Controlling with real time data: How Structure works as your Jira Swiss army knife
Tempo Team
Originally published January 18, 2018
One app with versatile and flexible application options: DEMICON uses the popular Atlassian Marketplace app, Structure, from ALM Works for a wide range of tasks. Especially for the Project Management Office (PMO), Structure has become an indispensable tool for us. Structure acts like a Swiss Army Knife – and not only in a metaphorical sense: Depending on the department and requirements, this multifunctional app can be individually 'unfolded' to track KPIs and other indispensable business metrics in Jira, in real time.
Atlassian's DiversITy – adapted to individual needs
As our colleague Lars Bachmann, Head of Sales and Marketing, outlined in the first part of the Atlassian Community column 'Spotlight', we use Confluence and Jira to display our entire project process chain; additional Atlassian tools and a range of apps (previously called "add-ons" or "plugins") optimize the entire value chain. The Structure app serves as an important tool in process mapping:
"From the first inquiry, beginning with the tracking of an offer, to the controlling of the planned time of the project up to the project's completion – with Structure we can display the process chain seamlessly and determine relevant KPIs 'live'." – Philipp Batman, Managing Director of demicon.
Hence, we define our points of reference for the project's process chain. Essentially, these points of reference are
leads
CRM contacts
proposals/ orders
project controlling
accounting
and/or payments.
These blocks and its relevant metadata are listed in their own Jira projects. However, these blocks are brought together into a common context and into Structure by a sophisticated use of the process links. All in all, the interaction of the individual components is more complex than the individual parts.
Depending on the role of a user (sales, project manager or controller), different detailed Structures may be used. Due to the app's flexibility, there are no limits.
Evaluation of all data: projects' budgets, target-performance-comparison of time, and much more
In our use case, all leads are set on the top level of the structure hierarchy, including the associated CRM contacts. For each lead, all proposals and orders as well as their respective status are displayed.
In addition, projects' budgets, the target-performance-comparison and other KPIs for controlling the project are displayed. If there are any invoices for an offer, these will also be integrated into another level of the structure's hierarchy level.
As Structure allows different views of a data structures, different viewing angles can be placed on one and the same data framework.
By using different structures, we can easily get an overview of the status of inquiries, proposals and invoices without having to use a large number of filters and boards.
Structure goes enterprise
Currently, we are using Structure to display multi-project structures in the SAFe context (Scaled Agile Framework). The flexibility of Structure proves itself in practice and will be often completed by specialized tools such as Portfolio for Jira or Big Picture.
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