Resource/Capacity planning for Jira issues - please help!

[Paul Farrell]

Hi,

It's not often I come onto a shared forum and beg but that is exactly what I am doing now - begging. I really, really need some advice as trying to find the right solution to my problem is driving me crazy. 

All I need is resource and capacity planning for my Jira issues. I have trialled a few different plugins and add-ons but none handle exactly what I want. My last resort is to ask if anyone knows of something that will. 

I use a Kanban board to track people's tasks. I don't use Scrum because I am in a client-focussed team. The number of interruptions make Kanban more suitable. 

So I have a long list of tasks in the backlog. Each task has an estimate and each task is assigned to an individual. 

What I really need is something that can:

1. Allow me to schedule tasks for a person (ideally that's not a Gantt view)

2. Allow tasks to have some kind of dependency. If I have a long schedule of tasks and I want to drop a new task right in the middle of the schedule, I need the other tasks, that come after it, to move accordingly

3. Track resource utilisation i.e. capacity. I need to set a workload for a particular person and have the solution show me if they are under/over utilised

4. Run reports on person or team utilisation so I can see what I have capacity

5. Perhaps (but not necessary really) export the schedule to an ical link (or failing that to excel) so I can share the calendar with a client. 

6. IT would be great to have the scheduling tool set planned start and end dates - so I can show these on the task cards in the Jira board

There has to be something! Surely. 

So far I have tried:

Tempo Planner - good but it doesn't have the ability to drop a task in the middle of other tasks and for the other tasks to move. There is something about 'blocks' and 'is blocked by' use in Tempo Planner but I can't see how that works (I am trying right now).

ActivityTimeline - very good software. Ok, it's outside of the Jira UI but it's really good. Again though, doesn't have the ability to link tasks. It has a bulk reschedule tool but this doesn't work reliably.

BigPicture - I admit I wasn't sure what to do here. On first examination it just looked like a Gantt chart. I'm not averse to a Gantt chart. I just don't like the way Gantt charts are laid out. 

Please, if anyone out there can help I can't tell you how much I would appreciate it. 

[Deleted user · Accepted solution]

Hi @Paul Farrell,

I will try as best I can to offer you a complete solution though it seems you have already looked at quite a few add-ons. I will cover some of them again as they do offer a solution to your requirements with relevant links to where I believe you may have hit a wall.

Tempo Planner - For dependencies to be respected you need to plan issues using the iteration timeline. Great if you are using versions in a project.

Activity Timeline - I agree with you that it s powerful and it sits outside from Jira. The issue I have had with it is similar your experiences; it is difficult for it to perform basic commands, and sometimes syncing breaks down.

Portfolio for Jira - PoJ was built for this reason by Atlassian, basically a resource and capacity planner for your projects. It supports dependency planning, resource / team management. The only issue I have had is the learning curve for effectively learning how to use the tool effectively. Not a deal breaker I'm sure, the documentation really helped me get up to speed.

Hope this helps

[Paul Farrell]

Hi Danny. Thank-you so much for your response. I really appreciate you taking the time to write. 

Based on your feedback I have gone back to look at Portfolio for Jira. 

I like what I am seeing. I am looking into how granular it can do capacity planning. As yet I have not been able to report on team and individual capacity. I will keep looking though. 

[Deleted user]

Hi @Paul Farrell,

Have a look at these articles on capacity planning;

• https://www.atlassian.com/blog/jira-software/agile-capacity-planning
• https://confluence.atlassian.com/jiraportfoliocloud/using-the-capacity-view-828785430.html
• https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Portfolio-for-Jira-questions/Capacity-planning-in-Portfolio/qaq-p/631364
• https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Portfolio-for-Jira-articles/Introducing-a-new-planning-experience-in-Portfolio-for-Jira/ba-p/944996
• https://confluence.atlassian.com/jiraportfoliocloud/capacity-report-828785331.html
• https://confluence.atlassian.com/jiraportfoliocloud/configuring-team-members-availability-828785286.html

[Paul Farrell]

Amazing. Thankyou. 

I have been looking at this most of the day. PoJ is looking like the one!

The only issue I have left now is that none of my sub-tasks, within the project I imported into the scope, are showing up. Not sure why.

[Ostap Zaishlyi _Reliex_]

Hi @Paul Farrell 

Hope you're doing great.

Decided to let you know that ActivityTimeline is now available natively with Jira Cloud, so the integration is just seamless and you get the full Atlassian experience along with all functionality of ActivityTimeline.

As far as I remember there was an issue with Bulk Actions on weekends, glad to inform you that this has also been fixed in the latest v7.2 release of the application.

We also added support for custom user capacity for different days of the week, so you can better manage your team as well as create & schedule 'Overtime' on your resources through special event that we've developed.

This all will be available for both ActivityTimeline for Jira Cloud and classic ActivityTimeline for Jira Server 

Our team will be glad to answer your questions ;)

Best Regards,

Ostap

[Jakub Hanak]

Hello @Paul Farrell, 

maybe look at this new plugin by @MoroSystems Support. 

https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1219883/amethyst-project?hosting=server&tab=overview

Maybe you will find some of these features useful for your planning and tracking utilisation. 

Best regards,

Jakub 

[Paul Farrell]

Thanks so much Jakub. I will take a look right now!

[Paul Farrell]

Well I have to say, so far, I'm not finding it too intuitive. 

Firstly, although I am the main JIRA admin, I had to go through adding myself to every permission. 

Also, I have absolutely no idea how to import a list of current Jira issues into the planner. If I choose 'Import to Scope', it asks me to type in an Activity Name. It is almost as if it is asking me to import the Jira issues one by one. I can't imagine that's the case. 

[Marek Vejrosta]

Thank you for your interest!

Here's how to import issues to the project plan.

Import issues

Let me know if You need something.

Marek