Top 5 Jira Capacity Planning Tools: A Comparative Review

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Top 5 Jira Capacity Planning Tools: A Comparative Review

Effective capacity planning is essential for teams to manage resources and workload efficiently within Jira. Capacity planning helps teams ensure balanced work distribution, optimal resource use, and adherence to deadlines. In Jira, this involves assessing team availability, factoring in working hours and leave, and aligning workload with capacity during sprints. 

By leveraging Jira’s built-in tools and advanced third-party solutions, teams can avoid overloading resources, improve adaptability, and maintain cost control, enhancing overall project management.

In this blog, we will provide information and a comparison of Jira's top 5 capacity planning tools. Let's dive in and find out which tool is the most suitable for your team.

What is Capacity? 

Capacity refers to the maximum amount of work, production, or activity that a system, organization, or individual can handle within a given period. It’s essentially the limit of resources—such as labor, equipment, time, or materials—that can be utilized to achieve a certain output. In business and operational contexts, capacity indicates how much work a team, machine, or company can complete under normal conditions.

Understanding capacity is important for efficient planning and management. If capacity is exceeded, there may be delays, bottlenecks, or overworking of resources. On the other hand, if capacity is underutilized, resources like time or equipment are wasted.

What is Capacity Planning in Jira? 

Jira capacity planning involves assessing the team’s available hours, taking into account factors like individual working hours, holidays, and planned leave. Once the capacity is determined, it’s compared against the estimated workload for tasks or issues to be completed within a specific period, usually a sprint in Agile methodologies.

Once you know the team’s capacity, you can compare it to the amount of work planned for the sprint. If the workload is too high, tasks might need to be adjusted or reassigned to make sure everyone has a manageable amount to do. This way, the team can stay productive without feeling overwhelmed or underutilized.

Why is resource capacity planning important? 

1. Balanced Workload 

Capacity planning helps spread tasks evenly across the team. It prevents some people from being overwhelmed while others have too little work.

In Jira, capacity planning lets you see how much work each team member has and whether they have enough time to complete it. For example, if you have a developer with 40 available hours in a sprint, but they’re assigned 50 hours of work, you can quickly see they’re overloaded. Capacity planning allows you to reassign tasks to balance the workload and prevent burnout.

2. Effective Use of Resources

When you plan capacity in Jira, you can avoid wasting resources and make sure that everyone is working efficiently. It helps avoid having people sitting idle or being overworked, making the best use of the team’s time and skills.

 For example, if a designer has only 20 hours of work assigned but has 40 hours available, their time isn’t being used effectively. Capacity planning helps you identify these gaps so you can assign additional tasks or adjust priorities to make full use of everyone’s skills and time.

3. Meeting Deadlines

When you plan capacity, you can more accurately estimate how long tasks will take and make sure that projects stay on track. This helps avoid delays and makes it easier to meet deadlines or key project milestones.

4. Adaptability to Changes

Capacity planning makes it easier to reassign tasks or adjust plans if a team member becomes unavailable or if project priorities shift. For example, if a tester takes unexpected time off, you can use Jira to quickly see where their tasks can be reassigned. This flexibility keeps the project moving without major disruptions.

5. Informed Decision-Making

Jira’s capacity planning tools provide real-time insights into who is doing what and how much work the team can handle. This helps managers make better decisions about task assignments, project timelines, and whether additional resources are needed. For instance, if a project’s workload exceeds the team’s capacity, you might decide to extend the timeline or bring in additional help.

6. Cost Control

Effective capacity planning helps cost management, and avoids unexpected costs like overtime or last-minute hires. For example, if a team knows their capacity well, they can plan projects more accurately, reducing the need for costly adjustments. This keeps the project within budget and makes operations more cost-effective.

How to implement Capacity Planning Tools in Jira?

