Rally Software and Clarity Integrations Overview

Rally and Clarity together bridge the communication gaps between financial teams, business leaders, and development groups. Rally helps teams manage their work and day-to-day efforts while providing data to Clarity needed for reporting and budgeting.

There are many advantages to connecting Rally Software and Clarity. The advantages can really depend on your role. If you are a developer, you’ll appreciate that you will not have to move back and forth between multiple solutions as often. If you are in finance, however, you get great insights into project actuals, forecasts and plans with minimal impact on team productivity. You can also feel confident going into audits and reviews.

Rally Software is an enterprise Agile planning tool utilized by organizations to align work with business objectives. It supports real-time iterative work for those using all varieties of Agile, including SAFe and Value Stream Management (VSM) methodologies, to scale and align efforts. Rally is a purpose-built application for seamless development and delivery. It connects teams empowering them to collaborate and work effectively. It also ensures they are focused on the most impactful and highly prioritized work driving faster features and more aligned development.

When speaking with Lynn Reling, she also mentioned the phrase “transparent autonomy,” which means that the developers have a tool they can work with autonomously while also providing information to Clarity to show executives and leadership the progress of the work. As organizations have become more Agile, there has often been a loss of accountability. Leaders and sponsors didn’t have the visibility into investments that draw from their budgets. When teams work with Rally and data is automatically fed to Clarity, leaders can monitor progress even if the work is “continuous.”

There are several ways to optimize your Rally and Clarity investments, getting them connected and effectively working. In this article, we will discuss a few ways Rally Software and Clarity can exchange information. The ways we will discuss include out-of-box (OOTB) integrations, the Rally Connector, and the Clarity Roadmap to Rally connector.

Keep in mind that you will experience more success if you discuss your needs with your Rego consultant, so they can help you define your goals and discover the best options for you.

Here are a few, starting with out-of-box (OOTB) integration options available with Clarity.

Clarity has, for years, provided out-of-the-box connectors with enhancements in each release. However, in the past, these were only one-way connectors. Now they are bidirectional and can connect “Work Items” in Rally to any investment types found in Clarity.

To learn more about OOTB connectors vs Rego Connectors, see the presentation Clarity and Rally Integration OOTB and Rego.

To accommodate organizations that have specific use cases that go beyond the Out of the Box Rally integrations, Rego has created a configurable Rally Connector. This option, provided with no license fee, can be set up to meet your exact needs based on how you use Rally, extending both your Rally and Clarity investment.

Another option, that uses RegoLink (which is a branded term for all Rego connectors), connects Rally and Clarity. This option connects the planning elements in a Roadmap to a specified Rally product backlog. So, you can plan based on constraints like costs, points, or even t-shirt sizes and when you are ready, you can send the approved items directly to the Rally backlog. Additionally, the connector brings back to the Roadmap updates on progress in Rally assisting in both continuous and cyclical planning approaches.

While executives are most often focused on products, features, and capabilities becoming available and how that can impact the organization’s success, development teams are more focused on completing work and producing deliverables. Clarity is a powerful tool for leaders to plan and execute a roadmap, while Rally helps teams manage work. Connecting the two gives executives insight into the work, and how it may affect their goals and plans, and lets developers get their work done quickly and without much overhead.

A ValueOps success story we often refer to is our Chipotle case study. The founder Steve Ells opened the first restaurant in Denver with a goal of selling 107 burritos per day to be solvent, but he ended up selling 1000 burritos per day within one month. Now there are over 2700 restaurants, and they employ 65,000 people.

As they grew, different teams picked different project management and productivity tools. Some even managed data stored on team members’ laptops. Integrations were limited, and reports were not dependable.

After partnering with us and testing a few solutions, ValueOps for Broadcom was chosen to help Chipotle with its challenges. Rally Software and Clarity were implemented alongside Agile best practices. Almost instantly, they experienced over 20 percent improvement in productivity and were able to plan 18 months out. Plus, leadership could access reliable reports and have a complete view of the full portfolio lifecycle.

The easiest way to figure out your next steps if you are considering a Rally/Clarity connector is to discuss your needs with your Rego consultant. After evaluating your current needs, expectations, and future needs, we can help you decide which type of Rally connector best suits your needs.

To learn more about connecting Clarity to other Agile solutions, see Integrating Agile Solutions with Clarity.

Rego also offers free configuration and adoption assessments, webinars, and half-day training classes for Clarity and Rally Software® on Roadmaps, Portfolio Management, Power BI, Scaled Agile, Jaspersoft.

For a full list of Clarity PPM services, visit regoconsulting.com.