Although BigPicture is by definition a tool for a team and not for an individual, people increasingly seek calendar views in our software. BigPicture has three calendar-like modules, and surprisingly the new portfolio management-oriented BigPicture 8 makes things even better.
One by one, let’s look at calendar planners available in Jira BigPicture.
Calendar in BigPicture 8
A new Calendar module for Jira BigPicture is currently under development, and will likely be available in BigPicture 8, in the middle of 2020. If you don’t feel like waiting, proceed to the following calendar picks that are already operational.
Key features of the new calendar:
- not just tasks, but also markers can sit in the calendar. What is a marker? See the Gantt chart screenshot below.
- you can hide weekends
- use either Sunday-Saturday or Mo-Sun week format
- heatmap mode is available – colors represent To do/In progress/Done task statuses, or apply colors manually
- note the collapsible ‘Upcoming tasks’ right-hand panel
- most importantly: BigPicture Calendar can be either a personal or team or organizational tool as quick filters are at hand, and you can save views, notice the ‘Hide Done’, ‘Buczi’ and ‘Ania’ buttons in the below screenshot
The new Calendar module is under development at the time of writing, to be released soon.
Gantt chart
The key point when using the Gantt chart as a calendar is to use the Zoom in and Zoom out buttons, marked in the below screenshot. Some other best practices:
- when creating events or reminders in this calendar view, use Artificial tasks, rather than Jira tasks. Follow + > Create task > Basic task in the Gantt chart’s menu. You don’t need loads of tasks in the underlying Jira, right? An artificial task will only be visible in your calendar view.
- when you need a reminder, a marker is a plausible alternative to a task – we marked a marker in the below screenshot
Use the Gantt chart as a calendar planner – this view is available in BigGantt and BigPicture.
Workload plans & holiday plans
It would be a shame not to mention these very special calendars available in BigPicture. Workload plans, although they look like a weekly planner, are in place for a project manager or Jira admin to set weekly working hours, rather than some events or tasks. The same applies to holiday plans – see the second picture below – you set bank holidays or extra working days here, rather than goals or reminders.
Google ‘bigpicture workload plans’ and ‘bigpicture holiday plans’ to better understand how these special ‘calendars’ work. They are there for the Resources module to know what is the capacity of a resource.
In the Workload Plan, you declare working hours, such as 9 to 5, rather than schedule actual events.
Holiday plans are auxiliary calendars as well; what you set here will influence the capacity of your Resources.
Calendars vs. the agile mindset
A calendar may be looked at as a micromanagement tool, not entirely compatible with the agile mindset. Few organizations are 100% agile though. HR, marketing, legal, or business development departments still benefit from calendars. A calendar is what project managers told us to build during Atlassian Summits and even SAFe Summits.
