FAQs

Every day, your Development teams deconstruct product plans into discrete tasks in Jira. But the language of the developer and the data in Jira aren’t designed for the people outside Engineering. 

Jira does a great job of managing down from Epics to Tasks. But connecting the dots between Epics and business objectives, and measuring progress against those objectives, is challenging, at best. And sorting out confusion, delays, and missed opportunities is financially draining, at worst. Your people outside of Engineering need a better way to map Development progress to goals.  

That's the power of Obo Reveal. It connects your Jira data to you business goals and objectives. No more surprises.

Obo Reveal connects with Jira to give you real-time updates on the specific issues you need completed to achieve your personal and corporate goals. It's your personal goals dashboard. No more guesswork or surprises. No more time spent trying to learn Jira to get the data you need to achieve your goals.

You simply use Obo Reveal's visual editor to connect your goals to the Jira tasks associated with them. Obo Reveal helps you find the issues in Jira you care about without having to be a Jira expert. Once you identify the connections, Obo Reveal continuously monitors your chosen Jira issues, and summarizes the status of the issues that are connected to your goals. With your own personal real-time updates on development progress, you will have the data you need to ensure achievement of your goals.

Getting started takes only minutes. First, connect Obo to Jira (see Connecting to Jira below).

Select Static or Dynamic Epic (see FAQ below that describes each). If you selected Static:

• Pick the Jira Projects, Kanbans, and/or filters that contain the Epics that make up your Goal
• Click on the Epics to Select them to be part of your Epic Set
• Name your Epic Set after your goal and press Save

If you selected Dynamic:

• Select the Jira filter that defines the Jira issues needed to complete your goal
• Name your Epic Set after your goal and press Save

That's it. Obo Reveal will do the rest - tracking progress in Jira toward your goal.

You can create multiple Epic Sets to track each of your goals. You can group Epic Sets into Themes to track them against higher level objectives. 

Any goal that depends on Jira Epics getting completed is a application for Obo Reveal.

• Progress toward corporate objectives
• Features in a new release
• New products
• Feature requirements to close sales deals
• Features that existing customers are waiting for
• Marketing programs

If you use Jira to define tasks, Obo Reveal is the ideal way to monitor progress on those tasks by specific initiative or company department.

Static Epic Sets are created by sequentially selecting individual Epics from Jira. Once selected, the Epics in a Static Epic Set remain the same, unless you edit them by selecting the more menu on the Epic Set main status page and changing your selections.

Dynamic Epic Sets are created using Jira filters. You select the filter, and Obo gathers the Epics that match the filter definition. If you change the filter in Jira, the Epic Set will change. If new Jira issues are added or subtracted from the set of issues defined by the Jira filter, the Epic Set will reflect those changes. Any additions or deletions to the issues defined by the filter after the Epic Set was created will be listed on main Epic Set status page in chronological order, so it is easy to track change history.

Which one should you use?

If your goal comprises a fixed set of Epics, or you are not a Jira filter user, use Static mode. For example, if your Jira issues all reside on Kanbans, Static mode makes it easier to assemble just the items you want to track to achieve your goal.

If your goals include an evolving set of Epics and tasks, such as a new feature or release, Dynamic mode is the way to go. It will do all of the heavy lifting of making sure you can monitor the changing Jira landscape as your feature or release takes shape.

Unless your team is perfect at maintaining the data in Jira (we aren't), tracking progress can be challenging. Issues that don't get pointed until the last minute - or at all - make tracking point burn-down imperfect at best.

Which is why we came up with the Blue Chart (no pun about the Blues intended - but the irony is hard to ignore). It shows a count of the issues at each stage of the process - independent of whether they have been pointed. 

• Unscheduled: Issue hasn't been assigned to a Sprint
• Scheduled: Issue has been assigned to a Sprint
• In Progress: Development work has started on the Issue
• Completed: Development work is completed

Tracking progress in Jira can be challenging.  If you ask about progress on Epics, Jira will tell you how the Epic points are burning down. But the more valuable information is the burn-down rate of the child issues of the Epic, such as Stories and Tasks.