Implementing capacity planning tools in Jira involves using both Jira’s built-in features and third-party capacity planning tools for more advanced needs, adding third-party tools to manage your team’s workload effectively. This ensures that you can balance tasks, avoid overload, and keep projects on schedule. Here’s a guide on how to set up and use capacity planning tools in Jira:

1. Use Jira’s Built-in Capacity Planning Features

Jira has several built-in features that can support basic capacity planning, especially for Agile teams using Scrum or Kanban boards. Here’s how you can make use of them:

Use Scrum and Kanban Boards for Basic Capacity Management 

• Scrum Boards: During sprint planning, assign story points or time estimates to tasks based on the team’s available capacity. Use the Burndown Chart to track work remaining throughout the sprint.
• Kanban Boards: Set Work in Progress (WIP) limits to control task flow and prevent overloading at different stages, ensuring work remains manageable.

Monitor Workload with Jira Gadgets and Reports

• Workload Pie Chart Gadget: Add this to your dashboard to visualize task distribution among team members, helping you identify if anyone is overbooked or underutilized.
• Issue Statistics Gadget: Use this gadget to analyze workload by assignee or status, making it easier to balance tasks.

Utilize Time Estimates and Story Points

• Assign Estimates: During task creation, enter time estimates or story points to quantify the effort required. This provides a clear picture of the workload and helps in distributing tasks according to the available capacity.
• Track Task Assignments: Use Jira to monitor who has been assigned which tasks and how much work remains, based on the estimates provided. This helps prevent overloading and ensures that everyone has a manageable workload.

2. Add Third-Party Capacity Planning Tools for Advanced Planning

While Jira’s built-in tools offer a foundation for capacity planning, third-party tools are essential for advanced planning due to their ability to handle multi-project needs, long-term forecasting, detailed availability tracking, and robust scenario planning. They provide the depth and flexibility needed to manage complex projects and optimize resource use in dynamic environments. 

Here are the top 5 Jira Capacity planning tools that you may consider for your team:

Top 5 Jira Capacity Planning Tools

1. TeamBoard TimePlanner 

Rating: 3.8/4 stars

TeamBoard TimePlanner is an all-in-one resource capacity management and time-tracking plugin for Jira. It optimizes capacity planning, tracks project resources, and manages time logging and team availability. The plugin also includes project cost management, enabling real-time expense tracking. Tailored for both managers and teams, TimePlanner enhances Jira with essential features for effective project management and financial oversight.

Key Features

• Resource and Team Management
  • Manage individual profiles, tasks, and availability through a sleek calendar view. Use drag-and-drop functionality for easy scheduling, and handle leave requests to maintain optimal team coverage.
• Time tracking, timesheets
  • Log hours on tasks with a stopwatch timer, track billable hours accurately, and submit timesheets for approval. Generate insightful timesheet reports to monitor productivity.
• Leave and Holiday management
  • Lets users request, approve, and track leave. It integrates with capacity planning, adjusting team availability based on approved time off and holidays, ensuring accurate scheduling.
• Cost management
  • Plan and manage costs for individuals, teams, and projects. Adjust billing rates and produce detailed reports comparing planned versus actual expenses.
• Dashboard and Reports
  • Create customized dashboards for team and individual metrics. Export reports on workload, time logs, and costs, with options for Excel and CSV formats, making data easy to share and analyze.

Pricing

• Cloud: 
  • Free trial for up to 10 users.
  • 11-100: 1.50$ per user per month.
  • >1000: Starting from 0.53$ per user per month.
• Data Center: 
  • Free trial for 30 days for teams of all sizes.

=> Try it free

2. TeamBoard ProScheduler

Rating: 3.4/4 stars

TeamBoard ProScheduler serves as a comprehensive solution for Project and Program Management, delivering a clear and detailed view of resource availability and utilization. It offers advanced scheduling and resource management features, including Gantt chart visualizations, drag-and-drop scheduling, and real-time capacity tracking. This powerful tool seamlessly integrates with Jira Cloud and Data Center at a very cost-effective price.

Key Features

• Program/ Portfolio Management
  • Enables you to manage and plan across multiple Jira projects within a Program/ Portfolio. Users can efficiently allocate and manage resources across different projects simultaneously.
• Resource Planning and Team Capacity
  • Tracks team availability and allocates tasks to ensure optimal use of resources.
• Timeline & Gantt Chart
  • Easily manage project timelines with Gantt charts that display task dependencies, milestones, and project phases for improved planning.
• Time tracking, Dashboard & Report
  • Monitor task progress, visualize key metrics, and generate reports on resource usage and project status. 

