Is there a way to nest your tasks and subtasks under the Feature in a timeline?

Question

I am trying to work from the timeline to make a nice view or graphic to show our client on the work plan with dates, or a timeline.  I am finding this timeline very difficult to work with or to make very viewer friendly.  I have seen mention of roadmaps, but I am not sure how to work with those.  Does this timeline in JWM just have really limited capabilities or am I missing something?  It would be nice to at leat have the tasks nested under the feature at a minimum.

Mary from Planyway · Answer

Hi @Stephanie_Orndorff

It's Mary from Planyway

Working with timelines in Jira Work Management (JWM) can indeed present challenges, especially when you're aiming to create a visually appealing and informative view for clients. The functionality of the timeline view in JWM is more straightforward and less feature-rich compared to more specialized project management tools designed explicitly for roadmap visualization. However, understanding its capabilities and limitations can help you make the most out of it.

Timeline View Limitations and Features

* Limited Customization: The timeline view in JWM is primarily designed for internal team tracking rather than external presentations. It provides a basic chronological visualization of tasks but lacks extensive customization options.
* Simple Visualization: It allows you to see tasks, their durations, and deadlines in a simple, linear format. This is useful for quick references but may not be as impactful for client presentations.
* Task Nesting: As of the last update, JWM doesn't support complex nesting in the timeline view, such as visually grouping tasks under specific features or epics directly within the timeline, which can make it challenging to represent more complex project structures or hierarchies.

Working with Roadmaps

If you're looking for more sophisticated visual project planning tools within Atlassian's ecosystem, you might want to explore using Jira Software's roadmap feature, which is more advanced than the timeline view in JWM:

* Advanced Planning: Roadmaps in Jira Software allow for better planning and visualization, including the ability to nest tasks (issues) under epics, visualize dependencies, and adjust plans easily with a drag-and-drop interface.
* Client Presentations: Roadmaps can be tailored for different audiences, making them more suitable for presenting project plans to clients. They offer a clearer, more strategic view of how features or projects are progressing over time.
* Integration: If your organization uses both Jira Work Management for task management and Jira Software for agile project management, it's worth exploring how you can leverage the strengths of both tools. For example, you could manage detailed task execution within JWM and use Jira Software's roadmap feature for high-level planning and client presentations.

Alternatively, you can explore third-party roadmapping apps like Planyway

Trudy P Claspill · Answer

Hello @Stephanie_Orndorff

Welcome to the Atlassian community.

Currently the timeline in JWM is capable of showing nesting only of subtasks under their parent standard level issue (task). It is not capable of showing nesting of the standard level issues under the next level of in the issue hierarchy (Epic).

There are two issues in Atlassian's backlog related to this:

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JWMCLOUD-415

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JWMCLOUD-111

You can add your vote/comments to them.

Roadmaps are the previous name for what is currently called Timelines related to Software project agile boards. If you have the Jira Software product included in your instance and you have been granted a license for it, then there is a path here that would enable you to create a timeline view that shows the nesting of standard level issues (tasks) under their parent Epic, but that view does not include showing subtasks, unfortunately.