Big picture gantt - resource leveling and update start date

[Ron Grosberg]

Hi,

I started working with bigpicture and really like the usability in terms of ability to create a structure of tasks and define the scope of a version. then I started trying to do real planning and I could not find two things:

1. The ability to do resource leveling - meaning - the same person cannot work on different issues at the same time, I would expect the system to plan each assignee's tasks such that they would only work on a single task at any given time

2. the ability to update the start date of the entire project. we have a lot of tasks that have not even began and it still plans them to November.... all our tasks are on "auto - bottom up" mode. so I thought they would be adjusted automatically somehow

Am I missing anything? or is that something that has to be done manually. is the automatic mode only for dependencies?

[AlexanderT]

Since https://jira.softwareplant.com/browse/ONE-21265 seems to be postponed for several years now, I'm using "Bulk Planning" plugin to somehow automate distribution of the issues on timeline.
https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1220603/bulk-planning?hosting=server&tab=overview 
It is suitable for sequentally calculating and setting Start Date and End Date (BigPicture fields) for the issues based on issues estimation for each assignee in the JQL filter. It uses filter ordering to determine sequence of issues (and their dates). 

It might even be used for high-level team workload esimation - one can assign all team issues to a single assignee and set his working hours per day to corresponding number. 
Let's assume  team of 4 developers each working 6 hours - in such case we need to set Working hours = 4x6= 24h.
The issues on the timeline will be 4 times shorter than, but you'll have overall workload over timeline defined. 

[Anna-BigPicture]

Hi @AlexanderT

I am glad that you have found a solution that meets your business needs regarding the automated distribution of the issues on a timeline and overall resource management! 

Please be advised that we are aware of how important the functionality "Resource leveling" is in terms of effective project management. Therefore we plan to start works on the Resource leveling as early as next year. 

The implementation was postponed because of the feature complexity in terms of technology and correlation with the mechanisms that had to be implemented first. 

However, at this point, this feature is already in our backlog.

[Marcin Geb _SoftwarePlant_]

Hello Ron

ad 1. (...) resource leveling (...) I would expect the system to plan each assignee's tasks such that they would only work on a single task at any given time

Not that this is an ideal solution, but the Resources module lets you visually control if any assignee works on more than one task at a time, such as Angela Hambleton, in the screen capture, below, who has four tasks. At the same time, Colin Firenze has just one.

ad 2. the ability to update the start date of the entire project

BigPicture Home screen (Overview) > Configuration (or Edit)

[Ron Grosberg]

Hi, thanks for this clarification, however this is not enough, resource leveling is a long process when done manually. what I need is an automatic way to do it.

Regarding the project start date - that should be done automatically by a press of a button. if it's July, and there are uncompleted tasks still scheduled for June, I would expect to have a button that will move these to be starting at the current date at least....

[Nicolas SARRABAYROUSE]

Hi Ron,

I expect the same, do you found a solution?

Thank you

[Ron Grosberg]

My solution was to use another product... that was around 2 years ago, so I am not sure what's been happening with BigPicture since...

[Nicolas SARRABAYROUSE]

Hi Ron, difficult for me to find a Jira's App with automatic scheduling (also called resource leveling).

- Advanced Roadmap has it but no vacations/holidays planning or a multi projects workload view

- Structure.gantt with Tempo has it but only with Jira's data center service (really too expensive)

- Bigpicture has only a manual workload feature

>> What is your alternative product please?

Thank you,

Nicolas.