JIRA has a lot of advantages for creating and planning all steps of product development. Some of its features look great, while others seem weak or need significant improvements.
What about the Gantt chart feature?
This article highlights the essential aspects of how the popular software provides its users with the planning functionality with the help of the online diagram and what reliable plugins can be used instead.
Does JIRA have a Gantt chart?
JIRA contains two roadmap tools to create Gantt charts for projects: Roadmaps to create plans around JIRA issues assigned to a team and Advanced Roadmaps to do the same thing across teams and organizations.
The first solution is an analogue of many professional roadmaps used in various fields: from software development to construction and education. The second tool requires a more detailed understanding.
What is Advanced Roadmaps for JIRA?
Advanced Roadmaps is a JIRA Software Cloud’s Premium feature that helps multiple teams to collaborate together, track the big picture, define dependencies across large pieces of work, and plan all the team actions.
This tool is also based on the Gantt chart. But is it really good for professional project management?
Let’s take a quick look at its particular qualities before moving on to alternative solutions.
Advantages of JIRA Advanced Roadmaps
Advanced Roadmaps for JIRA provide vivid benefits for their users, including the following:
- Allow for working with complex goals and unlimited levels of hierarchy.
- Provide the big picture. You can plan and track how you’re making progress on the big picture across multiple teams.
- Allow for tracking dependencies across multiple teams and projects to get ahead of any blockers across the entire company.
- Promote planning with team capacity in mind.
- Envision different scenarios. You can create multiple versions of your roadmap to account for different options or best and worst-case scenarios.
Disadvantages of JIRA Advanced Roadmaps
The drawbacks of Advanced Roadmaps JIRA provides are primarily related to the overall JIRA functionality and its weak sides.
Let’s highlight the most essential ones:
- Limited project management focus of JIRA roadmaps and the lack of PM features. Considering this fact, many users turn to the more professional Gantt chart software or advanced plugins.
- Unfriendly UX and design elements. Some teams immediately decide to stop using such a roadmap, considering it awful and unprofessional.
- Overall complexity of JIRA that only tech teams may require.
- Limited file size upload.
Considering these and other cons and limitations of JIRA Advanced Roadmaps, many users decide to find an appropriate Gantt chart plugin for JIRA.
Let’s explore some of these plugins and their features right here and now.
What are the best Gantt chart plugins for Atlassian JIRA?
Gantt charts proved to be effective tools in project management. Thanks to horizontal lines along a timeline, managers or anyone dealing with plans can easily visualize everything from task adding and their assignments to the calculation of resources’ costs.
As it was mentioned above, JIRA Advanced Roadmaps is far from being a perfect tool. This is where other software developers take the stage. It is they who try to simplify the work process in a project with additional integrations. Thus JIRA Gantt chart plugins appear.
Atlassian marketplace offers solutions. Let’s figure out which ones are the best Gantt chart plugins.
1. WBS Gantt-Chart for JIRA
Find this JIRA Gantt chart on Atlassian marketplace.
Deployment: Cloud and Data Center.
Free demo.
This rather powerful tool allows doing many actions a classic Gantt project planner offers. It significantly simplifies project management with the following features: tasks and their assignees, start and end dates, duration, and progress; dependencies between them, drag-and-drop function, project resource management, critical path, and some others.
WBS Gantt-Chart for JIRA advantages
As it is seen, many good features are widely presented in this JIRA Gantt chart plugin. Also, you can export your chart in Excel that is definitely a plus for many managers.
There is also a possibility to create Gantt chart templates for managing similar projects or tasks in the future.
Among all solid features, users point out nice interface, quick and informative support, least bugs in comparison with some other JIRA Gantt chart plugins.
WBS Gantt-Chart for JIRA disadvantages
The add-on is generally highly rated by users. Some bugs are named, but they are not crucial and are taken into backlog by developers.
Pricing
Cloud | Data Center |
Up to 10 users: free | $700 per year/up to 50 users; $1300 per year/up to 100 users; $2600 per year/up to 250 users; $3700 per year/up to 500 users; $4600 per year/up to 750 users |
2. BigGantt
Find this JIRA Gantt chart on Atlassian marketplace.
Deployment: Cloud and Data Center.
If you need to manage projects with the help of Gantt chart integrated into JIRA, this plugin will be your handler on this uneasy way. Easy to understand, good visualization, good for Waterfall project management methodology and Agile. With BigGantt you will never lose a picture of your project.
BigGantt advantages
Choosing this Gantt chart JIRA plugin, you get many useful features: customized timeline to follow tasks progress and deadlines, auto-scheduling, project and tasks dependencies, critical path, drag-and-drop interface, export to MS Project and Excel; different mode options – wide, normal and compact.
BigGantt disadvantages
In order to do some action, for example, print a chart, you have to have another plugin by the same developer – BigPicture.
Some updates crash the work done, so one has to rebuild charts again. Also, there are troubles with browsers when one deals with large charts (300-400 tasks and more).
