BigPicture and Structure are both project management apps for Jira, but they differ more than one may imagine. Structure basically resembles a very powerful Excel worksheet with sheets full of issues and hierarchy levels. The structures in Structure for Jira have lots of filtering, grouping and auto-sum options. Big Picture, on the other hand, while it also features those crucial Scope – work breakdown structures, is balanced for the “visualization” end of project management work, with its dependency boards, Gantt charts, risk matrices, and resource panes.
Both BigPicture and Structure are great for projects at scale and cross-project management. The two are comprehensive & versatile project management tools, as opposed to the other two apps of the “Big 4”, namely Portfolio (compare BigPicture with Portfolio) and Tempo (BP vs. Tempo Planner), which are to a large degree specialized.
Table 1: Big Picture vs. Structure for Jira
| BigPicture | Structure | |
|---|---|---|
| In a nutshell | All-in-one Project Portfolio Management app for Jira for short-, medium-, and long-term planning, tracking the progress across multiple projects, and managing risks; for both agile, hybrid, and waterfall projects. The app balances between visualization and spreadsheet formats. |
Visualize, track and manage progress across large-scale projects with adaptable, user-defined issue hierarchies. |
| Key phrases | reach goals, align teams, cross-project, cross-team; effectively supervise/manage/control involved projects or portfolio of projects; track and report progress; iterations and Program increments | ordered hierarchical list of issues, called “structures”; cross-project, cross-team; track progress; assign and balance the workload among team members; sprints & releases |
Modules |
||
| Scope Work Breakdown Structure |
 You get a spreadsheet-like Scope module in BigPicture; but you also have the WBS within the Gantt chart module. |
|
| Roadmapping | |
|
| Dependency board | |
|
| Gantt chart | |
with Structure.Gantt, an extension to Structure for Jira |
| Risks | |
|
| Resources | |
with Structure.Gantt, an extension to Structure for Jira |
| Teams | |
|
| Reporting | |
the extra check mark for Exel-like auto-sum row below each structure |
Hierarchies (Work Breakdown Structures) |
||
| Unlimited hierarchy depth | |
|
| Configurable views | |
|
| Story points | |
|
| Containers for issues | (artificial tasks) |
(folders) |
| Filtering | |
the extra checkmark for S-JQL — Structure’s special language for finding items according to their position and relationship to other items in the structure |
| JQL filters | |
|
| Self-updating structures (based on pre-defined queries; triggered when there are changes in Jira) |
(Structure builders; formerly synchronizers) |
(Dynamic structures) |
| Track progress progress bars |
|
|
Selected functionalities |
||
| Visualizing app? | e.g. dependency board, resource module with coloring, Gantt chart included by default, SAFe® compliant roadmap, risk matrix; bar/pie charts |
|
| Sync- and re-sync with Jira | |
|
| Track progress of projects/programs | |
|
| Focus on short-/long-term planning | both short-, medium-, and long-term | both short-, medium-, and long-term |
| Dependencies between issues (e.g. task A blocks task B) | |
|
| Drag&drop tasks | |
|
Project management paradigms / methodologies / levels |
||
| Project/program-level management | |
|
| Portfolio-level management | |
|
| Iterations (Scrum) | |
|
| SAFe® | SAFe-compliant roadmap. |
|
| Agile | |
|
| Waterfall | |
|
Import/export features |
||
| API | Private REST api |
Java and JavaScript api |
| Supported file types | mpp, mpx, pdf, xml, csv, xlsx, doc, docx (with BigTemplate – an extension of BigPicture) | (a) xls, printable page – with Structure for Jira
(b) pdf, svg – with Structure.Gantt |
| Sample import/export features | With BigTemplate, an extension of BigPicture, you can export an entire project in MS Project native mpp/mpx formats or export individual issues to pdf, doc, docx files. You can also import MS Project mpp/mpx files. | (a) You can download the structure that you see on the screen as an XLS file.
(b) You can produce PDF or SVG file with your Gantt charts using configurable export. |
Requirements & platforms |
||
| Amount of configuration work | moderate | large |
| Structure consists of a single, highly-configurable module, where you create and name your own structures, or views, such as “Planning”, “Tracking”, etc. These structures later function as de facto separate modules. BigPicture, on the other hand, delivers roadmapping (planning), Gantt chart and resource modules out of the box, so it needs less configuration work at the initial stage. | ||
| Works with | Jira Software, Jira Core, Data Center, Service Desk | Jira Software, Jira Core, Data Center, Service Desk |
| Jira Server / Cloud | Jira Server, Data Center, Cloud | Jira Server, Data Center, Cloud |
Business data & Pricing |
||
| Launched | 2014 | 2010 |
| Jira Server, 100 users, Atlassian Marketplace | $2000/instance | $2000/instance |
| Jira Cloud, 500 users tier, Atlassian Marketplace | $1.38/user/month | $0.46/user/month |
| Available through | Atlassian Marketplace, Atlassian Solution Partners | Atlassian Marketplace, Atlassian Solution Partners |
| User rating (stars) | 3.2/4 | 3.5/4 |
| Developer | SoftwarePlant | ALM Works |
| Atlassian Top Vendor? | |
|
An effort was made to gather accurate data, but these apps are to a certain extent incomparable. Data is current at the time of writing. Help improve the table – e-mail marketing (a) softwareplant.com.
