Jira Timelines & Plans vs. Others | Best Gantt & Roadmapping Tools for Jira

Hey everyone and welcome back to our channel. Today we're diving back into

channel. Today we're diving back into our series on best Gant and road mapping tools for Jira. In our previous episodes, we've already covered some big

names such as Big Gand, WBS Gand or Prochuler. Now it's time to talk about

Prochuler. Now it's time to talk about the native tools built right into Jira.

Jira plans also known as Jira road maps and Jira timeline. Let's get started.

[Music] [Applause] So, you're running a team in Jira and you're wondering, do I really need a

separate app for my road mapping or for my GAN charts? Atlasian offers two built-in solutions and understanding the difference is key to picking the right one for your team. First up, let's talk

about Jira timeline. This is the most basic single project road mapping feature. I'll repeat that, single

feature. I'll repeat that, single project road mapping feature, which already means that it won't work that well when managing programs or portfolio

since you can use it as not only a road map, but as a regular gun chart as well.

Think of it as a simple visual timeline of your work. It's perfect from small to medium-sized teams who want to visualize their project's progress. You will find

it right here on one of the tabs when you open your project in Jira. So, let's

have a look. And already you see that we have a highle overview of our epics. So,

it shows your epics and the associated work on a horizontal timeline. I can

expand the epic. I've already created some sample data for that purpose. So,

let's expand it. Let's have a look at the stories within this epics. You can

using drag and drop populate the timeline set the dates of your work items. It actually works in two modes.

So right now I'm working with dates. So

the left edge represents the start date and the right edge represents the due date. Using drag and drop I can update

date. Using drag and drop I can update the dates create dependencies by connecting the issues on the timeline.

Hence visualize the dependencies which are very important when it comes to planning your work. So this is great for showing a highle overview of your single project. I will emphasize this one more

project. I will emphasize this one more time. Timeline compared to Jira plans

time. Timeline compared to Jira plans works with a single project only. Now

you might know a workaround for that and a lot of our clients do that. For

example, they create an issue type project and within the single Jira project they have work items representing both projects epics and all sorts of other work items. However,

within Jira plans there are some limitations especially when it comes to the hierarchy. So the epic is the top

the hierarchy. So the epic is the top level item within your work breakdown structure or WBS and this is a big limitation in my opinion when it comes

to Gab timeline. This is not the case since Jira plans enables you to create levels within the hierarchy above the epic level. So for example programs,

epic level. So for example programs, projects, initiatives and so on and so forth. This is not possible in Jiraas

forth. This is not possible in Jiraas timeline view. Another thing is that it

timeline view. Another thing is that it has an issue limit and I know that a lot of you guys are working with really huge numbers when it comes to work items. So

that can be another limitation that you need to take into account. Now when it comes to the interface, there are some interesting things here. So for example, you have the search box, the assignees

here or your team members. There are

some built-in filters. So for example, I can filter narrow the view to a specific epic that I've created. Filter by

labels, filters by categories. So that

is great if you want to focus on a specific area of your project or maybe only work items that are still remaining to do. And you can also use quick

to do. And you can also use quick filters and create your quick filters as well as clear other filters. Now there

are also some settings. So let's have a look at that. When it comes to Jira's timeline settings, I can expand or collapse all the epics, decide where I want to visualize different details such

as the dependencies, right? So, I can hide them progress. So, I'll see this nice line indicating the progress of the epic. I have two tasks in to-do status.

epic. I have two tasks in to-do status.

So, let's change one of the statuses so we can see this report. So, I can open it, click on the issue, and open the issue details screen. And let's say I

want to resolve this issue. So let's

change to done. And I already see that I have two tasks. And now part of this line is colorcoded green indicating that the work was already completed. Let's do

the same for the second one. I won't be covering this issue screen as you're very familiar with that. So let's not waste time. Now there are also some

waste time. Now there are also some additional actions. So for example, I

additional actions. So for example, I can start creating an item above move the work item. So let's try to move some let's move this feature a little bit.

Let's move it to the other epic. So this

means that the epic link was updated.

