Tools for Jira
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In most teams, goals live in slides, spreadsheets, or scattered Confluence pages, which is far from where the actual work happens. You might see ambitious OKRs outlined at the start of the quarter, only to vanish once daily Jira workflows take over.
Atlassian recognized this gap and introduced Atlas Goals to bring more visibility to strategic planning. But adoption is mixed. Many teams still use epics in Jira to represent goals or fall back on informal tracking in Slack, Confluence, or email.
This article shows how to build a clear, consistent goal planning process right inside Jira using: native issue types and linking
Whether you’re running Scrum, Kanban, or a mixed setup in Jira Software, Jira Service Management, or another Atlassian product, this approach scales with your team.
Why Plan Goals in Jira (Not Elsewhere)
Not every team tracks goals. Some don’t need them. Others aren’t ready.
In early-stage or fast-changing environments, teams often skip formal goal planning. Priorities shift too often. Managers are hands-on. Everyone knows what to do without a shared roadmap. This works, until it doesn’t.
As teams grow, disconnects appear. Contributors lose sight of priorities. Leadership lacks visibility. Projects move, but the bigger picture gets blurry. That’s when goal planning becomes essential.
The Smartsheet maturity model outlines five stages of organizational growth: Informal, Defined, Integrated, Strategic, and Optimized. Goal tracking typically emerges around the Integrated stage, specifically at the point when alignment and transparency start to impact outcomes.
Still, many teams default to Confluence pages, shared docs, or slides for goal planning. These tools aren’t bad, but they live outside the delivery system.
As a result:
- Goals are hard to reference during daily work
- Updates are manual and inconsistent
- No one knows what’s current or complete
Jira solves this by keeping goals close to execution. When goals live in Jira:
- They’re linked to real work. Teams can see what contributes to the goal and track progress automatically.
- Everyone stays aligned. Stakeholders and contributors access the same information in real time.
- Progress becomes measurable. Custom fields, dashboards, and Smart Checklist make tracking visible.
- Context-switching disappears. No need to manage updates across Confluence, Slack, and spreadsheets.
- Communication improves. Slack or Microsoft Teams updates can trigger automatically as progress unfolds.
This approach fits both formal OKRs and lightweight internal objectives. Even if your team isn’t ready for a company-wide goal framework, planning inside Jira creates clarity without introducing extra tools.
How to Set and Track Goals in Jira Using Atlassian Atlas
What is Atlas?
Atlas is Atlassian’s native tool for goal tracking across teams, projects, and departments. It gives structure to high-level goals like OKRs or strategic initiatives by linking them to work items in Jira. This helps teams understand how their daily work contributes to broader company outcomes.
Now Atlas for Jira Cloud app is available by default in all Free, Standard, Premium, and Enterprise Jira Cloud plans and brings strategic visibility into day-to-day project tracking.
The app links Atlas goals to Jira epics or any higher-level issue type in your hierarchy. This gives teams a real-time view of how current projects support long-term objectives. Teams can track project status, goal progress, and high-level context in one place.
Each goal has its own page where you can:
- Assign an owner
- Link related Jira epics, subtasks, and projects
- Add monthly updates, risks, learnings, and key decisions
- Define timelines, track progress, and keep everyone informed
Teams can also group goals by department, filter goals across timelines, or highlight them in planning views. For example, a product team working on a “Secure Cloud Migration” goal can link it to multiple epics in Jira and publish monthly updates with decisions made and risks flagged. Followers get updates automatically in their feed, without needing another sync meeting.
For example, goal owners can receive a reminder on the 1st of each month to post an update. Stakeholders are then notified on the 8th, which creates a reliable async update and reduces the need for OKR related meetings.
You can also view linked goals directly in Jira Software’s timeline view and filter or group by goals. From the left sidebar, the Goals tab makes it easy to find related work, but project admins can hide this view if needed.
How to Create a Goal in Atlas
Getting started in Atlas is simple:
- Go to Atlassian Home and select Create > Goal
- Enter a name, assign an owner, and set a target date
- Link relevant Jira issues, epics, or projects
- Add followers to keep stakeholders in the loop
From the goal page, you can expand the setup with:
- Sub-goals to represent team-specific contributions
- Goal types like OKRs or broader KPIs
- Tags, descriptions, and a scoring system (0.0–1.0 scale for OKRs)
This setup allows your organization to connect strategy with delivery using the tools you already work in. Check Atlas documentation for details
When Atlas Works (and When It Might Not)
Atlas is built for teams that need structured, visible goal tracking across departments. This typically applies to organizations operating at the Integrated or Strategic stage of maturity. Larger teams with defined processes benefit the most, especially when stakeholders need regular insight into progress without micromanagement.
However, smaller teams or early-stage startups may find Atlas too formal for their needs. In fast-changing environments, goals shift too quickly.
