Say hello to Jira Align version 11.X!

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We’re making some updates to Jira Align’s release numbering and practices, beginning on Friday, June 7th. This article highlights the changes planned for next month, and explains the reasons behind them. For a detailed look into how we’re evolving our releases, see the full announcement on Jira Align Help.

What’s changing

We’re introducing these changes as part of our commitment to enhancing stability in your Jira Align environments. These changes also help improve our communications, make version numbers easier to interpret, and set the stage for more release activity in the future. With the 11.0.0 release scheduled for Friday, June 7th, you’ll see the following:

🥳 Version 10.X becomes version 11.X

We’re saying goodbye to major version 10.X. We’ve been on 10.X since 2017, prior to joining the Atlassian family. Since then, we’ve launched 133 new feature releases and deployed nearly 300 times. Major changes like new navigation, new experiences like capacity planning, significant performance enhancements, and modernization efforts have leveled-up Jira Align to major version 11.X. And there's more on the way! See our roadmap to learn what’s coming next →

🔢 Track-based version numbers

Previously, we used the third digit in release versions, 10.X.X, to indicate which week of our four-week release cycle a version applied to. That digit could be .0, .1, .2, or .3. This numbering scheme required you to know how our schedule translated back to each release track.

To simplify things and make it easy to identify which environments and tracks are impacted, you’ll only need to remember two numbers from now on:

• Versions with a .0 (e.g. 11.X.0) indicate deployments to sandbox environments on the continuous release track.

• Versions with a .1 (e.g. 11.X.1) indicate a deployment to both production environments on the bundled release track and sandbox environments on the continuous release track.

  • On-premise releases will also use 11.X.1.

🛠️ Introducing bug fix releases

We’re saying hello to bug fix releases, which are optional releases that contain fixes and improvements ready for an environment that doesn’t have a planned release on a given Friday. We chose this term to be consistent with other Atlassian products.

• Versions for bug fix releases will contain an additional identifier at the end, e.g. 11.X.0.XXXX. This number will increment if multiple bug fixes are deployed for a version.

To see how bug fixes work with other release types, review the table in our full announcement.

🕐 New on-premise release timing

On-premise releases will move one week later in our release cycle. A new on-premise version will be created 12 days after a successful deployment to production environments. This shift allows us to include more fixes and updates for on-premise each month.

📢 Communication updates

Each Monday, you can expect updates in Jira Align Help about new features and enhancements, as well as bugs we’ve fixed in each version.

On weeks that a bug fix is optional, we’ll discontinue publishing “no release for version 11.X.X” articles when there is not a new version. This will ensure that when you’re subscribed to release notes sections in Help, you’ll only receive notifications for new changes.

• The feature release notes section, previously known as main release notes, contains articles that detail new features and enhancements, along with any bugs fixed during the full release cycle.

• The bug fix release notes section, previously known as supplemental release notes, contains articles that focus on fixes and improvements shipped in optional releases.

Our release calendar will be streamlined to focus on planned releases. When we deploy an optional bug fix release, we’ll add that entry to the calendar with a link to the notes.

What’s not changing

Our release cadence for cloud environments and the Enterprise Insights offering will not change:

• Cloud environments will continue to see new versions on a four-week cycle, with deployments happening each Friday as needed.

• Enterprise Insights will continue to follow Jira Align’s four-week cycle, deploying when changes are available.

Why? Our commitment to stability

We remain laser-focused on providing stability to both cloud and on-premise versions, and resolving customer-reported and internally-found bugs as quickly as possible. We’re continuing to build on improvements shared in articles such as Addressing feedback and bugs quicker than ever before! and Jira Align is getting faster, faster. .

Looking ahead, these changes set us up for the possibility of releasing more often. We’re exploring ways to move out of Friday-only releases, providing updates daily, even continuously as needed. We’re also working on changes to give you more control over new features and enhancements that impact your practices, internal training materials, and ways of working. We’ll provide more updates on these efforts in the future.

Stay informed

To keep up-to-date with enhancements and fixes we deploy regularly, we recommend the following:

• Subscribe to the feature release notes and bug fix release notes sections in Jira Align Help to be notified when new articles or significant updates are published.

• Check back inside feature release notes articles each week for a summary of recent fixes.

• If a particular bug affects you, add yourself as a watcher to the issue inside jira.atlassian.com (JAC) for up-to-date status.