Configuring scheduling settings
The schedule is one of core capabilities of Portfolio for Jira. The scheduling algorithm will automatically assign teams to issues, take dependencies and priorities into account, and generate a realistic forecast.
The timeline view shows forecasted release dates, and allows you to break things down based on projects, teams, and team members.
You can configure the following items to get the most out of the scheduling algorithm of Portfolio for Jira.
Errors and warnings
You can choose to display errors, warnings, or both for several issues that can happen in your plan. These issue include data conflicts and plan settings that may be configured incorrectly.
- Go to your plan via Portfolio (in header) > View Portfolio > click your plan.
- Click more (
) next to the plan name > Configure > Scheduling. - Select one of the following options for warning levels:
- Errors only — Only errors will be displayed in your plan if any issue happens
- Errors and warnings — Both error and warnings will be displayed for any issue that happens in your plan
- None — No messages will be displayed for any issue that happens in your plan
Planning mode
The following table lists the available planning mode settings.
| Settings | Description |
|---|---|
| Planning unit | The unit to use when work items are being estimated in your plan. Choose from days, hours, or story points as the planning unit of your plan. |
| Sprint length | The default duration of a sprint for all teams configured in your plan. By default, the sprint length is set to 2 weeks. |
| Default weekly capacity | The team's overall capacity in a work week, and is only used if there are no team members defined in that particular team |
| Unestimated item scheduling | Defines how any unestimated work items will be handled in the plan Base on default estimates — Across all hierarchy levels, the defined default estimates will be applied to all work items that have no children in the hierarchy configuration. See Scheduling unestimated items based on default estimates for more details. Base on target dates — Portfolio for Jira will schedule unestimated work items to last the duration of their assigned sprint, release, or target date. See Scheduling unestimated items based on target dates for more details. Off — Portfolio for Jira will ignore any unestimated items, and these items will have no impact on the schedule. |
To configure the planning mode of a plan:
- Go to your plan via Portfolio (in header) > View Portfolio > click your plan.
- Click more () next to the plan name > Configure > Scheduling.
- Configure the settings for the planning mode as necessary.
Scheduling options
The following table lists the available scheduling options.
| Scheduling options | Description |
|---|---|
| Issue assignee import level | Defines the hierarchy level up to which Portfolio for Jira will try to match the assignee of an issue to the corresponding member of the team. You can specify the level at which the issue assignees in your Jira application are indeed the people who will actually work on the issues. For example, you might have the Product Manager assigned to an epic, and individual developers assigned to the stories within that epic. In reality, the Product Manager won't really be the person working on the stories, since it will be the developers themselves. You can then set the issue assignee import level to story, in this case. Portfolio for Jira will then take the story assignees into account, but not the epic assignees. |
| Maximum assignees per story | Defines the maximum number of people who can be assigned to work on an individual story |
| Dependency scheduling | Defines how dependencies are ranked during scheduling work items.
See Configuring the scheduling of dependencies for more details. |
| Dependent story constraint |
Note that no matter the option chosen, the dependent work items can never start before their predecessors. |
| Enforce concurrent work | The following options only apply if there are multiple team members assigned to a single work item.
|
| Stage sprint constraint |
|
| Minimum work package size | The minimum work in story points for all work items above the story level in the hierarchy configuration of Portfolio for Jira. By definition, work items above the story level would be considered high-level work — which is typically broken down into stories. By setting the minimum work package size, you can avoid filling up any free capacity with work items that are unrealistically small.
|
To configure the scheduling options of a plan:
- Go to your plan via Portfolio (in header) > View Portfolio > click your plan.
- Click more () next to the plan name > Configure > Scheduling.
- Configure the scheduling options as necessary.
Troubleshooting
How do I keep assignee and team member in sync between Jira and Portfolio for Jira?
You can do this as long as you have boards as an issue source.
To pull in assignees from Jira:
- Go to your plan via Portfolio (in header) > View Portfolio > click your plan.
- Click more () next to the plan name > Configure > Scheduling.
Set the 'issue assignee import level' to the hierarchy level that you want to get the assignees from.
If the assignee is a team member associated with the board that's the issue source of your plan, then that team member will be automatically assigned.
To push team members to Jira:
Make sure to configure commit options.
Commit your plan changes to Jira.
If a single team member is assigned to an issue in Portfolio for Jira, then the team member will be the assignee of the corresponding issue in Jira.