Using Plans

Using Plans

Overview

The Plan feature, also known as Advanced Roadmaps, is one of many ways in Jira to view and manage issues associated with your Project(s). Plans present your issues and timelines in a graphical layout (similar to a Gantt chart) that is helpful for figuring out the timing of your issues (e.g. start and end dates, dependencies, etc.). Jira Plans are similar to the Roadmap feature, but while the Roadmap feature is quite simple, Plans come with many additional benefits that make it useful for managing several aspects of your projects.

sample plan

For more information, visit Atlassian's support center for Advanced Roadmaps.

  1. Click Plans in the top menu and select Create plan.create plan option
  2. A page will load where you can start setting up your new plan.
    • Plan name – Give your plan a short, descriptive name that will make it easy to identify.
    • Access – Choose Open (default) or Private.
    • Issue sources – Select an existing board, project, or filter to use as the source of the issues that will be displayed in the Plan. Multiple sources can be selected if necessary.
    • (Optional) – Once an issue source has been identified, additional exclusion rules can be created to dictate what appears in your Plan.plan creation window
  3. When you’re ready, click Create.

Click Plans in the top menu and select the plan you want to view.

Selecting a plan

 

  1. Go into the Plan you want to manage.
  2. Click the gear icon next to the Plan’s name and select Configure.Configure option
  3. A page will load where you can manage the Plan’s issue sources, access/permissions, and more.Plan configuration page
  1. Go into the Plan you want to manage.
  2. To create a new issue, either:
    • Click the Create issue button and select the type of issue you want to create.create issue button
    • Or, click the Actions button next to an existing issue and select an issue type to create.Issue actions button
  3. In the text box that appears, give your new issue a name and then click the checkmark to save it.naming a new issue
  1. Click on the name of the issue. A text box will appear.
  2. Edit the name as desired.
  3. When you’re done, click the checkmark to save your changes.Editing an issue name
  1. Find the issue.
  2. To edit the start and end dates of the issue, either:
    • Click on the date field you want to edit. A calendar will pop up where you can select a date.selecting a date
    • Or, you can click-and-drag each end of the issue’s timeline bar to update the Start and Due Dates.click and drag dates

Once Roll-up dates are enabled, changing the Start or Due dates of a child issue will automatically update the Start/Due dates of any parent issues that are above it in the Plan’s hierarchy.

For example, in the picture below, the “Select final menu” Task is a child item of the “Feed guests” Epic and “Mary and Sanju Wedding” Initiative. When the Due date of “Select final menu” was changed to June 8, 2021, the “Feed Guests” and “Mary and Sanju Wedding” were automatically update to June 8, 2021 as well.

example of roll-up dates

Enabling Roll-Up Dates

  1. Click the View settings button.
  2. Find the Roll-up section and click the box next to Dates.enabling roll-up dates
  1. Select the issues you want to edit by checking the boxes to the left of their names.selecting issues to edit
  2. Click Bulk actions dropdown and select the field you wish to update for the selected issues.Bulk Actions menu
  3. A window will appear where you can update the field. In this example, the Assignee field is being updated.changing assignee via bulk edit
  4. Make sure to Apply your changes when you are done, then Save all changes (See the Reviewing and Discarding or Saving Changes section below).

While you are working within your Plan, there are several ways to customize the view.

Hierarchy – Use the Hierarchy dropdown menus to choose the highest and lowest issue levels displayed in your Plan.

Hierarchy options

Filters – Click "Filters" and use the dropdown menus to limit the issues that are displayed basd on various characteristics.

Filter options

Fields – Click the "Fields" dropdown to choose which issue fields are displayed in your Plan and the order they are listed in.

Field options

Time period – Select the period of time you want to have displayed in the chart.

time period options

View settings – Click the "View settings" dropdown to open a menu where you can configure additional options for your Plan’s current view, including how issues are grouped and color-coded, how dependencies are depicted, and more.

View settings

Views – Click the Views dropdown menu to select a view for your Plan. Options include several pre-built views as well as any custom-built views that you previously created and saved.

Views

 

Scenarios allow you to create different versions of the same Plan so that you can visualize how various changes will affect your timeline. You can then choose to use whichever of the scenarios seems the most realistic.

Note: When making changes within a scenario, remember that those changes will not be visible to people who have access to the source project(s) unless you save the changes to Jira! See the section on "Reviewing and Discarding or Saving Changes".

Enabling Scenarios

  1. Navigate to the Plan you want to manage. You can do this by clicking on Plans in the top menu and selecting the Plan.Opening a Plan
  2. Click on the gear icon next to the Plan’s name and select Configure.Configure option
  3. The Plan’s Settings page will load. Select Scenarios toward the bottom of the left-hand menu.Selecting "Scenarios" from the Plan's Settings menu
  4. Click Enable Scenarios.Enable Scenarios option
  5. Give your first scenario a name, select a color, and click Create.Creating your first scenario for a Plan
    Your first scenario will be listed on the Scenarios page. To view it, return to your Plan.
    First scenario listed in Plan's Settings page
    When you return to the Plan, you will see a Scenario dropdown menu.
    Scenario dropdown menu

Creating New Scenarios

Reminder: Make sure the Scenario feature has been enabled using the steps in the previous section.

  1. Navigate to the Plan you want to manage. You can do this by clicking on Plans in the top menu and selecting the Plan.Opening a Plan
  2. Click on the Scenario dropdown and select Create scenario.Create Scenario option
  3. A window will appear where you can set up your new scenario.
    • Give the scenario a short, descriptive title that will make it easy to identify.
    • Determine if you want to create a blank scenario or begin with a copy of an existing scenario.
    • Pick a color for your scenario.Create scenario window
  4. When you’re ready, click Create.

Accessing Existing Scenarios

Reminder: Make sure the Scenario feature has been enabled using the steps in the previous section.

  1. Navigate to the Plan you want to manage. You can do this by clicking on Plans in the top menu and selecting the Plan.Opening a Plan
  2. Click on the Scenario dropdown and select the scenario you want to work with.Selecting a scenario

Managing Scenarios

  1. Navigate to the Plan you want to manage. You can do this by clicking on Plans in the top menu and selecting the Plan.Opening a Plan
  2. Click on the Scenario dropdown and select Manage scenarios.Manage scenarios option
    A page will load where you can:
    • Rename existing scenarios or change their colors.
    • Create or delete scenarios.
    • Disable the scenarios feature.Scenarios page in Plan Settings
  1. Click Review changes toward the top right corner of the page.Review changes button
  2. A window will appear that summarizes the recent changes that have been made to issues in your Plan. You can expand each line in the “What changed” field to see more details.review changes window, with options to discard or save
  3. When you are ready to proceed, you can click one of the follow options:
    • Discard selected changes – Ignores the changes you made and revert each of the selected issues to its last saved configuration.
    • Save selected changes in Jira – Saves the changes you made to the selected issues.
    • Cancel – Closes the window without discarding or saving the changes you made, so you can keep working.
  1. Click the Share button in the top right corner.Share button
  2. A window will open where you can choose how you’d like to share your plan – Link, Embed, or via Confluence.
    Note: The Link provided in this Share Plan panel is a direct, read-only link to view the plan, regardless of other permissions. If you’d like others in your project to edit your plan, have them instead follow the steps in the
    Accessing an Existing Plan section above.Link to Plan
  1. Click the Export button and select Spreadsheet (.csv).Export button
  2. Save the .csv file to a location of your choosing. (If you are not asked where you’d like to save the .csv file, check your computer’s Downloads folder.)
  3. Once the file has downloaded it, you can open and view it in Excel.Exported plan as a CSV file