Obo Reveal's Burn Down charts roll-up the Story Points for all of the relevant child issues for each Epic, so you get a true picture of progress. If an Epic doesn't have any child issues, it uses the Story Point value for the Epic. The chart looks back two weeks, so you can spot trends early.

If you have Jira Server (on-prem or Data Center), enter your Jira server URL (typically something like https://jira.mycompany.com) on the Obo Reveal Jira setup page and follow the prompts.

If your Jira Server is version 8.14 or greater, and your company firewall is configured to allow SSL traffic to your Jira server, you should be able to connect without Admin or IT help.

If you have an older Jira Server release, or a different firewall configuration, and you are the first person in your company connecting to Obo, you may need to ask IT to allow secure communication between the Obo and Jira servers. Obo Reveal's Jira setup page will guide you through the steps. If needed, you can find details to share with IT here.

Product Teams have to resolve conflicting priorities from customers, but also from engineering, sales, execs, partners - the list goes on. You make tough trade-offs all the time, but you also have to build stakeholder buy-in to get the support you need. Managing the drama can be harder than managing the product.

Obo Priority helps you resolve conflicting priorities while making a powerful case for your decisions. Gather rich market data without having to be a market research expert. Build buy-in and support with fast feedback from stakeholders— not more meetings. With just a few clicks, run pre-built, patent-pending Obo Value Surveys to gather everyone’s input on priorities. Compare points of view and use the combined Obo Value to guide your priorities. Then share results so everyone understands what matters most and why. That's built-in buy-in. 

All you need to get started is a list of the items you want to prioritize, and a list of the folks you want to get feedback from.

There are multiple ways to get your data into Priority:

• You can import your list from Jira.
• You can import your list from a spreadsheet.
• You can manually create the list by adding your items one at a time.
• You can cut and paste multiple items at the same time.  Select the name field of the first blank item, then paste either a list of names, or two columns where the first item is the name, and the second is the description. Priority will create the entire list from this single paste.

Or any combination of the above. Priority will append new items to the list as they are added.

So you have your list of items. And you want to know what your stakeholders think. 

Step 1.  Import or enter your list. It can come from Jira, a spreadsheet, or a simple copy and paste.

Step 2.  Edit the name and descriptions. If you hover over a card, a pencil will appear. Click it to edit the name and description so your audience will understand what it is. Often the internal description doesn't make much sense to someone outside of the product team. This is your chance to fix that. 

These are the most important steps for getting quality stakeholder feedback.

Audiences can be individuals or groups. You decide by how many folks you send the survey links to.

If you want to know what each individual thinks, make them a separate audience.  For example, the CEO and the VP Sales could have their own lines in the audience page.

If you have a team, such at the sales reps or top 10 customers, you can make them a single audience. Obo Priority will tabulate the results for the entire group. However, you can't see how each individual responded, as they all used the same link to take the survey.

We recommend using a combination of individuals and groups.

Obo Value Surveys are pre-built surveys that combine several statistical survey techniques, which is why they’re patent pending. You use them with just a few clicks: pick your audiences, get a link, and send it via email, Slack, text, carrier pigeon, etc.

People take the surveys on any device.

Obo presents results for easy side-by-side comparison and calculates consolidated value scores that are easy to understand and use. Obo manages the entire survey process, including tabulating and presenting the results. And the surveys are fun and easy to take. Here’s a quick vid:

Easy! If you are on Jira Cloud, it takes less than a minute. Jira Server can take a bit more time, but the program will guide you step by step. Then, anytime, you can import just the items—epics, stories, tasks, anything–that you want to organize and plan.

After you run Obo Value Surveys, you have the option of one-click updates of your Jira issues with their Obo Value and/or the priority you set in Obo. You specify which fields in Jira to update.