Report is obviously updated as well. Now

I can move this work item to first position or to last position. So in

other words priorized then as this is using the rank field so it syncs with your board's backlog. What else can we do here? Well we can edit the dates,

do here? Well we can edit the dates, remove the dates, edit the dependencies.

When you click on that, you'll see that I do have a link. I can only work with the blocks link. So that's another limitation compared to other tools such as big gun for example where you can

visualize all the different dependencies plus you have some additional gun chart specific type of dependencies that will help you with auto scheduling. All

right, so that's pretty straightforward.

Now this view is arranged into sprints and releases. So if I add this story to

and releases. So if I add this story to a sprint and by the way I mentioned in the beginning that I'm working using dates that is because we are discussing Gant and road mapping tools together in

that video. The other option is to work

that video. The other option is to work with your sprints. In other words, all the work items will be aligned with your sprint start and end dates. So let's see if I have any sprints created. Yeah, I

do have one sprint. Let's assign it to a sprint. So I do have some items in uh

sprint. So I do have some items in uh sprint one. Let's start the sprint.

sprint one. Let's start the sprint.

Now when my sprint has dates, start and end date of the sprint, I should be able to visualize it on the timeline. And

that's exactly what happened. So you see my sprint here. Now my work items are not aligned with the sprint yet. That's

because I need to change the configuration. So let's have a look

configuration. So let's have a look here. Did I miss anything? We also have

here. Did I miss anything? We also have the progress releases. So I can hide my releases here or show at the start and end dates of the releases just like in case of the sprint. And I also have some

warnings. So I do have a warning here.

warnings. So I do have a warning here.

And I have to admit I always like warnings because they remind me that something needs my attention. So the

child work item begins and ends outside of the dates set for this parent work item. Very important warning. H I would

item. Very important warning. H I would expect a little better visual indication. something that catches my

indication. something that catches my eye. I do like the how big gun and also

eye. I do like the how big gun and also our clients like how the big gun manages this use case but it's a warning. So

still it's great to see it. Now I can maybe zoom in a little bit here and let's have a look at the settings. So

there's the more action button where you have the configure timeline button and here you'll see first of all I enabled the timeline right? Second of all I don't want to see only the high levels.

I want to see everything that is below the epic as well. And uh I can schedule by start and due dates or schedule by sprint. So let's schedule by sprint. And

sprint. So let's schedule by sprint. And

let's get back to the timeline. I will

be redirected to my board. But if I go back to the timeline, you should observe a slight change here.

So whenever an item is assigned to a sprint, that's exactly how it will be visualized. All the other items are not

visualized. All the other items are not visible anymore. So adding items to a

visible anymore. So adding items to a sprint is pretty straightforward. As you

can see, it's just a simple click. Now

you can also export this to an image, exported it to a spreadsheet, and you have this new feature right here. You

can create a road map, but this requires product discovery. And we did cover

product discovery. And we did cover product discovery in one of our previous videos quite a while back. So maybe it's time to refresh this video and show you

latest features, but I will not do it in this particular video. We're focusing on the timeline and on Jira plans. So also

when you right click on the task, you can change its color coding. So that's

another nice thing to have. And that's

about it. So simple yet I think it does work for small teams. And again, if you're managing a single project, then it might be the tool for you. Now let's

have a look at Jira plans. So when it comes to plans, it is way more advanced.

So keep that in mind. I haven't created any plans yet. So let me walk you through that. All right. You can control

through that. All right. You can control the access. You can link boards or

the access. You can link boards or projects. So let's search for some

projects. So let's search for some project. I have some sample data here.

project. I have some sample data here.

Let's add another one. Okay. So maybe my weather app and another one. So here

there are three ways to define the scope or the range of work items that you want to work with. It's either the project board which is actually a filter and

filters, right? So you can also save it

filters, right? So you can also save it as a filter. And that's pretty much it.

Now when it comes to plans, you can also assign teams. I have some teams already created. Let's assign them. Why not? And

created. Let's assign them. Why not? And

team Mickey. And let's hit create. So

you can control the access to your plans. You might not want to make it

plans. You might not want to make it accessible at early stage to everyone.

