What are the other must have project management apps out there???

[Whitney Nicholes]

Hello Atlassian Community and App Central! This week, I shared a new blog on the Atlassian website titled “How Rivian uses the JXL app to manage projects in Jira across all teams.” The title is a mouthful, but I love that we were able to feature a (very cool) customer who considers the JXL app “life-changing” for several teams.

After publishing this blog, I started to wonder how other teams are using some of their most common project management apps in Jira, like those similar to JXL or Checklist for Jira, for example… Are there any project management apps used across multiple teams in your organization that you can’t live without?

Interested to hear your thoughts and any specific examples of how your teams use your favorite apps! 

.... 👀 Selfishly, as a marketer, I'm very curious to learn if there are marketing teams who have any preferred apps! 

[Dave Mathijs]

Hi @Whitney Nicholes as a Solution Partner, I always advise my clients to get the most out the standard product before purchasing a paid third-party app.

To be honest, talking about the app you mentioned: I may be biased by their aggressive marketing on the Community, which has an counterproductive effect on me. The project hierarchy combined with in-line editing are indeed nice features that provide added value.

I'd like to put the spotlight on:

• Atlas, now integrated in Jira for project updates
• Structure + Gantt Charts for Structure PPM by Tempo
• Epic Sum Up by APTIS GmbH
• Timesheets and Capacity Planner by Tempo Software
• Jira Workflow Toolbox by Decadis AG / Jira Misc Workflow Extensions (JMWE) by Appfire / JSU Automation Suite for Jira Workflows by Appfire (for workflow functions)
• eazyBI Reports and Charts for Jira by eazyBI

[Whitney Nicholes]

@Dave Mathijs , I love this list! I actually agree with you. It's nice to "use what you've got," so to speak, before adding other apps. However, the larger teams I've chatted with (mostly) agree that adding certain apps is a major time saver when it comes to certain workflows.

I have a different stance on marketing in the Community so I guess this is where our opinions differ. Most of the time, when I have a specific use case I need a fix for, I use Google as the go-to platform for searching.... Most of the time, a very helpful Community article or 2 pops up with a solution. While I do rely on Google to serve up the relevant hits, I always appreciate that the Atlassian Community articles get surfaced before having to sift through other forums. 

Other than Community what's your go to source or process for discovering new apps you love and your clients love?

[Dave Mathijs]

@Whitney Nicholes Thanks for your feedback. Of course, most clients will eventually choose a handful of must-have apps to enhance their workflows. To be honest, I couldn't do without some either.

My go to source are the Marketplace Partners themselves. Furthermore, I'm subscribed to many YouTube channels of the respective Marketplace Partners to discover the latest features of their apps.

Many Atlassian Creators (like Alex Ortiz f.e.) also regularly review apps.

I also like to browse through the app documentation to compare features between two or more vendors offering comparable apps.

So, just recently, I discovered Advanced Kanban & Agile Boards by Release Management, that's my most recent tip. 💡

[Poju Yap]

Hi @Whitney NicholesGreat write-up! As a small marketing team, we rely on Jira and Confluence’s native features—they work really well for managing campaigns and documenting our work.

I work at Ricksoft Inc., a Marketplace app vendor, so I get to use our apps in my daily marketing activities. In addition, I use other apps that help me collaborate and work more efficiently. We use a lot of apps internally, but here are some that I typically use for my day-to-day marketing tasks:

• Space Sync for Confluence (by Ricksoft Inc.): I use this to sync pages across multiple spaces and sites. We work closely with our marketing agency, Brighttail, and having a single source of truth (like campaign briefs, marketing reports, etc.) is crucial to keep everyone aligned.
• Excel-like Tables for Confluence (by Ricksoft Inc.): This app helps me visualize data in an Excel-like format. While Confluence’s native tables are great for table visualization, I use this app when I need to dive deeper into data analysis (e.g., keyword volume, campaign metrics) and create graphs—without leaving Confluence.
• Gantt Chart Planner for Confluence (by Ricksoft Inc.): A quick and easy way to plan our campaigns and understand milestones and dependencies. It only takes me about 10 minutes to set our planner up and is perfect for visualizing campaign timelines and deliverables.
• Meetical Meetings for Confluence (by Meetical Software): Automatically creates meeting agendas and notes in Confluence, making it easy for me and my team to track and find them later.
• Handy Macros for Confluence (by Stiltsoft Europe): While our engineering and product teams use this more often, I find it useful for sharing the status of marketing campaigns and projects within Confluence. It gives team members a quick snapshot of where things stand.

