Design the hierarchy
Liz translated the operating model into a Jira Structure architecture that connected strategy to delivery.
Aerospace Company · Strategic Portfolio Visibility
Turning disconnected Jira work into a live view of strategy and execution.
In 2026, Liz designed and configured a strategy-to-execution system in Jira with Structure, giving leaders and teams a connected view of goals, milestones, ownership, and delivery health.
- Role
- Business Program Manager
- Platform
- Jira with Structure
- Scale
- Deployed enterprise-wide
- Timeline
- 2026
Enterprise-widedeployment across the company
3 viewsexecutive, program and subsystem, workstream and team
Live rollupsprogress, health, delivery dates, and schedule variance
The challenge
Strategy and delivery lived in the same company, but not in the same view.
Portfolio information was fragmented. Dependencies and delivery risks could surface late, teams spent too much time preparing status reports, and priorities could drift during execution.
Executives could not trace goals to delivery milestones
Teams could not see why their work mattered
Portfolio status was fragmented across tools and reports
Reporting required extensive manual reconciliation
The first move
Design the Structure hierarchy around the operating model.
Liz reused the established strategy-to-execution hierarchy, then translated it into a system that could connect company goals to milestones, delivery work, and accountable owners.
The system design
One portfolio structure, connected from goals to daily work.
Existing Jira work was cleaned and mapped to the hierarchy. Standard fields and relationships created the foundation for trustworthy traceability and automated reporting.
Sanitized Jira Structure view from the project presentation.
The implementation
Connect the work first, then let the system create visibility.
Prepare the data
Existing work was cleaned, mapped to the correct hierarchy levels, and organized through standard fields and relationships.
Automate the rollups
Completion, health, delivery dates, and schedule variance rolled up automatically from Jira work.
Refine the views
Executive, program, subsystem, workstream, and team views were refined using feedback from the people who needed them.
The core challenge:Existing Jira work was not linked to the portfolio hierarchy, so strategic traceability and rollups could not function.
The outcome
Leaders gained traceability, and teams gained context.
01
Goals connected to delivery
Leaders could trace strategic goals through milestones to the work moving through Jira.
02
Purpose visible to teams
Teams could see how epics and stories contributed to company priorities and delivery commitments.
03
Portfolio health stayed current
Automated rollups kept completion, health, dates, and schedule variance visible across audience-specific views.
Leadership lesson
“Tools must reinforce the operating model.”
The value did not come from adding another reporting layer. It came from configuring the technology around a shared operating model so strategy, ownership, and delivery remained connected.
Explore the work