And what is important and what is the difference between plans and other tools like big gant for example. Although when

it comes to WBS gant when it comes to proceduler they do have scenario modes and that you kind of will start in a sandbox and then you can sync with jira.

It's opposite to be gant when you actually start working live and you need to enable the scenario mode in this tool. You start in the sandbox, right?

tool. You start in the sandbox, right?

So you do have the scenarios enabled and it provides you some additional tabs. So

we do have the summary view with some basic reports. I do have to admit that I

basic reports. I do have to admit that I do like this dashboard when it's already configured for you. You don't have to really do much. You can just uh change the settings and you'll have some

valuable reports. For example, status

valuable reports. For example, status overview, work in progress for every epic. You can select the different

epic. You can select the different statuses you want to um you want to focus on. Uh so I did make some progress

focus on. Uh so I did make some progress in general. I see how many items are in

in general. I see how many items are in different statuses. I see a list of key

different statuses. I see a list of key dependencies. That's another very

dependencies. That's another very important feature. I already see that I

important feature. I already see that I do have a warning here and I have a delay. Another thing that I really like

delay. Another thing that I really like there is the team progress. I haven't

assigned work to team. So this report doesn't tell me much at this point. All

right. So I assigned some work to my teams. And now I can see the reports, the team's progress as well as the team capacity. So quite a lot of information,

capacity. So quite a lot of information, quite essential information when it comes to tracking progress at the team level. So far so good. I like this view

level. So far so good. I like this view to be honest. So let's go to the timeline. Let me collapse this side

timeline. Let me collapse this side panel. So when working with the timeline

panel. So when working with the timeline here you can customize what is presented as columns. So you have the list of your

as columns. So you have the list of your work items. You can add different fields as columns and there are plenty of fields to pick from although not as many

as you can use in other tools again such as structure such as beant but still there's couple of interesting fields that integrate with Jira product

discovery. So that's great. Maybe when

discovery. So that's great. Maybe when

it comes to rollups it's not that advanced compared to other tools but I know a lot of you guys are using this tool. It's not that bad, but it's not

tool. It's not that bad, but it's not that great as well, right? So, if you already know that one of the disadvantages is a deal breakaker for you, instead of wasting time searching

dozens of available tools, reach out to us. We'll help you do it much faster and

us. We'll help you do it much faster and cheaper. When it comes to the timeline,

cheaper. When it comes to the timeline, there are a couple of interesting things here. Let me just click on the timeline.

here. Let me just click on the timeline.

So, the list of my columns collapsed.

And now I see my epics. I see the stories as I mentioned within Jira plans you can define how the tool generates the hierarchy using the parent link and

I can create levels above the epic level very important feature compared to timeline it's it's pretty similar so using a single click you can add your work items onto the timeline you can

create links using drag and drop create such links as well the links are colorcoded so that's again something that I really like if there's a conflict um color coding will change to red. And

already you see that I did make some changes. So all the changes are

changes. So all the changes are indicated in this top right corner right here called unsaved changes. When I

click on it, I will see the list of all the changes that I've introduced. I can

decide whether I want to send notifications. Quite an important thing.

notifications. Quite an important thing.

And save changes. So as soon as I save the work items will be updated in your Jiraa, the dates, the links and so on and so forth. All right, let's have a look at the filters. And here it's more

advanced compared to timeline. So you'll

see already that uh I can decide what hierarchy I want to show to what level within this hierarchy you want the tool work. So for example, we want to see

work. So for example, we want to see only the high level and it's as simple as that. There are plenty of other

as that. There are plenty of other filters by releases, by teams, by assignees. Pretty straightforward. This

assignees. Pretty straightforward. This

one is something that I really like.

Quite advanced compared to other tools.

So I have to admit that atlasian you've done a good job with the warnings. There

are plenty of warnings and you can filter by warnings and these are the things that you need to pay attention to and resolve to make sure that your project is on track and success. So for

example here we have a child work item ends after its part work item something that we've already addressed or work item starts or ends after its due date.

