Stop Planning in Spreadsheets: Jira Plans Q&A

Rob Hean

Hey all!

Below is the Q&A from a Jira Plans session I ran on September 2nd over with Atlassian Learning public classes (def go check those out if you're looking for a wide range of free live training).

Curious what other question on plans you have, or how you can help me answer them better!

Questions & Answers

Question 1 - Capacity planning calculates from Story Points?

• Answer - Default is hours; however, you can configure/select story points (SP) instead depending on the team configuration (e.g. they have sprints configured).

Question 2 - I thought these were similar to Easy Agile Board app in Data Center?

• Answer - Jira Plans in Cloud is the evolution of the feature previously known as "Advanced Roadmaps" in Data Center (DC).

• There are multiple marketplace apps that perform similar functions! Be care if you're looking at Jira Plans and are used to a different app.

Question 3 - Is there a way we can choose what type of dependency links to be displayed, similar to Depends on?

• Answer - Yes, you can filter by link type within the plan settings and view settings. Filtering only shows links that exist in the plan, so if one is missing, none of the work types in the plan use that.

Question 4 - Can we leave the space/board/filter selection blank during setup to just choose the team?

• Answer - No, Jira requires selecting at least one space, board, or filter because it needs an explicitly defined source of work items to pull into the plan.

Question 5 - Without dates, how do you have the timeline? Are start/end dates mandatory?

• Answer - Dates are not mandatory at the field level to create a plan, but without dates, items will not generate timeline bars. You must add start/due dates (or use auto-scheduling based on sprint dates) to visualize a timeline.

• Your org may make those fields mandatory.
• Many groups discover their process needs work (e.g. folks are failing to fill in tickets properly) when they start using Plans, be on the lookout for those opportunities!

Question 6 - Have you had issues where when you save a view, other users still see the original view?

• Answer - This is a known browser/cloud cache behavior where open sessions do not auto-update dynamically; users currently viewing the plan must refresh their browser screen to pull the updated view settings.

• If you're still seeing this after refreshing (CMD/CTRL+Shift+R) please flag as a potential bug.

Question 7 - Can online data/Jira Align data be pulled into plans in Cloud?

• Answer - I don't believe so. Jira Align can push/pull some info from Jira, but I don't believe Align-specific fields can be pushed down.

• Also if you're using Align, that is likely the place where you should be planning higher "level" tasks.

Question 8 - Does Rovo work in Plans, and do we have Rovo Agents for Plans?

• Answer - Yes, Rovo can read the plan via the Teamwork Graph and perform actions like creating work items directly within a connected space from the chat panel. Specific pre-built out-of-the-box Rovo Agents dedicated solely to Jira Plans do not exist yet, though custom skills/actions can interact with plans.

• I haven't personally tested agents interacting with Plans, but would be curious what it could do.