JWM for high level PM

[Caleb]

Hello. My team is evaluating options for a project management platform. There are some great aspects to Jira Work Management, but it seems to be lacking in a overall visibility. Maybe it wasn't built for this? Does anyone have suggestions, or what other tools do you use in conjunction with Jira? Here are some of the things we need:

• visibility into multiple project timelines at once, where a project is currently in it’s process, who is scheduled for what tasks
• easily visualize deadlines of multiple projects
• a person's workload: “how many hours is Steven booked this week”

Thank you!

[John Funk]

Hi Caleb - just noticing lots of good suggestions here but haven't seen a response from you. Were you able to get the information you had hoped for? 

[Nikki Zavadska _Appfire_]

Hi @Caleb ,

if you're looking for portfolio management or time management in Jira you can make use of some of the plugins in the Atlassian marketplace as this functionality is fairly limited in Jira Standard.

One of the most popular solutions for capacity planning is Tempo which will allow you to see the tasks and hours planned for each person on a timeline.

To manage activities across many projects on a single roadmap there are other plugins you can explore like Swanly that brings you easy to use cross-project roadmap and automatically generated reports for your key activities.

If you have Jira Premium you can also consider using Advanced roadmaps that suit some of the more complex solutions.

I hope this helps!

Nikki

[Capi [resolution]]

Oh, and what value would you rather have? Simplicity or the ability to drill down for more details?

[Capi [resolution]]

Lots of great options in here @Caleb.

If you want more specific advice, it would be interesting to know what type of projects you are running. Are they agile or waterfall? What industry? Are they isolated projects or do they have them common goals?

If you were already using Jira at a low level, the visibility could also be achieved with a higher layer like Jira Align. But this is usually an option for very large teams.

[Dave Rosenlund _Trundl_]

Hi, Caleb.  As I understand, JWM is aimed at supporting the non-technical teams in your company that may be interested in managing projects in Jira. Is that your focus?

Assuming it's not, as others said above, Jira out-of-box probably doesn't have all that you will need based on the stated requirements.

And, there's some good information above, but I'd recommend that you learn how to craft your own Atlassian Marketplace searches based on your requirements.

For example, this search:

https://marketplace.atlassian.com/addons/app/jira/top-rated?category=Project%20management&hosting=cloud

shows you the top-rate Jira apps for advanced project management on the cloud platform.

This one:
https://marketplace.atlassian.com/addons/app/jira/top-rated?hosting=cloud&query=cross%20project

shows top-rated apps for "cross project" management in Jira Cloud.

Full disclosure, my company's product is one of them — Structure — but as you can see there are many more. 

Hope this helps, 

-dave [ALM Works]

[Anna-BigPicture]

Hi @Caleb

Taking into account your requirements, BigPicture seems to be a good match! So let me add just a few words about the plugin. It’s a comprehensive tool that supports project management in every phase, helps to plan, manage and track the projects.

Let’s start with the Gantt module.

• Measure the progress not only on a single task level but also on a project or its phases level; the plugin gives you the possibility to aggregate data of statuses, progress, and time tracking.
• Adjustable WBS - In BigPicture, you can automatically create a no-limited number of WBS levels. Task Structure can be created based on both build-in task attributes (e.g., Epic link, Component, Version, Sprint) as well as links.
• Possibility to visualize and add dependencies between various project tasks
• Automatically scheduled tasks based on sub-box duration or tasks dependencies
• Scenario mode - explore and compare various plans, schedule alternatives based on changing conditions, and find the best solution.
  The critical path which markes issues directly influencing the project end date
  

Resources module

The Resources module provides all crucial information to manage resources both at project and portfolio levels but also can give an insight into resource utilization on a PI/Sprint level. You can display capacity, remaining capacity, and allocation both on the individual and Team level, which allows precise analyzing the consumption of currently utilized resources and forecasted availability. Data are color-coded what helps in the quick identification of both overallocation and under- allocation.

[Kysa Meyerer]

PM functionality in Jira is in a different product - Advanced Roadmaps.