Projects
September 29, 2021

Jira Based Project Planning Tools

Expert evaluation of Jira project planning plugins: Big Gantt, WBS Gantt Chart, and Structure Gantt compared across 25+ key capabilities for enterprise WBS planning.

(TU-Munich, 1997). 29 years of experience as a project, program and portfolio manager. Certified as a SAFE Agilist, Project Manager (GPM) and Scrum Master.

Jira Based Project Planning Tools
Contents

    Our team of experts have checked various Jira PlugIns with a WBS (Work-Breakdown-Structure) for necessary key functions. We present the results of this evaluation in this blog post.

    1. Introduction

    For our customer transformation program we tested the following Jira plug-ins which allow the creation of a WBS with more than 3500 planning work packages:

    Based on the feedback of more than 30 project managers we identified several key capabilities. We assigned the coverage grade of every tool to the capability to find the best tool for our whole IT project portfolio: WBS Gantt Chart.
    In the next section we show the result of our evaluation (it must be noted that the evaluation was already two years ago and therefore some data is not up to date. We are already working on a more up-to-date evaluation):

    2. Result of the evaluation

    Requirement BigGantt WBS Gantt Chart Structure Gantt
    Create and Maintain a WBS/Project Plan including all Elements: WBS Levels, Work packages, Activities 100% 100% 100%
    Allow Users to convert a task to a milestone (Visualised as milestone) and to flag a task as inbound/outbound deliverable 100% 100% 100%
    Create and maintain a hierarchical relationship in the WBS without Level limitation 100% 100% 0%Limited to 10, according to vendor. 3 levels recommended.
    Allow a full collaborative work wise for all WBS tasks and for different user access rights (Write / Read) 100% 100% 100%
    Allow sub-stream related WBS plans and a master view referencing to sub-stream Plans. This setup should be changeable. 0% 80%Technically possible. The vendor recommends to edit a WBS task only in one Gantt board (sub-stream board). Therefore the master board should be only for reading and could have several root elements. 100%
    Visualise the Plan in List View with full customisable Columns 100% 80%Sorting of several plug-in standard columns cannot be changed. 100%
    Visualise the WBS Plan in Gantt View with customisable Date Ranges 100% 100% 100%
    Editing in Gantt AND List are possible and lead to the same data result 100% 100% 50%Gantt changes don't lead always to the expected data change result.
    Implementing and Visualizing a Dependency Type: From End to Start 100% 100% 100%
    Implement and Visualise dependency type: FF, SF, SS 100% 100% 100%
    Allow multiple dependencies between WBS Plan elements 100% 100% 100%
    100% Automatic recalculation of the date due to changes in dependencies 100% 100% 100%
    Selective automatic date re-calculation based on changes of dependencies 100%Tasks can be selectively configured to recalculate automatically or manually. Some tasks can be frozen for every normal users i.e. program key milestones. In this case, linked WBS elements cannot force a recalculation/shift on those. 100% 0%
    Selective automatic date Re-calculation based on Day Lags (e.g. FS + xx Days) 100% 0% 0%
    Lock plan elements / milestones against changing 100% 100% 0%
    WBS list view allows quick inline editing in, without opening Jira edit forms 10%Summary is editable. 100% planned in the product roadmap. 100% 100%
    Allow baseline: 1…n 50% 50% 0%
    GANTT View allows grouping the dates of child elements and showing the aggregated duration, earliest and latest Date 100% 100% 100%
    Start/end date and duration of subordinate WBS elements should be aggregated bottom-up 100%Child elements can influence directly start and end dates of upper elements, if upper elements are not locked. If upper elements are locked for recalculation, then changes at child elements will be limited within the range of upper elements. 100% *Calculation implemented by an own implemented Jira script, running every 60 MIN.
    Changes of start / end dates and duration should be calculated top-down to child WBS elements 100% 50%Simple reschedules of parent elements work as expected. 0%
    Expand / Reduce Plan List View to different Levels 100% 100% 100%
    Add Jira Filters to WBS View allowing Sub-Set Views and Editing for Sub-Teams 100% 0% 100%
    The Plan and all relationships must be technically readable to allow QA Dashboards, Reporting and EVA Calculation 50%Better as Structure Gantt, but missing inline editing feature and the prompt changes in Jira issue types lead to a slower workflow as WBS Gantt Chart. 100%Best Performance: After fast initial load, all changes are done in memory until the "Save" button is pressed. 0%Work with our plan (3500 WBS tasks in 10 levels) was no more reliable. We have stopped working with the Structure Gantt.
    Allow Instruments to "Control" the Progress of WBS/Plan: Status, Grade of Completion, Estimated End Date, Efforts… 100% 100% 100%
    Resource Planning: 1..n Resources with different Loads (Planned Efforts vs Duration) 50%Team assignment is possible. A team consists of x receivers with independent capacity pattern, a team can be assigned a task. Task may have specific skill requirements defined in the team definition. 25%Only 1:1 assignment. 30%
    Bulk shift of several WBS Elements directly in WBS Plan e.g. 3 Months later 100% 100% 0%
    Bulk Change of Attributes of selected WBS Elements No bar shown 100% 0%
    Bulk Copy of a WBS Sub-Tree No bar shown 0% 100%
    Import MS Project Plans 100% 100% 0%

    Start your free trial and get up to
    35% discount!

    VIP.LEAN ETL for Reporting
    Export all Jira artifacts to any database in real time. Auto-created tables, event-driven updates, and direct BI tool integration with Tableau or Power BI—unlock the full potential of your Jira data.
     
    Start free trial
     
    Get a promotion code
    VIP.LEAN Issue Pickers
    Streamline Jira administration with no-code Issue Picker custom fields powered by JQL. Let users select the right issues in seconds—and automatically create (or update) links for clean, connected Jira data.
     
    Start free trial
     
    Get a promotion code
    VIP.LEAN Behaviours Builder
    Configure dynamic Jira screens with no code, in minutes. Use unlimited conditions across spaces, work types, and fields to tailor the UI.Show/hide, require, lock, relabel, describe, and set/derive values to capture only accurate, relevant data.
     
    Start free trial
     
    Get a promotion code
    VIP.LEAN Create and Link
    Customizable action buttons seamlessly integrated into Jira enable faster issue creation, automatic linking, and dynamic templating—boosting efficiency with powerful Behaviours and Issue Templates.
     
    Start free trial
     
    Get a promotion code