Creating and editing a new plan
This page refers to classic plans in Portfolio for Jira. If you are currently running Portfolio for Jira 2.0, please check this link for more information about Live plans instead.
A plan is the basic container of your data. A plan includes information from the backlog, available resources, and releases, among other data sections. All plans are self-contained and independent from Jira projects, which means that they can refer to backlog items in single or multiple projects.
Creating a new plan
- In your Jira application, go to Portfolio (in header) > Create. The 'Create' page will be displayed.
- Select Create a plan, then click Create plan.
- At the bottom of the Create page, click Create a classic plan.
- Select the classic plan template that suits how your team works, and then click Next.
- Specify the following details for your classic plan:
- the name of your classic plan
- a description for your classic plan, if necessary
- the permissions for your plan – you can make the plan private (only you can view it) or public (everyone can view it)
Note that you can provide individual users and groups access to the plan via the classic plan settings later on. - the estimation method for your classic plan – you can use days, hours, or story points
- Click Submit.
Choosing a plan template
Initial configuration templates allow you to get up and running quickly using Plan presets that align with how your team's work. Select the blank template to completely configure your plan or select a predefined plan that contains preloaded settings for work stages, team schedules, and estimation unit settings. Plans are configurable at any time and any selections you make when choosing a template are not permanent. Any of the default settings can be change to reflect changes to your workflow, team structure or other additions your plan.
Scrum teams
This template sets the team schedule to scrum, and allows you to set estimates to be based on time or story points. Story point estimation allows you to enter a total velocity for the team while leaving team members, skills and stages of work empty. The assumption is that every team member contributes equally to the team velocity regardless of skill set (see Stages and skills).
In addition, you can use time based estimation (hours and days) which accounts for work stages and individual team member skill sets. Scrum templates configured for time estimation define two stages of work:
- Story Writing
- Implementation
In this default configuration, it means that the efforts for story writing are always scheduled at least a sprint before implementation is done. Testing and UI/Visual Design are in the default configuration part of the implementation stage.
Scheduling example
Two stories, story 1 and story 2 are in the backlog. Story writing for story 1 is scheduled first (light-blue). Implementation for story 1 can only be started in the next sprint, thus free capacities in sprint 1 can still be used to fit in story writing for story 2.
Kanban teams
The Kanban team template's default configuration contains design, implementation and testing work stages for each story, scheduled sequentially.
Team scheduling mode is set to a continuous (Kanban) schedule by default meaning that instead of sprints and fixed time boxes, scheduling happens on a day-to-day basis. For instance, implementation can start for each story as soon as it's design has been completed (as opposed to starting with the iteration). Estimation for Kanban teams can be set for days or hours.
Scheduling example
Two stories, story 1 and story 2 are to be scheduled for a team with two people. There is a preference to complete full stories, before starting the next one, thus, stage design (green), implementation (blue) and test (orange) for story one are scheduled immediately, before story 2 starts.
Traditional teams
The traditional teams template defines four stages of work, Requirements, Design, Implementation and QA. Each work item runs through these stages sequentially, providing that it has estimates for each stage. Estimation for Traditional teams can be set for days or hours.
The Percentage column allows you to configure a default allocation of effort estimates to stages and skills. This saves time when you enter efforts and estimate backlog items, since you can just specify a total estimate, and it will automatically be allocated to the stages based on these percentages.
Setting classic plan permissions
When you create a new plan, you have to set the plan's permissions by choosing one of the following options:
- Private: Only the plan creator will be able to access and edit the plan.
- Everybody: Anyone with the appropriate classic plan permissions and global permissions will be able to access the plan.
Editing, deleting, or exporting a plan
Open the plan you want to edit, delete or export. Locate the Plan drop-down menu at the top right of the screen. From this menu, you can edit the plan title and description, backup and share plan data by exporting to XML or delete the plan.
Tip
- Create separate plans for projects that do not interfere with each other, e.g., don't have resources dynamically shared between work items.
- If you want to make the plan available for specific users and groups, select Private (only me) first, and then grant specific access afterwards in the settings. Refer to classic plan permissions in the Settings section to learn more.
- If you just want to try Portfolio for Jira using example data, create a new plan with the 'Sample data set' template.