How do I set up BigGantt using existing tasks, projects, and/or filters?

Question

Hi Jira Team,

I'm about halfway through my 30-day trial for BigGantt and starting to think it may not be the right tool for what I'm trying to accomplish. I'm hoping someone with Jira can advise me on whether I'm setting the app up incorrectly or point me to an app that better fits my team's needs.

Here's some context:

I have multiple teams whose work lives across multiple Jira Projects. The type of work I manage for them is almost strictly done in Waterfall fashion. I have a lot of beautiful, complex automations set up so that when one card/task gets moved to done on one board in one project, the next team's card/task auto-populates on their board (often in another project), complete with checklists, unique components for KPI-tracking, etc., etc.

While our automations and workflow are on-point, our current challenge is visibility -- individual teams aren't seeing the impact they'll have on the overall project deadline without the aid of a Gantt chart, which is why I have been manually updating one in Google Sheets these past few weeks. I was hoping BigGantt could replace the need for that spreadsheet (and I was especially drawn to the fact that you can easily adjust the items within a BigGantt chart to reflect deadlines being moved up or pushed back), but I'm finding that it doesn't function as I envisioned. Namely, it seems that the only way to create a chart in BigGantt is to create all of the cards/tasks upfront, which renders my team's intricate card-populating automations moot.

This brings me to a few questions:

* Is BigGantt the right tool for what I'm trying to accomplish?* If so, how do I set up my chart without all of the cards being made yet and then link the cards to the chart once they auto-populate later on?
* If not, can you recommend a better Jira app for our project forecasting needs?

* Would it be possible to set up a meeting with someone from the Jira team to discuss and/or demo our options?

Adam _SoftwarePlant_ · Answer

Hello @michelle_ski

Thank you for your interest in our product. When it comes to showing in the BigGantt app all of the tasks from your different JIRA projects, you can take advantage of the Box "Scope Definition Settings" (Box Configuration -> Tasks -> Scope Definition), which basically allows you to automate the process. In this section, you can decide what should be the source for the tasks that should appear on the Gantt module. You can select one of the below:

- filter

- board

- Jira Project

Once you set this up, the app will automatically retrieve the tasks from the selected source.

Please kindly take a look at the image below:

I believe that you may also want to consider trying our BigPicture app, as it contains a "Board" module, which allows you to visualize your work in a more "team-oriented" view, which might be exactly what you are looking for. You may take a look at it on our documentation page, to which I provide a link below:

- BigPicture Board

In any case, should you have any other more specific questions related to our products and it's functionalities, I strongly recommend contacting our Support Team by creating a ticket via our Support Platform.

Hope this helps!

Best regards,

Adam

Alexander Pappert · Answer

A

You can extend your trial up to 2 or 3 times, if you need more time

B

Do you only need a visibility of open tasks / task progress?

Then the scrum boards should be ok

C

If you need gant chart to plan the tasks order, do you already fill the start/end date field required for big gantt?

If not, you can configure gantt to do this automatically, or you can do it manually.