Work planning

[Varvara K_]

In business projects, we display tasks on a board by categories: "P1," "P2," and "Done." Tasks that aren't initially categorized are automatically placed in the "Unclassified" column. This system is very convenient. However, we've encountered a problem: managers want to plan work for more than just one project. For example, one manager might supervise three teams working on five projects. We need a tool that would help implement this kind of planning—not tied to completion time, but based on task order. We need to be able to assign tasks and somehow prioritize them so that they align with the tool and the project, preventing situations where the tool does one thing and the project does another. We're open to ideas, as this problem requires a different perspective.

[Kevin Kadakas]

Hi @Varvara K_ , since I usually try to get the most out of Atlassian’s native capabilities, I won’t suggest plugins here.

If by planning you mean that managers need visual timelines of start and due dates of tasks across multiple teams and projects, this can be achieved with Jira Premium using Plans (Advanced Planning). Plans allow you to combine multiple projects, boards, or filters into a single view and plan work primarily by issue rank and priority, not only by start or due dates. This works well for managers overseeing several teams and helps keep planning aligned with what teams see in Jira.

More information about Plans:

https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/guides/advanced-roadmaps/overview

As an alternative, you can also use cross-project boards, which let you see and rank issues from multiple projects in one place (board) and it does not require Premium subscription. This is useful when task order matters more than timelines, though it does not provide capacity or dependency planning.

Finally, consider using Jira Software projects instead of Business projects, as they are more flexible and better suited for long-term, cross-team planning.

Hope this answered your question, feel free to ask further questions by repling to this and ill get back to you as soon as possible :)

[Varvara K_]

@Kevin Kadakas I want to see this in the form of a board, in which you can move around the columns that are created according to the custom field.

[Mary from Planyway]

For managing tasks across multiple teams and projects, I recommend using Planyway for Jira, particularly the timeline view grouped by teams. This feature allows you to visualize and organize work in a way that aligns well with how you want to plan and track progress across several projects simultaneously.

How it works:

• Timeline view: this feature offers a sharable interactive timeline where tasks can be displayed across multiple spaces (projects). Grouping them by teams allows you to manage work across different teams working on multiple projects, all in one place. If needed, you can always switch to the individual team member view to see who is working on what+manage capacity in Jira. 

• Task prioritization: you can prioritize tasks within the Timeline view by dragging them along the timeline to set their order, ensuring that high-priority tasks are addressed first. This gives you control over task sequences without relying solely on completion time.

• Categorization: to maintain the clarity of your task status, you can still use categories like "P1," "P2," and "Done," along with custom labels for each team’s tasks. Tasks that aren’t categorized could be automatically placed in a "Unclassified" section as before, providing a quick overview of unassigned tasks.

Why it helps:

• No dependency on completion time: this method keeps tasks organized based on priority and order of execution, not just deadlines. You can assign tasks across teams and adjust their order based on strategic needs or available resources, preventing the scenario where project timelines diverge from actual tool functionality.

• Unified project planning: since managers oversee multiple teams and projects, this solution allows them to view all tasks by project, team, or priority, providing the flexibility to plan based on task importance rather than strict deadlines.

[Varvara K_]

I want to see this in the form of a board, in which you can move around the columns that are created according to the custom field.

[Marc -Devoteam-]

Hi @Varvara K_ 

You can create a board on a project that combines information from multiple Jira spaces (projects), user would need to have access on all of the spaces to see this information on the board.

You can even set swim lanes on the board based per space (project).

Can you show a visual representation of your requirement?

[Varvara K_]

@Marc -Devoteam- I want to see this in the form of a board, in which you can move around the columns that are created according to the custom field.

[Marc -Devoteam-]

Hi @Varvara K_ 

This can't be done a board is based on column where workflow status are assigned to a column.

You can based the swim lanes of a board on a JQL, so you can make multiple swim lanes and base the on a JQL per option of the category field.

Make sure the board has a main filter that ingests all relevant items,.

[Madhumitha N]

Hi @Varvara K_,

I would suggest to explore Jira Advanced Roadmaps

[Varvara K_]

What are you talking about, it's not relevant to the question

[Varvara K_]

@Madhumitha N I want to see this in the form of a board, in which you can move around the columns that are created according to the custom field.