So not only the relation between the parent and the child but also in terms of the due date right or for example the open work items has passed its assigned

end date. So pretty cool but uh also

end date. So pretty cool but uh also pretty straightforward. When it comes to

pretty straightforward. When it comes to views again there are different views maybe let me make sure that I see all the range of work of my epics. I can

edit the view. So create your custom view. There are some predefined for you

view. There are some predefined for you dependencies focused basic view capacity view right so let's have a look at the capacity so I'll see uh the teams and

this to be honest again is something that I really like we all work with teams so you'll see exactly what the teams are doing what's their capacity what's their progress everything just

with a couple of clicks for dependencies we will have a narrowed list with only issues that have a link between each other, right? They're dependent on each

other, right? They're dependent on each other. So again, quite a clear view uh

other. So again, quite a clear view uh with all the necessary information that you need. All right, let's clear this

you need. All right, let's clear this filters. Let's go to the basic view

filters. Let's go to the basic view maybe. So uh what else do we have here?

maybe. So uh what else do we have here?

We have the timeline and the list view.

Yeah, so we can switch back and forth if you want more information. And here the list view, let's call it what it is. It

is a report, right? It is a report telling you what is going on within your project. There are plenty of fields that

project. There are plenty of fields that you there is the progress right there are the teams the statuses your work items decompose the priority so quite a lot of things you can do with that data when it comes to planning prioritizing

and so on and so forth there also some settings that are more advanced compared to Jira's timeline so you can sort by rank and I've already explained it that

the rank determines the order the position within the backlog or within the sprint of your work items the high priority items should be on You can sort by other criteria as well by your

estimates, dates and so on and so forth.

Group by. So let's have a look. Let's

group by assenee. Quite a simple one. So

now you can focus exactly on what your specific team members are doing. What I

would suggest to improve is multi-level grouping. And I know a lot of you guys

grouping. And I know a lot of you guys ask about that. And I think that big gant or big picture did a great job because multi-level grouping enables you

to generate more informative reports, more detailed reports, insights on what's going on within your project. All

right, so let's disable that. There is

also the dependencies tie cuz when you have a lot of dependencies, you kind of creating a spiderweb a network of dependencies and the tenant is obscured by all these lines. You have the

scheduling errors. So you do have a

scheduling errors. So you do have a warning here. And again, I'll repeat

warning here. And again, I'll repeat that one more time. I do love this feature. You can show all the warnings

feature. You can show all the warnings on the timeline. So we do have all sorts of these different warnings. And we have some additional view settings here. We

have rollups by dates, roll-ups of sprints, releases, teams, and estimates in the field section. So quite limited compared to structure, compared to big

gun, compared to big picture, but still available. There are other tabs here

available. There are other tabs here that I won't be covering in details. So,

there is the program tab. Let us know in the comments if you would like me to explore this in another video. There is

the calendar view, pretty straightforward. There is the teams view

straightforward. There is the teams view so you can work with your teams uh releases, a dedicated section for that, as well as a dependency map. So, this is

something I don't see that often. I have

to admit I love this feature. I love how all the dependencies are presented. Of

course, in my simple example, there's not that many of them, but I'm sure you get the idea as it's nice to have it in different forms in different visualized

dedicated view for that purpose as well.

And you can share and give feedback.

Well, sharing is something that I often use when working with my clients. And

trust me, they're they're very demanding. They're very demanding. They

demanding. They're very demanding. They

want to have it all on a plate served without any clicking. Sharing enables

you with a single click to share exactly what what what you're looking at. So, I

do like that. In big picture for example, your report is available with a single click configured showing you exactly the information that you need

here. It's uh similar. You can also

here. It's uh similar. You can also provide some feedback here. And I think I'll stop here uh with this review. Let

us know in the comments if you would like us to dive deeper into plans. Maybe

you have a specific use case you want to address. You can always reach out to us

address. You can always reach out to us for a free consultation. But the first step to smarter project management is simple. Go to geniusgeeko.com. From

simple. Go to geniusgeeko.com. From

there you can explore our full range of PPM services, training programs, and expert resources. Thank you for watching

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