If your team isn’t ready to adopt a full goal-tracking structure, start small:
- Create one goal linked to your top roadmap priority
- Track monthly updates and link contributing Jira work items
- Use this setup to validate whether Atlas fits your organization
The app is already enabled across all Jira Cloud tiers. If you choose not to use it, admins can disable it in Apps > Manage Your Apps > Atlas for Jira Cloud.
Alternative Ways to Set and Track Goals in Jira
If you’re not using Atlassian Atlas, you can still set and track goals inside Jira. Depending on your Jira plan, there are two effective approaches:
- Jira Premium: Create a custom issue type called Goal and position it above Epics in your hierarchy. In this setup, Epics become child issues of Goals, allowing you to maintain a clear, structured hierarchy without needing to manually link items. This works well if your organization uses Jira’s advanced hierarchy features.
- Jira Standard: Since Epics are the highest available issue type, you can’t nest them under another item. But there’s a simple workaround — create a new issue type for goals and use custom issue links to connect them to Epics or other issues.
Define Goals Using Custom Issue Types (Jira Standard)
In Standard Jira, epics are the highest available issue type. That limits teams who want to track goals above the epic level. The workaround is simple: create a new issue type called Goal.
- Go to your Project Settings > Issue Types
- Add a new type: Goal
- Assign it a custom icon and description (e.g. “Used to track quarterly goals or OKRs”)
You can’t nest epics under this issue type, but you can link them using custom relationships like “Contributes to goal” or “Supports goal.”
To do this:
- Create a new issue link type in Jira settings
- Call it something like “Contributes to goal”
- Use this to link related epics, tasks, or initiatives to your new goal issue
This keeps your hierarchy clean. Goals stay separate from delivery work, and you preserve epics for product features or campaign execution.
Conclusion: Make Goal Planning Part of Your Workflow
Jira already holds your team’s daily work. Jira goals help you layer goal planning on top, without switching tools or losing visibility.
This setup works whether you’re tracking:
- Company-level OKRs
- Department goals like marketing conversions or onboarding improvements
- Internal improvement initiatives for QA, automation, or engineering best practices
You don’t need a separate OKR platform. Just structure goals well, link them to delivery, and keep progress visible.
The more closely your goals live to the actual work, the more likely they are to be achieved.
FAQ: Jira Goal Planning With Atlas
How do I create a goal in Jira with Atlas?
Go to Atlassian Home, click Create, then select Goal. You’ll define the goal name, owner, and target date, then link contributing Jira epics or issues. Add updates, sub-goals, and status monthly to keep stakeholders aligned. Read more in Atlassian’s documentation.
Why don’t I see goals in my Jira project or Plans view?
Make sure the Atlas for Jira Cloud app is enabled. This applies to Free, Standard, Premium, and Enterprise tiers. In Project Settings, confirm that Goals is toggled on. If you’re using Company-Managed or Team-Managed projects, both now support goals, but visibility settings may vary. Try switching from Jira to Atlas using the product switcher, then return to Jira.
Can I link goals to epics in Jira Software Cloud?
Yes. Atlas allows you to link a goal to one or many Jira epics. This enables filtering by goal in the Timeline view, and goal-linked issues show a dedicated Goals field. If the field is missing, project admins may need to re-enable it in Project Settings..
What’s the difference between using epics vs. a custom “Goal” issue type?
Some teams repurpose epics as goals. This works, but can confuse timelines and hierarchy. A better approach is to:
- Create a new custom issue type for goals
- Link contributing epics using a dedicated link type (e.g., “contributes to goal”)
- Track delivery separately while preserving clear structure in your Jira project
Is there a hierarchy for goals in Atlas?
Yes. Atlas supports sub-goals, which lets you model frameworks like OKRs. You can define parent goals (e.g., Strategic Themes) and link projects or Jira epics as contributors. In Advanced Roadmaps, grouping by goal hierarchy is limited, but evolving.
How do goals fit into frameworks like SAFe or OKRs?
In SAFe:
- A Goal could map to a Strategic Theme
- A Project could map to a Portfolio Epic
- Epics in Jira could represent Feature-level delivery
For teams using OKRs, a goal can contain checklist-based Key Results, with issue links or subtasks for tracking progress. Please check Jira OKRs article for more details.
Can I disable the Goals feature if it’s not relevant?
Yes. Admins can disable Atlas Goals from Apps ? Manage Your Apps ? Atlas for Jira Cloud ? Configure. In large organizations, a global on/off toggle for all projects may be useful, and Atlassian is exploring this based on user feedback.
What if my organization isn’t ready for goal planning?
Not all teams need formal goal tracking. If your team changes direction frequently, or if strategic alignment happens through direct communication, goals may not add value yet. As your organizational maturity grows, so does the need for structured planning and tracking.
