Boosting Productivity with Jira Data Center to Cloud Migration

The TEI study aims to provide a framework for evaluating the financial impact of Open DevOps, which centralizes tools and workflows for software development teams. Using Jira Software as the core tool, organizations experienced a substantial ROI of 358%, with benefits of $35.34 million over three years versus total costs of $7.72 million. Furthermore, a payback period of just 12 months was observed.

Quantified benefits include a 20% increase in developer productivity, contributing $16 million, and a 10% improvement in IT productivity, adding $9.7 million. Additionally, software licensing costs were reduced by 30%, saving $8.7 million, while improvements in the software development lifecycle (SDLC) increased deployment frequencies, improved code quality, and contributed an additional $918,000.

Customer Journey

Organizations previously faced significant challenges in achieving seamless DevOps workflows, with disconnected toolchains and excessive tool proliferation complicating the development process. Teams were often siloed with low levels of collaboration and visibility, and IT teams faced significant bottlenecks due to high maintenance requirements.

This fragmentation resulted in poor visibility, negatively impacting project tracking and issue resolution. To address these issues, organizations invested in Open DevOps with objectives to standardize processes and tools across teams, improve delivery speeds, and support the adoption of agile and DevOps practices.

Additionally, companies sought to balance standardization with flexibility, allowing customization to meet diverse team needs. Forrester constructed a composite organization based on the interviews, depicting a company with 10,000 employees (4,000 of whom are in tech roles), which experiences an annual revenue growth of 10%.

Analysis of Benefits

Open DevOps was shown to have multiple benefits for software developer productivity. By automating routine tasks, developers spent less time on low-value administrative work, which freed them to focus on coding.

The centralization of tools within Jira Software improved collaboration, reduced task-switching, and made progress tracking more streamlined. For IT specialists, integrating and automating workflows through Open DevOps eased the burden on support teams by reducing the volume of help desk tickets and minimizing administrative tasks. Standardized processes saved IT specialists time, enabling them to concentrate on higher-value work.

Additionally, Open DevOps delivered software licensing cost savings by consolidating toolsets and migrating to Jira Software Cloud, which reduced shadow IT and retired redundant tools. Many organizations saw savings on administrative costs as well.

In terms of SDLC improvements, Open DevOps helped organizations transition to agile practices, which increased release frequencies from biannual to biweekly, improving code quality by 10%. By automating testing and deployment in Jira Software, organizations also reduced the frequency of code issues, achieving higher project success

Unquantified Benefits

Open DevOps also delivered valuable unquantified benefits. By increasing visibility into workflows, it allowed teams to take greater ownership of their work, thereby fostering a sense of democratization.

Developer morale improved as Open DevOps enhanced collaboration and minimized repetitive tasks, establishing consistency in processes that instilled confidence in the development process. The flexibility offered by Open DevOps was particularly appreciated, as its extensibility allowed organizations to integrate with third-party tools. This enabled teams to tailor their workflows to specific needs while centralizing project data within Jira Software.

Analysis of Costs

Costs associated with Open DevOps included Jira Software licensing fees, which were adjusted based on organizational size and deployment requirements. The study assumes that companies purchased high-tier Jira Software Cloud subscriptions to fully leverage Open DevOps functionalities.

Deployment and implementation of Open DevOps involved initial setup that took several months, during which IT specialists migrated data from legacy systems, consolidated toolsets, and developed workflows. Substantial investments were made in training, especially in upskilling employees to adopt agile processes and use the new tools effectively.

Financial Summary and TEI Methodology

Forrester used the TEI methodology to evaluate the impact of Open DevOps investments, assessing benefits, costs, flexibility, and risks. The financial results showed that the composite organization achieved a net present value (NPV) of $27.62 million, with an impressive ROI of 358%.