Sure! Obo Priority is for product managers who want to get fast feedback on priorities from stakeholders and customers. You can use it with any planning tool.

Just import the items you want feedback on from a CSV, XLSX, or XLS file. Obo Priority automatically generates Obo Value Surveys and links you send to stakeholders and customers. You see responses immediately, so you build buy-in and make more informed decisions. Export to CSV, XLSX, or XLS.

Patent-pending Obo Value Surveys are the best way to clarify priorities and assess the value of each option independently of others. Plus, we added fun quotes to make survey takers smile. 😊

Ever had sprints go off the rails? It's painful. Unfinished stories, estimate changes, last-minute additions. Jira does a great job managing tasks. But you need a top-down view to quickly understand what is really going on to keep sprints on track.

That’s why we built Obo Tracker. It gives you the big picture:

• Are we really on schedule? Know immediately with sprint burndown charts that roll up issue points under Epics
• Which critical issue properties changed? Get alerts for just the changes you care most about
• What is blocked? See comment mentions and issues assigned to you and your team that are impeding progress
• What moved? See when issues moved, where they were, and where they went
• What is stalled? Discover issues that get opened but not finished
• How do I keep Execs informed? Share Obo Tracker so they get the big picture, too.

Setup takes less than a minute. Try it with your data or our demo data – no risk.

Obo Tracker creates a management-level dashboard of your Jira Projects. The process is fully automated. Just select your Jira project (and scrum board if the project has more than one).  That's it. Obo Tracker will do all of the rest.

While Obo Tracker automatically creates a dashboard for you, you can customize it to your personal preferences:

• Specify which issues you want to receive notifications for. Pick any property in Jira - including custom properties.
• Select which Sprints you want to view - up to 8 at a time.
• Select other team members so you can see what they are blocking and what chat discussions they are having.

The only step required to use Obo Tracker is to connect it to Jira and select the Jira Project you want to track. When you start the program, it will prompt you for the needed information.

That's all you need.  Once connected to Jira, Obo Tracker does the hard work of perusing your Jira data and building a dashboard specifically for you.

Jira dashboards don't give product team members critical information they need, such as a list of issues that @ mention you in their comments. Jira is just so detail focused it can be hard to get the big picture and ensure all the pieces some together to meet deliverables.

Obo Tracker shows product team members a higher-level view of progress and identifies where they need to focus, so they're never blindsided by Jira changes. 

Check it out and let us know what you think.

We have yet to discover two organizations that use Jira in exactly the same way.  We built Obo Tracker to adapt to the wide variety of Jira implementations.  Whether you use classic or next gen projects, or mix sprints and projects in ways never imagined by Jira, we have you covered.

That said, there may be clever folks out there that have invented new ways to use Jira that we don't recognize. If we are not rendering Jira your way, let us know and we will get it fixed.

Yes, but only one will be displayed at a time. When you completed your Jira setup, you specified your primary Jira project/board.  To add a second project/board, return to the Jira setup screen by selecting the Jira icon on the top nav menu, and select a new project/board.

Note that it takes a few minutes after a new Jira project is added for Obo Tracker to discover and map the project structure.  However, this delay only occurs upon the initial addition of a new project/board to your list of tracked projects.

Once added on the Jira setup page, you can change the project you are viewing by pressing the menu selection icon to the left of the project name on the top nav menu.

If you have Jira Cloud, you can connect Obo Reveal to Jira yourself in less than a minute (seriously!). Just enter your Jira URL (you are on Jira Cloud if it contains .atlassian.net) on the Obo Reveal Jira setup page and follow the prompts. It’s really that easy – and no Jira admin required.

If you have Jira Server (on-prem or Data Center), enter your Jira server URL (typically something like https://jira.mycompany.com) on the Obo Reveal Jira setup page and follow the prompts.