[Margo Sakova - OKR Board for Jira by Oboard]

Hi @Whitney Nicholes 

We're drinking our own champagne with OKR Board for Jira 🙂

All the company's priority goals, and marketing goals in particular are living there. We link our Jira issues to OKRs and outline them on a shared roadmap to do the planning and track the progress.

Really helps to move things forward

[Kim Bratek_Tempo_]

Hey @Whitney Nicholes! I'm a little biased here, but Structure PPM is a must for project management in Jira.

I personally use it to manage Tempo's events calendar - it's so easy to manage deliverables and not miss any deadlines, especially when you're juggling several events at once. 

[Valeriia_Havrylenko_SaaSJet_AbcSite]

Hi @Whitney Nicholes , as a marketer, I love seeing how different teams maximize productivity in Jira with apps.

Two of my favourite tools are Time in Status and Time Metrics Tracker. These apps enable us to track time spent on tasks, set KPIs, and gain insights into workflow efficiency.

In the marketing department,  we are using Time in Status for monitoring campaign progress and the time spent in each task status (such as planning, drafting, review, and publishing). 

Another tool is Time Metrics Tracker, which is perfect for monitoring lead time and resolution time for our marketing campaigns.

Additionally, Smart Jira Forms is invaluable for gathering information from team members in a structured way.

A newly released tool that I've personally tried is the Mentions Dashboard for Jira , and it’s already proving to be super helpful. It tracks all comments and mentions across issues, making it easy for us to stay on top of team communication and respond to feedback promptly. 

Eager to hear how other teams are using apps to drive their results!

[Gizem Gökçe _OBSS_]

Hello @Whitney Nicholes ,

I worked as a JIRA administrator in the defence industry for 10 years and we had a lot of different project management teams using JIRA. At that time all the teams used Timepiece - Time in Status for Jira to track process performance and identify bottlenecks in their projects.

For the past year, I have been fortunate enough to be the product manager for this great application. So having the privilege of sitting on both sides of the table, I understand that this app is very useful for project management.

I think you might want to give it a try!

[Rahul_RVS_Support]

Hi All,

I would recommend our all in one app, which we use extensively in our projects, Agile Tools

Below are the main features of the app:

Issue Hierarchy :- Create/View roll up for hierarchy (up to 10 levels), for standard Jira hierarchy. Epic -> User Story -> Subtask or Issue Links parent child relationship. Sum up your Epic’s Time Spent, Original Estimate, Time Remaining, and %age Complete. Edit all key Jira fields on the hierarchy screen.

Time in Status :- More than 20+ Time in Status report types to track issues and identify bottlenecks.

Worklogs Reports :- Track time spent by resources with multiple filters / category / grouping features

Timesheets :- View/Enter your time spent for multiple days

Thanks

[Laurie Sciutti]

Personally, we can't do without ScriptRunner and Advanced Roadmaps (Plans) and of course, Confluence!  Honorable mentions:

• Release Management: Workflows, Calendar & Roadmaps 
• Custom Charts for Jira -Reports, Dashboards, Graphs & Tables (only because we couldn't get EazyBI through vendor management)

[Ojelola Ojelabi]

Pretty biased about this, but definitely Rally. The highlights for me would be the AI discussion points, estimation and meeting insights. 

I should check out Atlas. 

[Annie _DevSamurai]

Hi @Whitney Nicholes

I really enjoyed your blog about how Rivian uses the JXL app! It’s so cool to see how different teams are making the most of Jira for project management.  

I wanted to share a couple of my favoriate project management apps that I think you and the community might find helpful:

1. TeamBoard ProScheduler: This app really steps up project and program management. It gives a clear view of resource availability and project timelines through Gantt charts, making it easy to allocate resources, track progress, and hit those deadlines—all crucial for getting things done right.
2. TeamBoard TimePlanner: This tool is fantastic for managing team resources and tracking time. It also has some great advanced features like leave and vacation management, project cost tracking, and client management. It really helps project managers keep an eye on team workloads, track how time is spent, and make sure everything stays on budget.

I think both of these tools can really enhance project management processes and boost collaboration among teams. I’d love to hear if anyone else in the community has tried them or has other favorites to share! 😊 🤗