Pricing

• Cloud: 
  • Free trial for up to 10 users.
  • 11-100: 1.50$ per user per month.
  • >1000: Starting from 0.68$ per user per month.
• Data Center: 
  • Free trial for 30 days for teams of all sizes.

=> Try it free

3. Jira Roadmap, Capacity, Calendar, Time Tracking & Timesheets

Rating: 3.5/4 stars

The Jira Roadmap, Capacity Calendar, Time Tracking & Timesheets app is an all-in-one tool for managing project timelines, tracking team capacity, and monitoring time spent on tasks. It offers features like roadmap visualization, calendar scheduling, and detailed timesheets, making it easier to plan projects and manage resources effectively within Jira.

Key Features

• Roadmap Visualization
  • Create and manage project roadmaps to track progress over time.
• Capacity Calendar
  • Schedule tasks based on team availability and manage workloads with a clear calendar view.
• Time Tracking and Timesheets
  • Record time spent on tasks and generate timesheets for reporting or billing purposes.
• Customizable Reports
  • Generate detailed reports to analyze productivity, resource utilization, and project costs.

 Pricing

• Cloud: 

• • Free trial for upto 10 users.
  • 11-100: 3.00$ per user per month.
  • >1000: Starting from 1.02$ per user per month.

• Data Center: 

• • Free trial for 30 days for teams of all sizes.

4. Capacity Planner By Tempo

Rating: 2.9/4 stars

The Capacity Planner app By Tempo is a tool designed to enhance resource management and project planning within Jira. It’s ideal for optimizing team allocation, skillset utilization, and capacity planning, supporting Jira Cloud, Server, and Data Center.

Key Features

• Team and Resource Planning
  • Automate capacity and resource planning, scheduling teams by project, task, and ticket. Sort requests by availability, role, and skills.
• Real-Time Data
  • Compare estimated vs. actual time spent, visualize project plans, and avoid bottlenecks.
• Centralized Dashboard
  • Allocate resources, prioritize tasks, and map capacity from a single interface.
• Integration
  • Fully integrates with Jira workflows and time tracking, and supports additional tools like Tempo Timesheets and Structure PPM.

 Pricing

• Cloud: 

• • 10$ for under 10 users per month.
  • 11-100: 3.30$ per user per month.
  • >1000: Starting from 1.37$ per user per month

• Data Center: 

• • Free trial for 30 days for teams of all sizes.

5. Sprint Capacity Planning & Tracking

Rating 2.6/4 stars

The Sprint Capacity Planning & Tracking app for Jira is designed to help Agile teams effectively manage sprint workloads. It provides tools for planning team capacity, tracking task progress, and gaining insights through AI-driven retrospective advice.

Key Features

• Sprint Planning
  • Plan team and resource commitments directly on your agile scrum board using time tracking or story points.
• Progress Tracking
  • Visualize team or individual work progress per sprint and adjust resources as needed.
• AI-Driven Insights
  • Use the "Ask the Advisor" feature powered by ChatGPT to gain actionable insights for sprint retrospectives, helping teams understand successes and areas for improvement.
• Dashboard and Reports
  • Access a sprint dashboard for process insights and visualize plan vs. actual results over time.

Pricing

• Cloud: 
  • Offer a free trial for up to 10 users 
  • 11-100: 0.49$  per user per month
  • >1000: Starting at 0.41$  per user per month

• •  

• Data Center: 

• • Free trial for 30 days for teams of all sizes.

Conclusion

Capacity planning in Jira is key to ensuring that work is evenly distributed, resources are used efficiently, and deadlines are met. By using Jira’s built-in features and advanced third-party tools, teams can avoid overwhelming their members, make better use of available time, and stay flexible when priorities change. These tools help prevent wasted resources, manage workloads, and keep projects on schedule and within budget. As you explore the top tools, be sure to consider your team’s needs to choose the best fit for successful capacity planning.

In our opinion, if your team requires detailed time tracking and cost management, such as consulting firms or project-based teams, TeamBoard TimePlanner can be a good option. It offers powerful features like resource management, timesheets, and cost tracking, making it perfect for teams focused on managing time and budgets effectively. On the other hand, you can consider TeamBoard ProScheduler for larger teams managing multiple projects or portfolios.