Plan Projects and Roadmaps with Gantt Charts in Confluence Cloud

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Product development plans, annual business plans, employee training plans, and so on, you’ll often want to draw roadmaps on your Confluence pages. This article summarizes various ways to draw roadmaps on Confluence Cloud.

There are four main ways to draw roadmaps, and I will explain the features of each method in the following section;

• Roadmap planner macro
• Chart macro
• Third-party app to draw Gantt charts
• Integrate with Jira

Roadmap planner macro

• Pros
  • Confluence built-in macro.
  • Interactive and easy to use.
• Cons
  • Lack of flexibility and functionality.
  • Difficult to create detailed or large schedules.

The Roadmap planner macro that is a built-in macro in Confluence is the most common method. It’s embedded in many global page templates out of the box, so you’ve most likely used it before.

You can draw a timeline on the page, and editing can be done interactively by drag-drop scheduling.

On the other hand, it is less flexible. For example, there is no view for days, quarters, or years. You may also find the lack of features such as WBS and dependencies, which makes it difficult to create slightly complicated schedules. Dealing with use cases that require resource allocation or progress management can also not be completed within this macro.

Chart macro

• Pros
  • Confluence built-in macro.
  • Able to draw from table data on the page.
  • Both plans and actuals can be shown.
• Cons
  • Difficult to edit due to lack of interactivity.
  • Charts are hard to read.

Chart macro can be used to draw a Gantt chart by setting the "Type" parameter to "gantt". It is also a Confluence built-in macro.

I would say that the most important feature would be the use of tabular data to enter data. Therefore, if you already have a schedule as table data, you can quickly draw the schedule. The progress rate can be input, and since multiple charts can be drawn in parallel, you can manage plans and actuals.

On the other hand, it could be hard to edit the schedule with this macro on a Confluence page because you have to edit the texts in the tables. Also, the chart looks more like a bar graph than a roadmap. So, it may be a little hard to read.

Third-party app

• Pros
  • Rich features. It can cover a wide range of use cases.
  • Good usability.
• Cons
  • You have to pay for the app if it’s a paid app.

There are several third-party apps that allow you to draw beautiful Gantt charts in Confluence Cloud.

The common three apps are,

• Gantt Chart Planner for Confluence
• Easy Gantt Charts for Confluence
• Table Filter and Charts for Confluence

Each app has different characteristics, so it isn’t easy to make a general statement. But I can say that their usability and functionality are superior to Roadmap planner macro and Chart macro.

I will introduce Gantt Chart Planner for Confluence, which Ricksoft is developing. Disclaimer: I am one of the folks in Ricksoft.

As shown in the demo video, the app is easy to use with the full-screen editor, drag-drop scheduling, context menus, and so on.
MS Project-like rich features such as WBS, dependency, baseline, resource planning, and progress line that are required for project planning can support a wide range of use cases.

You can install it from the Atlassian Marketplace.

Integrate with Jira

• Pros
  • After the project starts, you can manage the project in Jira.
• Cons
  • It is not suitable for small projects such as the early stages of a project or personal planning.
  • Need Jira licenses.

Many users of Confluence Cloud would also be using Jira Cloud, and Jira Cloud provides a way to draw roadmaps using Gantt charts. If you need more advanced features, you’ll need a third-party app or Advanced Roadmaps, but the easiest way is to use the Basic Roadmaps, which is in Jira out of the box. Basic roadmaps created in Jira can be embedded with the Jira roadmap macro into Confluence pages as read-only.

The most significant advantage of integrating with Jira will be demonstrated when you work on the project according to the plan you have created. Jira’s excellent project management features will enable smooth progress management on an issue-by-issue basis.

On the other hand, since you need to create a number of Jira issues, so if you just want to write an early draft of a project or do some personal planning, this may not be the right choice for you. However, the Advanced Roadmaps that comes with Jira Cloud Premium allows you to save the roadmap without reflecting on the issues, so you can create roadmaps for Confluence pages with Advanced roadmaps plan macro without creating issues in Jira.

How did you like these ways to create roadmaps in Confluence? If you have any opinions or ideas, let us know in the comments!

[Katerina Kovriga {Stiltsoft}]

Hi @Takafumi Ohtake -Ricksoft- ,

Thanks for summing up all the useful information and mentioning the Table Filter and Charts for Confluence app!