If your Jira Server is version 8.14 or greater, and your company firewall is configured to allow SSL traffic to your Jira server, you should be able to connect without Admin or IT help. If you have an older Jira Server release, or a different firewall configuration, and you are the first person in your company connecting to Obo, you may need to ask IT to allow secure communication between the Obo and Jira servers. Obo Reveal's Jira setup page will guide you through the steps. If needed, you can find details to share with IT here.

Product Teams have to resolve conflicting priorities from engineering, sales, execs, etc., and customers. You make tough trade-offs every day. Meanwhile, you have to build buy-in to ensure your plans win support. And you're constantly translating between initiatives, releases, features, epics, and specific dev tasks. 
Pro tip: Your spreadsheets and slides aren't helping.

Obo Organize makes it easy to create winning plans backed by data, with built-in buy-in. Organize any kind of items—from high-level initiatives to user stories—using drag-and-drop cards. Click over to Obo Priority, so you can build buy-in with pre-built Obo Value Surveys™ to gather stakeholder and customer input on priorities. Sharpen communications with organized product plans that look great and contain data that explains why. So you win the approval and support you need for your product, and look great too.

You can create your first plan in Obo Organize in less than 10 minutes.

• Enter or import (from Jira, spreadsheets, or .CSV) your planning candidates
• Create and name your planning buckets. For example, Months, Quarters, Release Names, Priorities, or Sizes
• Drag and drop your candidate cards into the appropriate buckets
• Share your plan with others - they will get a live view as your plan develops

If you want stakeholder feedback on your choices, click on the Thumbs icon on the top nav and select the items you want feedback on. Then watch Obo Priority to its magic. You will get relevant stakeholder feedback fast - without having to be a market research whiz.

All you need to get started is a list of the items you want to organize.

There are multiple ways to get your data into Obo Organize:

• You can import your list from Jira.
• You can import your list from a spreadsheet.
• You can manually create the list by adding your items one at a time.
• You can cut and paste multiple items at the same time.  Select the name field of the first blank item, then paste either a list of names, or two columns where the first item is the name, and the second is the description. Obo Organize will create the entire list from this single paste.

Or any combination of the above. Obo Organize will append new items to the Candidate list on the left of the main screen as they are added.

Yes! Obo Organize helps you organize and plan agilely. Plan anything, from epics to features to initiatives and more. 

Obo Organize is a quick way to create high-level roadmaps that explain the "why" behind product decisions. 

Run Obo Value Surveys to stakeholders and use results, consolidated in each item's Obo Value, to guide decisions. If stakeholders disagree, show them why you've made tough trade-offs.

Product Managers, Engineering Managers, IT Managers, and others use Obo Organize for planning, story pointing, prioritizing, and personal Kanban. Learn more here.

Yes! In Obo Organize, click the Share icon on the top nav menu and set up links for specific people or audiences. Those who have the link can view, but not edit, the latest version of the plan you shared. Share with as many viewers as you like—they don't need to be Obo subscribers. You can remove share access at any time.

All you need to get started is a list of the items you want to prioritize, and a list of the folks you want to get feedback from.

There are multiple ways to get your data into Priority:

• You can import your list from Jira.
• You can import your list from a spreadsheet.
• You can manually create the list by adding your items one at a time.
• You can cut and paste multiple items at the same time.  Select the name field of the first blank item, then paste either a list of names, or two columns where the first item is the name, and the second is the description. Priority will create the entire list from this single paste.

Or any combination of the above. Priority will append new items to the list as they are added.

Easy! If you are on Jira Cloud, it takes less than a minute. Jira Server can take a bit more time, but the program will guide you step by step. Then, anytime, you can import just the items—epics, stories, tasks, anything–that you want to organize and plan.

Want fast feedback from stakeholders and customers to resolve conflicting priorities? You're just one click away from Obo Priority.

You have the option of one-click updates of your Jira issues with their Obo Value (consolidated value based on Obo Value Survey results), Obo Cost (cost estimate you enter in any units you use), and/or the priority you set in Obo. You specify which fields in Jira to update.