Capacity planning Jira Plans

Question

Is there a way to configure Jira Plans to spread the workload evenly over the task duration instead of frontloading it? For example, if a task lasts 3 weeks with a total estimate of 30 hours, it should allocate 2 hours per day instead of scheduling everything at the beginning. Are there settings or workarounds to achieve this?

In Jira Plans, the workload for tasks is frontloaded, meaning that the total estimated time (Original Estimate) is scheduled as early as possible instead of being evenly distributed over the task duration. This results in an inaccurate capacity view, especially for long-running tasks.

Daria Spizheva_Reliex_ · Answer

Hi Tim,

What you described is literally a use case that ActivityTimeline covers. This app allows for Balanced mode for workload distribution - it evenly distributes hours for a set period. If a task is estimated for 10 hours, and a manager schedules it for 2 days, the system will automatically schedule 5 hours per day for that task. Also, it provides visual representation of tasks and team members workload.

The Remaining estimate field is used for scheduling, not Original estimate. You can check the video example on the difference between Balance & Liquid workload calculation modes here. Hope this helps!

Prachi Bolar · Answer

Hi Tim,

Welcome to community :)

Capacity management is handled differently in the cloud and you can learn all about it in the following article:

* Manage capacity in your plans

If you’re using time-based estimates, the sprint capacity is determined by taking the weekly capacity and multiplying by the number of weeks per iteration. For example, if your team’s capacity is 40 hours and your iterations last two weeks, your team’s sprint capacity will be 80 hours.

When dealing with issues that span multiple iterations, Advanced Roadmaps uses the assumption that an issue can only be assigned to one person. With that in mind, it distributes that issue based on the capacity of one team member in one plan, which it calculates using the following equation: [team’s capacity per iteration]/[number of people in a team] = [capacity of one team member]

Below requests raised

* JSWCLOUD-19481 - Consider capacity for the shared team members based on all plans where this team is used
* JSWCLOUD-20434 - Add the ability to schedule plans based on users capacity

Thank You,

Prachi