Project management apps range widely in terms of sophistication. They can go from simple tools that address a single employee’s needs, to comprehensive environments for managing an entire portfolio of projects. This article is targeted at those who want to bring order to work management, centralize processes, and create a single environment for running multiple activities. We introduce the most important functionalities users gain by combining Jira with Structure and Structure.Gantt from ALM Works.
Having an environment for efficient project management is of particular importance for companies where teams of specialists share tasks that are grouped into consecutive (or parallel) stages of execution. The first choice in such a situation is an array of free applications that fulfill basic project needs but are not integrable with other programs; as a result, teams must meet frequently to discuss work progress, and the manager can only rely on their own hastily taken notes or data gathered from various sources of information (e.g., from a Trello board, Excel sheets, email information, or worse – word of mouth). This is not comfortable for either the project leader or the individual specialists.
In such situations, those who coordinate tasks try to centralize operations and invest in a stable set of tools for teams.
One answer is the Jira system (Jira Software, Jira Service Management, or Jira Work Management) – its native functionalities allow for:
In addition to features that allow for collaboration and gather insight into the flow of activities, Jira offers another critical feature: it is flexible. That means you can “add more blocks” to it – in other words, integrate additional applications that extend its capabilities. This allows the company to digitize various processes gradually while remaining in one environment. Thus, an enterprise can start managing tasks in Jira, and over time add apps such as the Structure add-on from ALM Works, thus gaining dedicated project management capabilities.
Companies start looking for more advanced project management solutions when the number of tasks, dependencies, and activities start to become overwhelming and instead of organizing the work, introduce nothing but chaos.
Reason for seeking a project management solution:
Needs that arise in such a situation:
I find Structure to be truly invaluable for my task and project management. There is simply not another tool that comes close in empowering the user to create views to manage projects at any level of view that they want. The automation coupled with the JQL option really puts all the power into the users’ hands to form whatever view they want.
– Jason Kim, Director of Software Engineering, TrueCar.
Our team has been looking for a tool to help manage projects and resources across the company/teams to incorporate into our Jira instance. It took a few tutorials to get into, but once we did, we realized just how powerful Structure and Structure.Gantt really are. You could use an easy setup or customize it to fit your highly specific needs (which is what we did). We’re now using Structure to organize our Jira projects for easy reporting to the rest of the company. We’re also using Structure.Gantt to keep track of just how much work is actually assigned to a team member for mid- and long-term planning and to easily reschedule if needed. This makes it so much easier to keep everyone in the loop and avoid conflicts while managing projects.
– Kristina Smirnov, SBK Siemens-Betriebskrankenkasse.
Jira+Structure vs Jira native capabilities:
Features | Jira+Structure | Jira |
Filtering with JQL | ✔ | ✔ |
Sprint planning | ✔ | ✔ |
Exporting data to Excel | ✔ | ✔ |
Group update of tasks | ✔ | ✔ |
Excel-like calculations directly in Jira using Formulas | ✔ | X |
| Queuing based on dependencies between tasks | ✔ | X |
Full visualization of work breakdown (WBS) | ✔ | X |
| WBS-compliant data aggregation | ✔ | X |
| Creating links between tasks using the “drag and drop” method | ✔ | X |
Dynamic grouping of tasks | ✔ | X |
The most important advantage of the Structure application and the Structure.Gantt extension is the clear view of the projects in progress it provides. Another great advantage is the easy grouping and filtering of the issues the user wants to see in the structure, as well as the ability to share the structures with others.
Structure gathers Jira issues from multiple projects into a hierarchy you can customize, for example:
Structures are created based on the issues teams already have in the Jira system. If a company has previously used the Jira system to manage tasks for its teams, after deploying Structure, all the company needs to do is configure the overview or the structure accordingly. This can be done using simple filters or the more advanced capabilities provided by JQL.
Once a structure is created, the user can see all the steps they took to create it, which is useful when, for example, they want to teach another employee how to create their own. These steps – or generators – can be easily hidden when the user wants to focus on the content rather than the structure settings:
It is also quite convenient to be able to determine what information the user wants to see in the columns of their structure. This can be any information that can be found in tasks created in the Jira system, such as:
and additional ones that are offered by the Structure add-on, such as:
Data can be edited in-line from the structure, without needing to open the Jira issue. This is useful, for example, when a project manager needs to assign particular tasks to people other than the ones currently assigned or to change task deadlines. ALM Works, the developer of the Structure add-on, has introduced functionality for people who have such an expansive view that requires scrolling through successive columns. When this happens, it is possible to freeze the first few columns so that they are constantly displayed in one place – this way the project manager always knows which task he or she is looking at:
The above actions represent only the first, basic step to using Structure in the Jira environment. We would like to provide you with a short demo showing how Jira + Structure work in the context of building a project view:
Structure for Jira tops the rankings for project management applications in the Atlassian environment. On the Atlassian Marketplace, the most purchased project management add-ons for Jira are (as of July 2022):
EazyBI Reports and Charts and Tempo Planner also ranked high. We recommend all of these applications to those who are looking for a good project management solution or tweaks for slightly simpler task management, without sophisticated and complex features. Also, please feel free to get in touch with us – our teams are experienced in implementing and configuring various applications. Based on your needs and an overview of your existing processes, we recommend the most optimal solution.
We are a solid option in terms of consulting and implementation work, as we are a Partner of Atlassian, with years of experience in working with clients, including those who are digitizing administrative, accounting, HR (and various other non-technical) processes using the Atlassian environment. We also provide technical support i.e. configuration, implementation and testing of deployed environments. We are a partner of Tempo.io, which has merged with ALM Works. This means that both companies are now working together. We are in constant contact with add-on authors and can help you solve problems with Tempo and ALM Works applications faster, we also offer the discounts we are entitled to under the partnership agreement.
Do you want to organize your teams’ activities and have a better overview of the workflow at each stage of the project? Are you using Jira and looking for the right extension to make this possible? Consider Structure for Jira as a proven, well-appreciated, and relatively inexpensive add-on that makes this possible. Contact us and tell us about your company’s needs. Together we will find the best way to digitally transform your business.
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