How to Manage Resources Beyond Jira Users

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Real projects involve more than just Jira users. Most project managers work with internal teams, external contractors, freelancers, and shared resources like equipment or meeting rooms. Jira handles tasks for licensed users well, but it can't manage these external resources, creating a major gap in project planning.

ActivityTimeline solves this problem by letting you manage "Non-Jira Users" as resources. You can include contractors, freelancers, equipment, and other project assets in your planning alongside regular team members. This extends resource management beyond Jira's limitations.

Creating Non-Jira Resources

ActivityTimeline's main strength is planning for all your resources, whether they're in Jira or not. Setting this up is straightforward.

Go to Configuration > Users and select Resources. Create a new resource with a name, unique identifier, and description. Just like regular Jira users, you can assign positions, skills, and custom capacity or working hours. This detail makes non-Jira resources part of your planning process.

These resources show up on your main planning dashboard next to Jira users, giving you a complete workforce view. Add them to existing teams or create dedicated teams for specific resources like shared equipment. This prevents scheduling conflicts and shows all available resources at a glance.

Real-World Applications

This functionality provides major benefits:

• Handle Different Resource Types: Manage freelance designers without Jira accounts by allocating their time to projects. Track non-human resources like testing environments or specialized equipment to ensure availability when needed.
• Complete Project Overview: Seeing Jira users and non-Jira resources on one dashboard gives you full visibility of project resources. This helps project managers understand total workforce capacity and set realistic timelines. It's essential for catching scheduling conflicts before they affect your project.
• Detailed Planning Flexibility: While Jira issues only go to Jira users and teams, ActivityTimeline lets you assign custom events—bookings or placeholders—to non-Jira resources. You can plan activities for external entities without creating Jira accounts for everyone. Use placeholder events to simulate workload for potential new hires before making hiring decisions. Once hired, transfer their tasks from the placeholder to their actual Jira account.

This level of planning prevents miscommunication and improves transparency, leading to better collaboration and productivity across projects.

Important Details

• Resource creation is limited by your paid Jira users. With 130 active Jira users, you can create up to 130 resources in ActivityTimeline.
• Only custom events can be assigned to Resources. Jira issues can only go to users and teams.

Summary

Modern resource management needs extend beyond Jira's boundaries. ActivityTimeline's non-Jira resource management changes the game by providing complete visibility of all resources—from full-time employees to shared equipment and potential hires. It helps project managers plan and manage budgets, workloads, and utilization more accurately, leading to efficient operations and better business results.