Resource/Capacity planning for Jira issues - please help!

Paul Farrell

Hi,

It's not often I come onto a shared forum and beg but that is exactly what I am doing now - begging. I really, really need some advice as trying to find the right solution to my problem is driving me crazy. 

All I need is resource and capacity planning for my Jira issues. I have trialled a few different plugins and add-ons but none handle exactly what I want. My last resort is to ask if anyone knows of something that will. 

I use a Kanban board to track people's tasks. I don't use Scrum because I am in a client-focussed team. The number of interruptions make Kanban more suitable. 

So I have a long list of tasks in the backlog. Each task has an estimate and each task is assigned to an individual. 

What I really need is something that can:

1. Allow me to schedule tasks for a person (ideally that's not a Gantt view)

2. Allow tasks to have some kind of dependency. If I have a long schedule of tasks and I want to drop a new task right in the middle of the schedule, I need the other tasks, that come after it, to move accordingly

3. Track resource utilisation i.e. capacity. I need to set a workload for a particular person and have the solution show me if they are under/over utilised

4. Run reports on person or team utilisation so I can see what I have capacity

5. Perhaps (but not necessary really) export the schedule to an ical link (or failing that to excel) so I can share the calendar with a client. 

6. IT would be great to have the scheduling tool set planned start and end dates - so I can show these on the task cards in the Jira board

 

There has to be something! Surely. 

So far I have tried:

Tempo Planner - good but it doesn't have the ability to drop a task in the middle of other tasks and for the other tasks to move. There is something about 'blocks' and 'is blocked by' use in Tempo Planner but I can't see how that works (I am trying right now).

ActivityTimeline - very good software. Ok, it's outside of the Jira UI but it's really good. Again though, doesn't have the ability to link tasks. It has a bulk reschedule tool but this doesn't work reliably.

BigPicture - I admit I wasn't sure what to do here. On first examination it just looked like a Gantt chart. I'm not averse to a Gantt chart. I just don't like the way Gantt charts are laid out. 

 

Please, if anyone out there can help I can't tell you how much I would appreciate it. 

unknown

Hi @Paul Farrell,

I will try as best I can to offer you a complete solution though it seems you have already looked at quite a few add-ons. I will cover some of them again as they do offer a solution to your requirements with relevant links to where I believe you may have hit a wall.

Tempo Planner - For dependencies to be respected you need to plan issues using the iteration timeline. Great if you are using versions in a project.

Activity Timeline - I agree with you that it s powerful and it sits outside from Jira. The issue I have had with it is similar your experiences; it is difficult for it to perform basic commands, and sometimes syncing breaks down.

Portfolio for Jira - PoJ was built for this reason by Atlassian, basically a resource and capacity planner for your projects. It supports dependency planning, resource / team management. The only issue I have had is the learning curve for effectively learning how to use the tool effectively. Not a deal breaker I'm sure, the documentation really helped me get up to speed.

Hope this helps