This app is our add-on and we are really very proud of the Chart from Table macro and its Gantt chart. The chart is very customizable, you'll be able to adjust all the settings to match your requirements. Please, check here for more info.

Besides, our Gantt chart can be based not only on regular manually created tables but on the Jira Issues macro as well. Here is an example for Server/Data Center users. The only difference for Cloud users will be that they need to use the Table Toolbox macro to nest several macros, other steps will be the same.

So, you may definitely give it a try!

[Denise]

Hi @Takafumi Ohtake -Ricksoft-  and @Katerina Kovriga {Stiltsoft} , 

@Takafumi Ohtake -Ricksoft- thank you for your good explanation about the possibilities to create roadmaps in Confluence. 

I work for a large sensor manufactur with over 10,000 employees. That means, we have many different units developing products.

Currently, we do not have a standardized and transparent overview across all development roadmaps of the departements. We would like to finally address this. We already use Confluence as our intranet and are now thinking about building a space that displays all development roadmaps in a standardized and transparent way.

Each development project should display the project name and the time period needed for development at a high flight level (shown in a timeline). 

If the user is then more interested in this project, it should be possible to get to an overview page of the project, which shows the overall goals of the development project.

Which of the roadmap options you presented would you recommend for the intention just described? or would you advise to go a completely different way?

Thank you very much in advance and best regards, 

Denise 

[Katerina Kovriga {Stiltsoft}]

Hi @Denise ,

You may visit the links that we've provided above, discuss them with your colleagues and your Confluence administrator and start with a free trial of the apps. You may build structure for several projects and see if the result is satisfactory for your goals (which app suits you more).

Maybe you'll get more ideas on the way.

[Takafumi Ohtake -Ricksoft-]

Hi @Denise ,

Thank you for your question.
I'm glad to help you. I'll tell you my opinion.

I think publishing the department's roadmaps in Confluence is a good idea so that everyone can see what is going on in your company in one place.
Confluence pages can include arbitrary contents with roadmaps such as the project description, the latest status, and links to details. And, users interested in the product can watch updates.

You can build a template page including a roadmap template. Then, users create roadmap pages from the template.

As you can see in this article, there're some ways to draw a roadmap in Confluence.
So, you have two options to standardize your development roadmaps.

• Option 1
  • Use a single tool to draw roadmaps
• Option 2
  • Use some tools to draw roadmaps

There are pros and cons to them.

The benefit of using a single roadmap tool is easy to standardize operations.
The point is to use a flexible roadmap tool.
If every project in your company is managed with Jira Advanced roadmap, using advanced roadmap macro would be the best choice.
Maybe, choosing Roadmap Planner Macro or Chart macro is a bad idea because it's not flexible and is low functional. Your employee would get frustrated when they draw large roadmaps and maintain them. I recommend you to try Gantt Chart Planner.

The benefit of using multiple roadmap tools is that users can choose tools.
If some projects already use the advanced roadmaps in Jira while others don't, this option would work better. In this option, I recommend you try third-party apps to enable teams to draw roadmaps easily as well.

I hope my answer is helpful to you.

Regards,
Takafumi

[Denise]

Hi @Takafumi Ohtake -Ricksoft- , 

thank you very much for your detailed answer. 

After some internal coordination, many discussions and the creation of a first prototype with a Gantt Chart Planner we decided in the workpacke to use this to standardize the roadmaps of all our units. 

We want use the roadmap tool mainly to enable transparency across the units and want to anchor the view in our Midterm Planning and Budget Process. So the decision was made that the JIRA advanced tool is too detailed and would need in addition a rollout of this tool in our company. 

My personal opinion is that JIRA advanced  would be the right choice, especially when we're thinking about the future with more and more digital solutions. But that's democracy. 

If you're interested I can share here an update after our GoLive. 

Best regards, 

Denise 

[Takafumi Ohtake -Ricksoft-]

Hi @Denise ,

Thank you so much for your reply.

It's very great news for us.
Gantt Chart Planner is designed to focus on easy-to-use.
If your company like the concept, it's so honored for us.

The app is still on the way to fitting more variety of use cases.
For example, the app can support your budgeting process if the app provides budget-related features such as a budget column. (It's planned to release in near future.)

Customer's voice is the most valuable thing to decide the way the app should go.
So it's very appreciated if I can hear from you after the GoLive.
Any feedback is very welcome.

Kind regards,
Takafumi