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Atlassian Focus and Talent

The plan lives in a deck. The work lives in Jira.

Atlas Bench, an Atlassian Platinum Solution Partner, implements the Atlassian Strategy Collection with Focus and Talent at the center. We load the plan from your decks and spreadsheets into Focus, connect Talent so people show up against each focus area, set goals top down, and link initiatives in Jira, with Jira Plans, Jira Product Discovery, and, on Enterprise plans, Atlassian Analytics supporting the Jira side. Your Jira does not have to be restructured into a rigid framework first.

Atlassian Strategy Collection implementation built around Focus and Talent. We move the plan you already have out of slides and spreadsheets, put your people on it, and connect it to the Jira work that delivers it, with Jira Plans, Jira Product Discovery, and Atlassian Analytics on the Jira side instead of a rebuilt Jira.

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The problem

Most strategy lives in a deck and a spreadsheet. The priorities are on slides, the owners and budgets are in a workbook, headcount sits in the HR system, and delivery is in Jira. Before every leadership review, someone rebuilds the picture by hand, and it is out of date by the time it is presented. Nobody can say with confidence which people are working on which priority.

The usual fix is a portfolio tool that asks Jira to change shape first: every space mapped to a program, every board to a team, every team on a shared planning cadence. That is a large change, and the plan stays in the deck while it happens. Focus and Talent start from the other end. Focus links the epics and higher-level work you already have in Jira, Talent reads positions from your HR system, and the plan comes out of the deck before anyone changes a Jira workflow.

What the work is

Plan into Focus

The priorities already in your decks and spreadsheets loaded into Focus with its spreadsheet import, on a focus area hierarchy agreed with leadership (Focus allows one to ten levels), with an owner, status, and target date on each.

People into Talent

Your HR system connected through a Teamwork Graph connector, either Workday or CSV files in an Amazon S3 bucket, positions synced, and people allocated to the focus areas they work on, so leaders see who is staffed against each priority.

Goals, top down

Goals, or objectives and key results if you run OKRs, set on the top focus areas first and cascaded down, each with an owner and a target date. Key results sit under objectives rather than directly on focus areas, which is how Focus models them.

Initiatives in Jira

Jira Premium or Enterprise sites connected to Focus, each Jira status mapped to a Focus status, and the epics and higher-level work your teams already use linked to the focus areas they serve. An initiative level above epic is added only where it earns its place, because that change applies to the whole site.

Jira Plans and Product Discovery

Jira Plans (formerly Advanced Roadmaps), included with Jira Premium and Enterprise, set up for cross-team plans, dependencies, capacity, and scenarios on the boards and spaces teams already use. Where you run Jira Product Discovery, ideas are captured and prioritized there and become the Jira epics that Focus links.

Funds and reporting

Budgets, cost and benefit items, forecasts, and baselines on each focus area, loaded by CSV from the spreadsheets finance already keeps, with labor rates from Talent. On Cloud Enterprise, Atlassian Analytics dashboards that query Focus, Talent, and Jira data together.

How it runs

  1. Quick start

    2 to 4 weeks

    What is already in your decks and spreadsheets goes into Focus: the hierarchy, the focus areas, and their owners. Talent is connected to your HR data and people are allocated to focus areas. Leadership sees priorities and staffing in one place, the review meeting does not have to change to get there, and Jira is not touched.

  2. Goals

    2 to 3 weeks

    Goals or OKRs set at the top of the hierarchy and cascaded down, each with an owner, a target date, and a scoring rhythm that matches the planning cycle you already run.

  3. Work and roll-up

    In waves

    Jira sites connected, statuses mapped, and existing epics linked to focus areas one business area at a time. Jira Plans is set up for the teams that plan together, and Product Discovery and Analytics are added where you have them, until progress, staffing, and spend roll up from Jira to the top of the plan.

