Learn how our super users get the most out of their teams using Rally
The best thing about our users is that they have insights into how to use Rally. Everyone has their own approach to managing their project and these insights can help everyone, not just those on their teams.
That’s why we love Rally user groups. They give our users a chance to do a deep dive into the features they use, how they use them, and why it’s important for their teams to focus on them.
In our most recent user group sessions, Rally users talked about how they use OKRs and Timelines, taking the time to explore how they applied them directly in Rally.
OKRs
OKRs - also known as objectives and key results - are a powerful way to create focus and alignment (both vertical and horizontal) among teams, according to Doug Wilson of T. Rowe Price.
To Wilson, OKRs are a way to describe where you want to go, not where you are. They’re a way to describe broadly what you hope to achieve during a sprint or project. They break OKRs down into two types: committed (i.e., they must be achieved no matter what) and aspirational (i.e., “wouldn’t it be nice if we could do this”).
Creating good OKRs means looking at what you need, why you need it, and what you hope to achieve by doing it. The objective is a statement of a broad, qualitative goal. The key result is a quantitative statement that measures the achievement of the objective.
The diagram below helps you break down what an OKR should look like, or better yet, how to put it together.
One of the ways that Wilson uses OKRs is to better manage dependencies. These are always going to exist within a project, but you can use your OKRs to limit their impact and better ensure alignment within teams.
OKRs work best when you constantly evaluate and manage them. Breaking your objectives down on at least a quarterly basis can help you create a cycle of attempting, measuring, and adapting. And, by constantly checking in, you can make sure things are heading in the right direction.
In this user group session, Wilson covers how to apply this practice directly within Rally.
Timelines
At Sabre, Elaine McNaughton and her teams use Timelines to perform high-level planning, sequence work in a way that reduces handoffs, and reduce dependencies.
As a planning tool, Timelines give McNaughton a way to visualize large volumes of work. It provides leadership with an easy way to check the status of projects. Program managers and release train engineers can see a project’s status and proactively recognize any potential scheduling risks, reducing the number of dependencies.
Timelines are also useful as a coaching tool for new teams who may not understand how the various pieces of a project fit together. By putting together timelines and giving these new teams a way to see dependencies that might exist, teams can learn how to better plan and organize future projects.
McNaughton also likes the way timelines can be used to determine an idea’s feasibility when brainstorming, helping you understand and plan the journey from idea to marketplace.
To see how McNaughton uses Rally to manage Timelines, check out her user session here.
Don’t miss out on Rally activities
You might find this summary of different engagement opportunities with the Rally team a helpful resource. Whether you need 1:1 support or have product questions, there are many different forums you can leverage such as office hours, communities, and more!
Michelle Kerby
Michelle brings more than 20 years of experience in marketing and sales leadership for Fortune 500 companies. She is passionate about solving customer challenges and creating loyal evangelists. Michelle is based in Silicon Valley.
Other resources you might be interested in
The Next Chapter for AutoSys: Moving Toward the Intelligent Control Plane
Is Broadcom still investing in AutoSys? Yes! Learn about the V26 roadmap, which features MCP orchestration, AI job types, and AI-powered developer assistance.
Automic Automation: Upgrading to Version 26
This course guides you through and demonstrates the process to upgrade Automic Automation from version 24 to version 26 on a Windows platform. The Unix upgrade is virtually the same.
ValueOps ConnectALL: Synchronizing Rally and Jira
Learn how to synchronize team-level data in Jira with program-level agile data in Rally using ConnectALL.
DX NetOps: Unified Collection Framework Install
This course is designed to provide a clear, easy-to-follow guide for setting up and managing the Unified Collection Framework (UCF).
Rally Office Hours: April 2, 2026
This Rally Office Hours session highlights product tips for story parenting and queries, technical Q&A on API custom fields, and updates on upcoming AI and strategic portfolio management events.
Automic Automation Cloud Integrations: AWS Glue Automation Agent
Broadcom's AWS Glue Automation Agent lets you easily execute AWS Glue jobs, monitor and manage them with your existing enterprise workload automation, as well as other cloud-native activities.
AppNeta: Create Monitoring Policies for Active Monitoring
Learn how to create and configure monitoring policies in AppNeta in order to set up active network and web application monitoring.
Debunking the Myth of the Homogeneous Network
Tame multi-vendor network chaos by harnessing a single, scalable observability platform that unifies fault, performance, and configuration data.
DX NetOps: Network Observability Deployment Engine (NODE) Install
Learn how to establish the foundational architecture for the Network Observability Deployment Engine (NODE) by mastering the deployment of CaaS and LCM.