Best app for Capacity Planning and Resource Management

[Deleted user]

Hi,

I currently have some problems with my capacity/resource planning for my team. we are a team of 20 and I manage the day-to-day activities of all the projects and I would like to see a real-time report of the resources assigned to each project and how long. This will help me point out if I have over-allocated tasks to a team member and better plan their roster for future projects.

we're currently using Tempo Timesheets, cost tracker and resource planning. The timesheet and cost tracker are fine, however I really don't like the resource planning feature, it has a lot of bugs and really don't integrate well

While browsing the marketplace I found "Activity Timeline" app to be a good replacement for Tempo resource planning. But I could not filter the resource by Projects instead I can only see the tasks assigned to them.

1. Is there anyway to filter the Capacity planning by Projects?
2. Have you used other apps for Capacity/Resource planning which has the option to filter the resources used by Project?

P.S - If anyone have used Asana previously, I'm trying to achieve a similar output to their capacity planning report

Thanks 

[Ostap Zaishlyi _Reliex_]

Hello @[deleted]

I am Ostap from Reliex / ActivityTimeline Team, thanks for the great questions!

Basically, in ActivityTimeline you can achieve the desired result in 2 ways:

1. Create Project Teams - this will allow seeing users that are assigned to issues from the chosen project.

Here is a great article on how you can do this: 

https://reliex.com/blog/how-to-track-project-teams-in-jira/

2. Use Automatic Team & Project Filter - You can choose "Automatic Team" in the dropdown and then filter for a specific project, this will only show you the people that are involved in that project:

I hope this answers your question, but if you have any additional questions to discuss, I encourage you to schedule a free demo session with our Product experts so they could go through your use case and answer any existing questions.

[Anna-BigPicture]

Hi @[deleted]

Taking into account your requirements, BigPicture seems to be a good match for your needs. The Resources module provides all crucial, real-time information to manage resources both at project and portfolio levels but also can give an insight into resource utilization on a PI/Sprint level. 

You can display capacity, remaining capacity, and allocation both on the individual and Team level, which allows precise analysis of the consumption of currently utilized resources and forecasted availability. Data are color-coded what helps in the quick identification of both overallocation and under- allocation.

Using different effort modes, you can analyze resource consumption, currently utilized resources as well as forecasted availability. 

Additionally, I encourage you to become familiar with our article: Managing Resources with BigPicture Enterprise

Please let me know if you have more specific questions.

[Cesar Sasaki]

BigPicture have a view similar to Tempo Resource Planning?

Also , once a issue has any planned hour is there a way to "mark it" so I can see only the issues that does not have any "planned" hour?

We are a team of aprox 60 people looking to plan tickets by hour per day.

Thanks!

[Anna-BigPicture]

Hi @Cesar Sasaki

Yes, you can display issues with no time estimation using Quick Filter. 

The first step is to create a Quick Filter in Box Configuration >> Tasks >> Quick Filter. Here you will find instructions on how to add a new Quick Filter.

Use JQL query: originalEstimate is EMPTY

Then enable the filter on the Board module to exclude from the view already estimated issues.

If something stays unclear, just tag me in the post. 

[Vinayak Wagh]

For your use case, I’d focus on whether the tool can show capacity across projects who is allocated to which projects, for how long, and where people are becoming overbooked rather than just showing assigned tasks.

A few options worth comparing:

ActivityTimeline – Worth considering if you want to stay closely within the Jira ecosystem.
BigPicture – Another option to explore if you want broader planning around Jira-based work.
Tempo Planner – Makes sense to evaluate since you’re already using other Tempo products.
Celoxis – Particularly worth a look if you want resource/capacity planning connected with the actual project plans and broader project-level visibility, rather than treating resource planning as a separate piece.

For the requirement you described, Celoxis would be on my shortlist because the resource planning sits alongside project planning, so you can look at capacity in the context of the work being planned. It can also be relevant if you later need planning, time, costs, and reporting to stay connected.

Whichever option you choose, I’d test your exact scenario in the trial: take your 20-person team, assign them across a few current and future projects, and see how easily you can identify over-allocation and understand remaining capacity.

[Urte Balciunaite]

This is a common gap as most timesheet/cost-tracking tools bolt on resource planning as an afterthought, which explains the bugs and lack of project filtering you're seeing. Worth checking Teamhood resource/capacity planning is built in natively, with a workload view you can filter by person and by project, so over-allocation is visible before it becomes a problem. That's closer to what you're describing wanting from Asana's capacity report.

[Deleted user]

BigPicture what else? more info via 

@Anna-BigPicture 

[Mary from Planyway]

Hi @[deleted], 

It's Tania from the Planyway team. Perhaps Planyway could be a good match for your case? All you need to do is to define the working hours of your team and estimate tasks. To filter by projects, tick the projects in the sidebar:

I'll be happy to help with any concerns or questions, feel free to reach out!