Effort Estimation and Capacity Planning in Jira: A Guide with Team Planner

[#1]

Planning a project in Jira can get overwhelming, especially when team capacity, deadlines, and changing priorities come into play. That’s where effort estimation and workload balancing become essential. In this guide, you’ll learn how to take full control of your Jira plans using the Team Planner app. It provides features specifically designed to monitor your plan and keep it manageable. Utilizing these ensures that your project remains organized and under control. 

Estimating Effort in Jira Projects: How to Display Task Estimates 

The first step to controlling the scope of your plan is understanding the effort involved in each task. Team Planner offers the ‘Estimations’ feature that lets you see the estimated time and effort needed for tasks in your plan. These estimations can be displayed in two ways.

 1. Story Points View

Selecting 'By Story Points' allows you to display the effort of your tasks using story points. These story points are shown next to the priority value on each task box, making it easy to see at a glance. Additionally, the app sums up all the story points of your tasks and displays the total at the top of your plan,  allowing you to gauge the overall effort required.

2. Original Estimation

Selecting 'By Original Estimate' lets you view each task's original estimated time. This estimate is displayed next to the priority value on the task box. Like with story points, the app sums up all the time estimates of your tasks and shows the total at the top, providing a clear picture of the total time commitment needed. 

Tracking Team Capacity and Workload Distribution

Effectively controlling your plan size means managing the workload of individual team members too. In your plan, under each user’s name, you can see three key values:   

• Available working days: the number of working days available for the user.
• Number of issues allocated: the number of tasks assigned to the user within the plan.

• Total estimate of tasks assigned: the total effort estimated for the tasks assigned to the user. These estimates adapt based on whether you choose to display story points or original estimates. The total values of the selected estimates (story points or original estimates) from the tasks assigned to the user are summed up, giving you a comprehensive view of each team member’s workload. If a task is assigned to multiple users, it's counted the same for each user.

Monitoring Project Progress with Visual Indicators

To keep your plan on track, monitoring progress is essential. When you set Team Planner to show the estimates, a progress bar appears at the top of the plan. This bar indicates how far you are from completing your plan by calculating the percentages based on the Jira issues estimates and their status categories. 

Summary

Using an app like Team Planner helps you get the right size of your plan and keep it under control. With special features to display effort estimates, manage the capacity of each user, and monitor progress, you can make sure that your team can complete their tasks efficiently.