designed to make your experience with Jira better. We don’t do lightweight add-ons, ‘connectors’, or ‘integrations’; our tools are native to Jira by design. Jira is not an external integration, it's the internal system we are built on.

What does this mean for you? It means your teams can harness the power of our suite of tools seamlessly within the familiarity of the Jira environment.

With Tempo’s tools embedded within your operation, you can align business strategy with team level agility, implement comprehensive capacity planning, and enable big and visible communication across the organization.

Modular by design, but more powerful combined.

How do Tempo’s tools align to Agile at Scale in practice?

Agile at Scale, or Enterprise Agile, is a strategy that extends Agile principles to complex projects with multiple teams. It focuses on collaboration, alignment, and efficiency across an enterprise.

Core Agile principles — customer value, iterative development, and self-organizing teams — are upheld in Agile at Scale, but you need to scale things up considerably if you want to operate organization-wide. The right tools help.

The Tempo way to Agile at Scale: Tool overview

Develop your portfolio vision with Roadmunk. Capture customer feedback, build your strategic themes, and use roadmaps to communicate your strategy to the entire organization. 

This is where the work happens. Keep your Agile Release Train (ART) on track with Structure and supercharge your Program Increment (PI) work. Paired with Roadmunk, Structure consumes the high-level portfolio objectives and organizes them by theme, and can be extended into the lower levels of the hierarchy — capabilities, features, stories, etc. — as per normal Jira issue management.

Centralize and fast-track the capacity planning process and capture actionable insights into your workforce operations and requirements. Ensure you have the right resources in the right place to deliver on the roadmap.

The primary goal of any planning and budgeting model is to allocate an organization's limited resources to the work that will generate the highest returns. With Timesheets, you can track all billable time for invoicing, measure and report on CAPEX and OPEX with precision, and build custom reports to support operational needs. 

With Cost Tracker you can translate Timesheets data to get true project costs, monitoring financial health at every level of your organization.

Finally, leverage Custom Charts to report on multiple teams, sprints, and projects across your instance, directly on Jira dashboards. Teams use Custom Charts to plan, monitor, and reflect on work, both day-to-day and at the beginning/end of projects and sprints.

Create Custom Charts dashboards for reporting on sprint progress, retrospectives, programs, customer satisfaction, workloads, age of issues, cumulative spend, and more.

Wherever you are on your agile journey, Tempo’s modular and flexible solutions offer the perfect suite of tools to support Agile at Scale. 

For more resources like this visit  Agile at scale .