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What is a Timeline for Jira and How to Use It?
December 29, 2022Resource Planning Jira Plugins: Top 7 apps on the Marketplace for 2023 [Updated]
We can’t deny that there is a huge number of different planning applications that flow to the niche market and make potential customers kind of… confused. But some things are unchangeable – Jira is a leader in the software development sphere and helps thousands of companies to optimize the working process and build cooperation paths.
Jira also provides business templates for non-technical and creative teams, with wide functionality for different tastes.
Jira resource planning has helped many organizations stay in touch. Jira allows you to plan and track your project from conception through execution. You can also use this application for planning resources. Resources are key to financial success, as they help drive your business forward while also cutting excess expenses to optimize margins.
And the last thing like a cherry on the pie – Jira’s integration with other applications which broadens the functionality of this platform and allows users to customize Jira according to their preferences with the help of Jira add – ons.
If you got lost in the ocean of plugins, you are welcome to check our list of the most popular resource planning add-ons for Jira:
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ActivityTimeline
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Advanced Roadmaps (formerly Portfolio for Jira)
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Structure – Project Management at Scale
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Big Picture
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Easy Agile User Story Maps
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Tempo Planner
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BigGantt
All of them are available on the Atlassian Marketplace.
Let’s proceed with a comprehensive overview of Jira planning plugins all of which were developed by Atlassian’s Top Vendors.
1. Activity Timeline
Resource planning and capacity planning as it is. This plugin perfectly fits not only agile teams (sprints and story points at your service) but also non-technical businesses.
Timesheeting, workload, and availability reporting to analyze the data under singlehood. Great visualization of all assignments and workloads on an intuitive timeline. Enjoy a cross-project view for shared resources.
Assign tasks immediately from the dashboard and split tasks between multiple assignees. Track your projects’ and teams’ progress, and deadlines, allocate resources and observe everything on the scalable dashboard. Track logged work of team members.
Customization at all levels for project managers– create different events, assign skills and positions to your users, and track sick leaves and vacations. The application provides a personal cabinet for employees with their own workspace and tasks.
Seamless integration with Jira and external calendars.
Hosting options: Cloud, Server & Data Center
Instances: 14,008 for December 2022 (in total Server, DC and Cloud)
Pricing: Cloud – starting at 2.5$ per user/month
Server – starting at 100$ per 10 users/year
Data Center – starting at $7900 per 500 users/year
Discover more information on Atlassian Marketplace: Cloud / Data Center
2. Advanced Roadmaps (formerly Portfolio for Jira)
Again, judging by the name, it’s obvious that the application provides great planning and tracking facilities. Roadmap with an intuitive timeline allows you to see all of the ongoing tasks, and available teams and create different what-if scenarios.
Advanced Roadmaps allows to see dependencies between the tasks. Planning process is designed for time planning.
Customize your process and planning environment in order to make it more comfortable. Strict deadline control due to real-time with responding to potential risks and changes.
Build a custom Roadmap hierarchy level and track progress with pleasure.
Hosting options: Cloud in Jira Software Premium
Instances: 10, 300 for February, 2020 (before Jira Software Premium)
Pricing: Advanced Roadmaps are available on Cloud as part of the Jira Software Premium package which starts from 7.75$ per user/month
Server – not available
Discover more information on Atlassian Marketplace
3. Structure – Project Management at Scale
This plugin helps users to organize the issues-hierarchy, and offers grouping, filtering, and its own S-JQL – a special search language for advanced searching inside the tool. All tasks are structured in one line where you can follow the Jira issues from big epic to the small sub-tasks in your project.
Receive a visualization of aggregated progress and values on all levels. Track teams’ workloads and their success on specific projects and tasks. If you prefer working with Gantt charts, you won’t find them in this add-on, as its creators developed a separate app – Structure. Gantt, an extension to Structure for Jira.
This plugin is suitable for both Agile and Waterfall teams.
