How to use a project template as an overview to manage multiple software projects?

[Frank]

Hi,

I just came across the project templates (Jira work management) and would like to use this as full "overview" to manage multiple projects. The main reason why I want to use the template is its structured design. I like the calendar integration, the details dashboard, the overall design.

Current State

We have several projects:

- 3 Software Projects

- 3 Work Management Projects (based on the project management template)

What I tried to do...

I found out that I can select multiple projects in the "Tasks" (German: Vorgänge) section but not in General for the whole project or at least for the dashboard or board.

Questions

But is this even possible or am I totally wrong?

Is it possible to customize the templates?

How would you recommend to consolidate "multi projects" in one overview? 

How can I add these "well designed" template structure to my existing projects?

Thanks for your help!

Frank

[Calogero Kalos Bonasia]

@Frank one of the biggest gaps in Jira is just that: you can't manage projects in a hierarchy, nor is there any overview. But you can start with these plugins: 

1. https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1219470/swanly-portfolio-roadmaps-structure-gantt-release-timeline?hosting=cloud&tab=overview

2. https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1219682/wbs-work-breakdown-structure-story-board?hosting=cloud&tab=overview

3. https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1211768/wbs-gantt-chart-enterprise-project-management-for-jira?hosting=cloud&tab=overview

4. https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1223423/resource-planning-gantt-chart-project-management-ppm?hosting=cloud&tab=overview

and, of course, #bigpcture https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1212259/bigpicture-project-management-ppm?hosting=cloud&tab=overview 

[Frank]

@Calogero Kalos Bonasia Thanks for your fast and helpful reply. So things are blocking each other :D

A) You can't manage projects in a hierarchy

B) You can't customize the templates to harmonize the projects (e.g. there's no backlog)

C) You can't (at least I don't know) how to set up a customized empty project that looks like the template (with the dashboard, menu bar, design). 

This is a bit annoying, isn't it? I was thinking that it's just my lack of knowledge.

[Calogero Kalos Bonasia]

@Frank  Unfortunately, you are not wrong. I have been using Jira for about 20 years and have seen few substantial changes. The product has a lot of potential a huge customer-user base, yet at Atlassian they are snoozing, not listening to power users. They follow the stupid fashion for example of putting emoji as "features" or other things of little value. We often still have bugs that have been open for years--that are waiting to be fixed because some product owner is poor at his craft. I am sorry to say this, but after 20 years I can say this without any worries. Today I am not even an Atlassian consultant anymore. The plugins I recommended to you serve to compensate for Jira's shortcomings. However, it takes time to learn how to use them and in any case all these plugins suffer from the fact that they are "stuck" in a ticket management architecture that is twenty years old precisely. You know what the paradoxical thing is? That Atlassian's competitors copy Jira, not innovate. And here are products like monday.com or wrike or that other one what's it called I can't remember, ah here it is ClickUp that is so fashionable right now among Italian users running away from the high prices of Jira Datacenter. They copy, they don't innovate. Maybe because the people who design these products are not from the real world, real work, real companies. From real projects. The only one that comes very close is BigPicture, the plugin. If you intend to stay on Atlassian. Clearly, if Atlassian wanted to pay me for my consulting, I could tell them two or three things that could be put into Jira (and other products as well) to make it unbeatable. But it is not only me, many here in Italy, we had the impression that in Atlassian they do not keep in the right consideration the preparation, the professonality and the "geniality" of the Italians... Too bad for them.