Summary
Challenge: Software Development teams struggling to prioritise, plan and estimate work in Jira effectively, with sporadic ways of working across different teams.
Solution: A combination of Jira reconfiguration and optimisation, hands-on training on Agile ways of working, and the introduction of agentic AI – including a new Demand Intake custom Rovo Agent.
Outcome: The new Agent delivers insights that help teams on the ground plan and estimate work more effectively, ensuring that work flows and teams avoid a high backlog and stagnation. Teams now work in a standardised Agile way, aligned with best practice, ensuring faster, higher quality output.
Background
As part of our work for a national public health body, we developed a new custom Rovo AI agent to enhance estimation and planning in Jira.
Our client’s Software Development teams needed to improve their use of Jira and embed standardised, Agile ways of working. Through reconfiguration, hands-on training, and custom agentic AI, we enabled our client’s teams to work more efficiently and effectively in Jira.
Challenge
Our client’s Jira Cloud configuration was almost unusable. With empty projects, scattered workflows and irregular mapping, it was difficult for Software Development teams to accurately estimate or prioritise work, and near-impossible for senior stakeholders to understand the progress of tasks or alignment to overarching goals.
The teams needed refresher training and guidance around Agile best practice, including estimation, planning and ways of working.
Solution
Alongside hands-on training and support for teams, we embedded 3 x custom AI Rovo Agents to support teams with work prioritisation, estimation and planning.
The Demand Intake agent was one of these Agents.
A business-focused Story writing assistant, the Agent reviews work items against the ‘Definition of Ready’ – so completeness, clarity, auditability, estimation. The Agent then compares the work items with historical Jira issues to identify gaps, improve quality, and ensure teams can start delivery with confidence.
With this context, the Agent can efficiently and accurately provide:
- DoR assessment
- Backlog Readiness verdict
- Suggestions for improvements
- Estimation guidance based off both lead time and peviously completed work items
- Suggested acceptance criteria
- Suggested business value
These insights help the teams on the ground to better plan and estimate work. The new Agent also ensures that the work item is completed with all necessary information, and is ready to be worked on without further clarification or rework while in the sprint. This enables teams to avoid stagnation or blockages.
Benefits
With a better handle on demand intake through this new Agent, our client’s Software Development teams can now maintain stronger estimation and planning processes, ensuring that work flows more smoothly. This feeds into more sustainable and effective Agile ways of working overall – which in turn lead to faster delivery and higher quality output.
Alongside this, product owners can now receive a high-level view of work in Jira, which has been planned and prioritised with greater confidence and clarity. We delivered these improvements through a powerful combination of hands-on training and engagement with teams, extensive Jira optimisation work, and through leveraging custom agentic AI.