Hosting options: Cloud & Server
Instances: 12,184 for December, 2022
Pricing: Cloud – starting from 2.4$ per user/month
Server – starting from 850$ per 25 users/year
Discover more information on Atlassian Marketplace
4. BigPicture
As it comes out of the name, this add-on gives you a comprehensive picture of everything concerning your projects, with the possibility to plan and visualize future operations successfully. The application provides well-organized Gantt charts, which allow users to organize tasks and customize the view.
Cross-project management isn’t a headache anymore, as BigPicture gives a representation of multiple projects in one place as well as a possibility to make dependencies between them.
Three modules reflect the following:
- Risk Matrix determines and manages risks
- Roadmap for your agile needs
- Resources view for task allocation and more.
Hosting options: Cloud & Server
Instances: 15, 524 for December, 2022
Pricing: Cloud – starting from 3.75$ per user/month
Server – starting from 950$ per 25 users/year
Discover more information on Atlassian Marketplace
5. Easy Agile TeamRhythm (formerly User Story Maps)
Fast and simple story maps help to visualize your backlog. The application provides accurate sprint statistics, gives an overview of teams’ success, and a clear understanding of whether everything will be delivered on time.
Prioritize stories by value to the customer with drag and drop function, enjoy inline editing of estimates and story summaries as well as smooth version planning. Make your story mapping outstanding.
Hosting options: Cloud & Server
Instances: 6,268 for December, 2022
Pricing: Cloud – starting from 2.8$ per user/month
Server – starting from 700$ per 25 users/year
Discover more information on Atlassian Marketplace
6. Tempo Planner
The planner is designed for resource planning, resource management and project planning. Base future operations on resource availability and workload, and get a detailed view of team capacity in real-time in order not to over-allocate team members.
Assign tasks to employees who can also plan the day directly from the planner. Manage vacations and other events and estimate future resource needs.
Hosting options: Cloud & Server
Instances: 10,464 for December, 2022
Pricing: Cloud – starting from 2.15 $ per user/month
Server – starting from 1000$ per 25 users/year
Discover more information on Atlassian Marketplace
7. BigGantt
For fans of Gantt chart, we present a specialized add-on for Jira. It was developed by the same company as the previously mentioned BigPicture but this app is simplified and has its own specifics – it makes issues and projects visible on one chart and timeline with progress and deadlines.
Custom markers for analysis, adjustable scope, and issue dependencies – all for comfortable visualization. Resource management – capacity and allocation are also there.
One more plus – full integration with Jira agile (sprints, epics).
Hosting options: Cloud & Server
Instances: 9,068 for December, 2022
Pricing: Cloud – starting from 1.31$ per user/month
Server – starting from 450$ per 25 users/year
Discover more information on Atlassian Marketplace
Before discovering useful add – ons for Jira, you must take into account a couple of key factors and analyze them:
- Main objective
- which pains and needs do you have? Decide for yourself which functionality and features you need: portfolio schedules, roadmaps, timelines, Gantt charts, issue hierarchies, resource planning/resource management, capacity planning, tracking, or timesheets? Prioritize everything.
- Deployment
- some applications don’t have multiple options, and some have both server and cloud variants. Decide what your organization needs. Don’t miss that.
- Cost
- one of the main factors, for sure. Carefully plan your budget and make a choice that will suit this formula: price = quality. Remember that the most expensive doesn’t mean the best, and vice versa, the cheapest one may turn into the less beneficial, but it also depends on your needs.
The most reliable way is to test every possible option, check the alternative, start Trials of a resource planning tool, test some use cases and functionality, and even ask qualified professionals about things you don’t understand but want to know more about.
Using Jira resources management software you can easily improve their resource planning. You are welcome to check all of the aforementioned project planning and resource management Jira tools and decide which one is the most suitable for you… By the way, they all offer a free 30-day trial for new users, don’t miss a chance!
To find out useful hacks for working with multiple projects, come here –
How to get a cross-project view for shared resources in Jira?