What you get

  • A focus area hierarchy agreed with leadership, loaded with the priorities from your current decks and spreadsheets
  • Talent connected to your HR system, with positions allocated to focus areas
  • Goals or OKRs linked to focus areas, each with an owner and a target date
  • Jira connected to Focus, with status mapping and your existing epics and initiatives linked to focus areas
  • Jira Plans configured for cross-team planning, with Product Discovery ideas linked to delivery work where you use it
  • Group permissions for Focus, Talent, and financial data, a planning cycle runbook, and admin training
Start here

Four layers. One accountable system of work.

The layer everyone wants sits on the layer everyone ignores. Every engagement starts at one of these four, and whichever door you come through, the other three are still load bearing.

L4

Agents and Automation

Rovo, Agents in Jira, Forge, MCP with Claude and Copilot, agent lifecycle, usage and cost governance.

2 services

Atlassian Anthropic
L3

Governance and Change

Permission architecture, audit and compliance, ITSM and change control, change management, strategic reporting and budgets.

6 services

Atlassian Guard Jira Service Management Strategy Collection Jira Align
L2

Platform and Migration

Migration of every kind, tool consolidation, licensing, standardization, the system of work.

5 services

Atlassian Miro AWS Azure
L1

Identity and Access

Human and non-human identity, SSO, SCIM, least privilege, access reviews, Guard cleanup, Agent SSO readiness.

4 services

Atlassian Guard Okta

load-bearing, bottom to top

Questions we get

Can we buy Focus or Talent on its own?
No. Atlassian sells Focus, Talent, and Align (formerly Jira Align) only together as the Strategy Collection, and seats are counted for the whole collection, not per app. Atlassian also says there is no requirement to implement all three. Our work centers on Focus and Talent, and Atlassian notes that Talent gives more value once your focus areas exist, which is why we start there.
Do we need Align as well?
Usually not to get started. For most organizations, Focus and Talent, with Jira Plans, Jira Product Discovery, and Atlassian Analytics around Jira, cover what leaders look to a portfolio tool for: priorities linked to delivery, cross-team plans and dependencies, staffing, and reporting. Align earns its setup when many teams plan together in program increments under a scaled framework. It is already in the collection, so you can add it later.
What do we need in Jira first?
Jira Cloud Premium, which is the minimum for the collection. Focus connects to Jira sites on Premium or Enterprise and links epics and anything above them, so it works with the spaces, boards, and workflows you already have. Each Jira status is mapped to a Focus status so the roll-up means the same thing everywhere. An initiative level above epic is optional. It applies to every company-managed space on the site and cannot be undone, so we plan it before anyone saves it.
Are Jira Plans, Product Discovery, and Analytics included?
Not in the collection itself. Jira Plans comes with Jira Premium and Enterprise, so every Strategy Collection customer already has it. Jira Product Discovery is a separate subscription, billed per creator, with contributors free. Atlassian Analytics needs a Cloud Enterprise plan for Jira, Jira Service Management, or Confluence.
Where does Talent get its people data?
From your HR system, through a Teamwork Graph connector that your organization admin sets up in Atlassian Administration. Atlassian offers a Workday connector and an HRIS S3 connector. Talent uses one connector at a time and syncs every six hours.
We already have Jira Align. What changes?
Atlassian now calls it Align, and your Jira Align contract now includes the Strategy Collection. Existing Jira Align customers can request Focus and Talent at no additional cost through their account team. Once Atlassian Support connects your Align site to Focus, Align epics and above can be linked to focus areas next to your Jira work.
featured guide

The Atlassian Strategy Collection is three apps sold together: Focus for strategic planning, Talent for workforce planning, and Align (formerly Jira Align) for enterprise portfolio execution, with Jira Cloud Premium as the minimum. For most organizations, Focus and Talent, supported by Jira Plans, Jira Product Discovery, and Atlassian Analytics, connect priorities, people, and Jira work without restructuring Jira first.

Read the guide

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Fixed scope. The assessment looks at permission architecture, change control, and every place audit evidence is still assembled by hand. You get the findings, the ownership gaps, and the order to close them in.

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