Read the Forrester Study: The Total Economic Impact of Atlassian Jira Align

More organizations than ever are embracing scaled agile approaches to better align company strategy to work, deliver increased customer value, and gain the flexibility and adaptability to respond to changing market conditions. Yet, even after adopting a scaled agile framework and common agile practices, many still lack the visibility, information, and data they need to understand how work is progressing and make informed business decisions. Many companies can benefit from an enterprise agile planning solution like Atlassian Jira Align to meet this need. 

Recently, Atlassian commissioned Forrester to conduct a quantitative study of how companies can benefit logistically and economically from implementing Jira Align, and how quickly they can see a return on their investment. The results were clear: The Total Economic Impact of Atlassian Jira Align demonstrates how one company* was able to achieve an ROI of 340% and economic benefits of $20.83M over three years, versus costs of $4.73M adding up to a net present value (NPV) of $16.10M.

About the Composite Organization

The study was designed to help organizations better understand the potential return on investment (ROI) of implementing Jira Align. Forrester interviewed six decision-makers at five organizations representing a range of industries, all with experience using the software, and then developed a composite organization based on aggregate data. The study assumed the composite organization was a multi-billion company dollar with tens of thousands of employees total, with approximately 15,000 of them focused on technology and software development.

In addition, the study also assumed that the adoption of Jira Align was part of an enterprise-wide effort to move from waterfall to agile, with some teams already having adopted agile to varying degrees.

• Each release team consisted of 40 PMs and 140 developers.
• In year one, Jira Align was deployed to two release teams.
• In year two, Jira Align was deployed to four release teams.
• In year three, Jira Align was deployed to 8 release teams.

Since Jira Align was adopted as part of a border transformation initiative and scaled agile practices that would drive significant benefits, Forrester attributed only 10% of any realized benefits to Jira Align.

Key Findings

The study found that the composite company was able to achieve an ROI of 340% and economic benefits of $20.83M over three years, versus costs of $4.73M adding up to a net present value (NPV) of $16.10M, primarily stemming from a 50% - 70% reduction in time spent on manual reporting, a 10% increase in development team productivity, and a 50% increase in time-to-market.

The economic benefits primarily came from four key areas, including:

• A reduction in manual data collection and reporting - $9.4M
  Project managers, program managers, and product managers saw a 50% to 70% reduction in time spent manually collecting data and manually creating reports.
• An increase in development team productivity - $1.1M
  PMs were better able to prioritize work and minimize work on tasks that were not aligned to organizational strategies resulting in a 10% increase in developer productivity.
• A reduction in time to market for complex projects - $3.6M
  Improved planning and dependency management across teams reduced delays so teams were able to complete complex projects in 50% less time.
• A reduction of waste due to better product investments - $6.8M
  Improved visibility into work meant the organization could make more objective decisions about projects underway, thereby minimizing waste.

The study offset these benefits with $4.73M in costs that included $3.6M in change management expenses and $1.1M in Atlassian licensing and professional services fees, both accrued over three years.

Unquantified Benefits

In addition, the interviewees also reported significant benefits that were not quantified (unquantified benefits) as part of the study. These include improved employee experience and morale and improved collaboration with other departments, both inside and outside of the technology organization. Three of the organizations extended the use of Jira Align to teams such as finance, legal, and sales, among others.

Download the Report

Are you interested in learning more about Jira Align and its economic benefits? Download the Forrester report: The Total Economic Impact of Atlassian Jira Align.

*Company reflects a composite organization based on interviews with six Jira Align users from five different companies across a range of industries.