Spreadsheets can be a nightmare for Project Managers. It can waste your time, energy and effort - which instead you can utilize in helping out your team and client more.

Whether you are creating a product roadmap, project plan, timeline, sprint plan, Gantt chart, bug report, or capacity planning - Guess what - You don't need to create it using Excel. 😅

You have two powerful weapons - Jira and Azure Boards. 🤺

Now let's dive deeper into what these weapons can do for you: 😎

1. Project Roadmaps:

• Jira: Build dynamic project roadmaps directly in Jira, providing a visual overview of your project's milestones, timelines, and dependencies. Easily communicate project progress to stakeholders without the need for manual updates.
• Azure Boards: Leverage the roadmap features in Azure Boards to create and share high-level project plans. Keep your team aligned with a dynamic, interactive roadmap that adapts to changes in real-time.

2. Sprint Planning:

• Jira: Conduct sprint planning effortlessly by creating and managing sprints directly within Jira. Allocate tasks, estimate work, and track progress in a collaborative environment.
• Azure Boards: Plan and manage sprints seamlessly with Azure Boards' sprint planning capabilities. Prioritize tasks, assign work items, and monitor sprint progress on a virtual board.

3. Backlogs and Work Items:

• Jira: Replace traditional backlog tracking in Excel with Jira's backlog management. Prioritize and groom your backlog with ease, ensuring your team focuses on the most valuable work items.
• Azure Boards: Streamline backlog management using Azure Boards, where you can create, prioritize, and refine work items collaboratively. Track progress and adapt priorities as needed.

4. Issue Tracking and Bug Reports:

• Jira: Utilize Jira's powerful issue tracking capabilities to log, prioritize, and resolve bugs efficiently. With customizable workflows, you can tailor the issue tracking process to fit your project's unique needs.
• Azure Boards: Manage issues and track bugs seamlessly in Azure Boards. Benefit from integrated version control and testing tools to ensure a smoother bug resolution process.

5. Test Plans and Test Cases:

• Jira: Create and manage test plans directly within Jira, streamlining the testing process. Link test cases to user stories and track testing progress in a centralized location.
• Azure Boards: Integrate test planning and execution into your project management workflow with Azure Boards. Define test cases, execute tests, and track results without the need for external testing tools. 6. Project Plans:

• Jira: Develop comprehensive project plans directly within Jira, detailing tasks, timelines, and dependencies. Enjoy the flexibility of agile planning and adjust your project plan dynamically as your project evolves.
• Azure Boards: Utilize Azure Boards to craft detailed project plans with an interactive timeline. Seamlessly allocate resources, set milestones, and adapt to changes, ensuring your project stays on track.

Why Bid Farewell to Excel:

• Data Silos: Excel sheets often lead to data silos, making it challenging to maintain a centralized and up-to-date project overview.
• Limited Automation: Excel lacks the automation capabilities essential for modern project management, leading to manual and time-consuming processes.
• Collaboration Gaps: Real-time collaboration is hindered in Excel, causing delays and miscommunication among team members.

Review your ongoing agile practices and processes and see if you can eliminate any manual work and automate it with Jira or Azure boards.

Happy learning!