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Manage Projects and Releases

A project (also called a release) comprises a set of activities that must be completed over a defined period of time. Projects in Agility are a general term used to group sets of work into a hierarchical structure.

Note on terminology: In Agility, "project" and "release" are used interchangeably to represent nodes in the planning level tree. Modern agile coaching refers to this as the "planning level tree" rather than "project tree".

Who manages projects​

Project administrators have full control:

  • Create, edit, close, or delete projects and releases
  • Assign project roles and manage member access
  • Configure sprint schedules and planning levels
  • Define capacity targets and budget allocations

Product owners work within projects:

  • Select projects to work on using the Project Navigator
  • View and manage backlog items within assigned projects
  • Plan releases and coordinate delivery schedules

All members can:

  • Select a project or release to work on in the Project Navigator
  • View project data based on their assigned permissions
  • Perform sprint scheduling tasks within their projects

Permission note: You can only see and work in projects where you are a member. Contact your administrator to request access to additional projects.

Use cases for projects​

Use projects to:

  • Coordinate or centralize multiple backlogs using the planning level tree (hierarchy)
  • Manage multiple projects and relationships (including projects, releases, departments, organizations, geographic locations, clients, customers, partners)
  • Group releases, teams, internal organizations, clients, product owners, and vendors

Planning level tree structure​

Organizations use the planning level tree to organize related work (releases, sprints, backlog items) that will be delivered over time. The planning level tree helps organize:

  • Large projects split across incremental delivery (alpha, beta, releases)
  • Efforts divided around distributed teams
  • Multiple projects rolled up into an organizational view
  • Multiple modules that together make up a suite

Best practice: Create all projects under System (All Projects) to preserve flexibility for future reorganization and portfolio-level planning. See System (All Projects) for details.

Tasks by role​

All members​

  • Select a project or release to work on in the Project Navigator
  • Perform sprint scheduling tasks

Project administrators​

  • Create, edit, close, or delete projects or releases
  • Assign project roles to control who can access projects
  • Assign members to a project
  • Define Target Swag and Target Estimate values for release capacity planning
  • Conduct product and release planning activities
  • Define programs (cross-cutting groupings of projects)
  • Assign release schedules to a project

Permission troubleshooting:

  • Can't create projects? You need Project Administrator or System Administrator permissions
  • Can't see all projects in the tree? You only see projects where you're a member
  • Can't edit project settings? You may have read-only access. Contact your administrator to verify your project role

Advanced planning​

Align project efforts with business needs using:

  • Portfolio items: Strategic initiatives and epics
  • Backlog groups: Organized collections of work items
  • Objectives: Goal-based planning and tracking