It can be challenging to manage multiple projects simultaneously, especially when it comes to a fast-paced or Agile business environment like in Jira. Therefore, a project portfolio roadmap in Jira can become a strategic tool that provides a comprehensive overview of all projects within an organization
Besides, it can also ensure they are aligned with business goals and progressing as planned. This is where solutions like Routemap for Jira shine.
With it, project managers can streamline their project management processes and achieve greater efficiency and alignment.
What is a project portfolio roadmap?
A project portfolio roadmap is a strategic tool used in project portfolio management to visually represent the planning, scheduling, and tracking of multiple projects within an organization. It provides a high-level project portfolio overview, showing how individual projects align with organizational goals, timelines, and resources.
Why is it important to have a project portfolio roadmap in Jira?
A project portfolio roadmap in Jira is crucial for maintaining strategic alignment within an organization. It provides a high-level view of all ongoing projects, ensuring they contribute towards the overall business goals.
1. Enhanced transparency
Firstly, enhanced visibility and transparency are significant benefits of a project portfolio roadmap. It offers real-time project status and progress tracking, keeping all stakeholders informed and engaged. By acting as a single source of truth for project data, it reduces discrepancies and misunderstandings across teams and departments, promoting better decision-making.
2. Better resource management
Effective resource management is another key advantage. The roadmap helps identify resource needs and allocate them efficiently across projects, preventing overloading and ensuring optimal utilization. It also aids in capacity planning by providing insights into current and future resource requirements, thereby enhancing overall productivity.
3. Better risk management
Risk management and proactive issue resolution are facilitated through a project portfolio roadmap. By identifying dependencies between projects, it helps mitigate risks and avoid delays. Early detection of potential risks allows for timely interventions, preventing issues from escalating and ensuring smoother project execution.
What makes Routemap a great solution for the job?
Routemap is an All-in-one solution to your every roadmapping needs, and that also includes features to assist project managers in managing their Jira projects.
- Issue timeline roadmap: This is where you can visualize all your Jira issues across multiple projects on the same timeline roadmap.
- Releases timeline roadmap: Visualize your product releases on one portfolio timeline roadmap, allowing you to strategically plan out timelines and delivery dates of work.
- Priority table and matrix: You can prioritize your Jira issues and visualize all your prioritized features and projects in the same place by using either Value vs. Effort or RICE prioritization frameworks.
- Releases Kanban: Visualize and manage your project releases systematically on a Kanban board.
- Sprints Kanban: Quite similar to the Releases kanban, this is where you can monitor and manage your product sprints from multiple projects in your Jira backlog.
How to create a project portfolio roadmap in Jira with Routemap
1. Creating a new portfolio roadmap for multiple projects
What makes a portfolio roadmap important is the ability to visualize and manage multiple projects more effectively. With Routemap for Jira, you can create a new roadmap with all the basic details, including its name, description, and projects.
And yes, projects, in plural. At this step, you can select the projects you want to include in your portfolio roadmap. This could be multiple ongoing projects that need to be tracked collectively.

However, you should go to your project settings and map necessary fields like Date, Date time picker, and Progress fields before creating a project portfolio roadmap in Jira. Additionally, this practice helps define the scope of each project within the roadmap. This includes setting start and end dates, key milestones, and deliverables.
2. Visualizing the roadmap
With Routemap for Jira, project managers can utilize the app’s timeline view to visualize the sequence of project activities and milestones. This helps in understanding how projects overlap and where dependencies lie.
Moreover, managers can use Routemap to track the progress of each project within the portfolio. Therefore, you can monitor task completion, milestone achievements, product releases, and sprint planning.

Besides, you and your team can always add key milestones and release dates for each project. Routemap allows you to visualize these on a single timeline roadmap, providing a comprehensive view of the portfolio’s progress.
More importantly, you can also identify and map out dependencies between tasks across different projects on this project portfolio roadmap. As a result, this ensures all prerequisite tasks are completed before dependent tasks begin, avoiding bottlenecks.
3. Managing prioritization
In project portfolio management, it is crucial to prioritize every task across multiple projects based on criteria such as importance, urgency, and resource availability. Teams can use the Prioritization matrix and visualize task priorities on a quadrant or list them down on a Priority table.
As a result, this helps all members and stakeholders focus efforts on high-impact areas, deciding which Jira issues need to be tackled first.
A practical use case
Imagine you are the project manager for a large-scale product development initiative at a tech company. This project involves multiple teams, including backend, frontend, design, marketing, and content teams.
The goal is to develop and launch a new software product within a tight deadline while ensuring high quality and meeting all stakeholder requirements.
1. Challenges
Working in such a large company means you have to take care of multiple projects, tasks, and teams. As a result, you soon discover all the challenges both you and your organization are facing:
- Coordination across teams: Managing different teams working on various aspects of the project can be daunting. Each team has its own tasks, deadlines, and dependencies.
- Tracking progress: Keeping track of the progress across multiple teams and sprints is challenging. Ensuring that all tasks are on track and aligned with the overall project timeline requires robust tools.
- Dependency management: Identifying and managing dependencies between tasks is crucial to avoid bottlenecks and delays.
- Prioritization: With numerous tasks and limited resources, prioritizing work to focus on high-impact items is essential.
- Flexibility: The ability to adapt plans and timelines as new information and challenges arise is critical for successful project delivery.
2. Solution with Routemap for Jira
Since most teams are using Jira to manage their tasks and projects, you know that finding a solution integrating seamlessly with the platform is a must. And this is when you discover Routemap for Jira, the ultimate solution to all your problems.
Let’s have a closer look at what Routemap has to offer.
2.1 Advanced Roadmapping
Visual Timelines: Routemap allows you to create detailed visual timelines for each phase of your project. You can map out tasks, milestones, and deadlines, providing a clear view of the project’s progress.
Hierarchy and objectives: You can organize work into different levels of hierarchy, ensuring that all teams understand their objectives and how their tasks contribute to the overall project goals.
2.2 Team coordination
Single source of truth: By consolidating all project data into a single source of truth, Routemap ensures that every team member has access to the latest information. This improves communication and reduces the chances of errors.
Kanban boards: Visual Kanban boards help teams manage their tasks and releases, making it easier to track progress and ensure that everyone is on the same page.
2.3 Progress tracking
Portfolio roadmaps: Routemap provides portfolio roadmaps that offer a high-level view of the project. This helps in monitoring the overall progress and making informed decisions.
Milestones and releases: You can set milestones and plan releases visually, ensuring that all teams know key dates and deliverables.
2.4 Dependency management
Routemap enables you to track dependencies easily, ensuring that all prerequisite tasks are completed before dependent tasks begin. This helps in avoiding delays and ensuring a smooth workflow.
2.5 Prioritization
With Routemap’s prioritization features, you can assess the importance of each task and project, focusing efforts on high-impact items. This ensures that resources are utilized efficiently.
2.6 Flexibility and adaptability
Custom roadmaps: Routemap allows for the creation of custom roadmaps with various templates that can be adjusted as needed. This flexibility is crucial for adapting to new information, changing priorities, and unexpected challenges.
Dynamic planning: You can update roadmaps in real-time, incorporating new details, team feedback, and capacity changes. This helps in maintaining a realistic and achievable project plan.