Pricing
Cloud | Data Center |
Up to 10 users: free | $800 per year/up to 50 users; $1500 per year/up to 100 users; $3150 per year/up to 250 users; $4150 per year/up to 500 users; $5150 per year/up to 750 users |
3. BigPicture
Find this JIRA Gantt chart on Atlassian marketplace.
Deployment: Cloud and Data Center.
This Gantt chart plugin was developed and supported by the same engineers that developed BigGantt. So here you will find the same good Gantt chart. But in general, this JIRA plugin has richer functionality and is related to Project portfolio management. Plan, build and manage multiple projects, customize the view, create cross-program dependencies and manage cross-project work.
BigPicture advantages
Here, as in the case with BigGantt, you will get all useful for your work features of a Gantt chart: you can create tasks, organize (sort, group) and manage them with drag-and-drop function. Moreover, other additional features are included: export and Gantt chart import to Excel and MS Project; Agile program roadmap, risk management, powerful filter options, and some others.
BigPicture disadvantages
No possibility to manage resources’ costs. There is only one option to add working hours – the whole numbers (6, 7, 8, etc.). So if you have, say, 7.5 working hours, it won’t work well for you.
There are some bugs in recent updates, for example, with the installation.
Pricing
Cloud | Data Center |
Up to 10 users: free | $2350 per year/up to 50 users; $4400 per year/up to 100 users; $8800 per year/up to 250 users; $12100 per year/up to 500 users; $18150 per year/up to 750 users |
4. Gantt-Chart for JIRA
Find this JIRA Gantt chart on Atlassian marketplace.
Deployment: Cloud and Data Center.
Overview all your tasks and filter them in a favorite way – this JIRA Gantt chart plugin displays only what you need with no superfluities. For agile teams managers can display charts based on sprints.
Pretty long ago, in 2010, Gantt-Chart for JIRA was picked as one of the «coolest plugins» and was ranked 4-th out of 15 best plugins.
Gantt-Chart for JIRA advantages
The JIRA plugin organizes your issues in multi-level hierarchies with parent tasks, subtasks, etc. Each user can configure columns. I would say, these features pretty common, but all in all, are good.
But one of the main advantages of this Gantt chart in JIRA is support. It is quick, detailed and really helpful. Updates are also frequent with constant improvements.
Gantt-Chart for JIRA disadvantages
Purely subjective opinions, but some people consider this add-on more difficult to understand and work in than in some other plugins described above.
Pricing
Cloud | Data Center |
Up to 10 users: $5 monthly flat fee | $750 per year/up to 50 users; $1000 per year/up to 100 users; $1500 per year/up to 250 users; $2500 per year/up to 500 users; $3000 per year/up to 750 users |
Other
5. PDF View Plugin for JIRA (PDF Exporter)
Find this plugin on Atlassian marketplace.
Deployment: Cloud and Data Center.
This great JIRA plugin does not help in project management to create and build plans. It serves for other purposes. With its help, you can export anything you want from JIRA: dashboards, timesheets, invoices, notes and, what is important for us, Gantt charts.
PDF view plugin advantages
Wide export options to pdf. Export your Gantt chart anytime you want and present it offline to anyone involved in your project be it your boss, stakeholder or a team member.
Users have the option to decide what information to export to pdf as well as design their layouts, add colors, company’s logo, etc. You make your document look beautiful.
Other advantages are directly connected with pdf. You can print it on any platform, anytime, everywhere. Share, print, email, report your Gantt chart anytime you want.
PDF view plugin disadvantages
This add-on is highly rated among users. If you find something wrong, please, write in the comments below.
Pricing
Cloud | Data Center |
Up to 10 users: free. | $690 per year/up to 50 users; $1490 per year/up to 100 users; $2990 per year/up to 250 users; $5490 per year/up to 500 users; $5990 per year/up to 750 users |
GanttPRO Gantt chart software integration with JIRA Cloud
Find GanttPRO online Gantt chart maker on Atlassian marketplace.
Deployment: Cloud.
How to benefit from GanttPRO features integrated into JIRA Cloud.
What is GanttPRO?
GanttPRO is a Gantt chart creator developed to facilitate project management and team collaboration. The tool offers a short learning curve and intuitive interface.
GanttPRO is a multi-award winning tool recognized by teams from different spheres.
We would like everyone who works in JIRA but needs to manage tasks with the help of Gantt charts, have a smooth and pleasant work process within one tool. That’s why we set this uneasy important goal – to provide great integration of our Gantt chart with JIRA.
GanttPRO is a perfect choice for everyone who needs a clear and easy-to-read Gantt chart visualization of complicated JIRA projects. Make sure you have active accounts in the Gantt chart tool and JIRA Cloud Software.
Learn how to connect GanttPRO online Gantt chart software and JIRA Cloud from the instructions in GanttPRO FAQ.
And here is the video for a quick start.
Any question left? Book a personalized GanttPRO demo to get answers from our specialists.
Do you use any JIRA Gantt charts? How do like them? Please, feel free to leave comments.
Frequently asked questions about Jira Gantt chart plugins
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Jira can’t generate a Gantt chart because it doesn’t offer this functionality by default. However, you can create such charts using extensions (like Roadmaps and Advanced Roadmaps) or external plugins (like BigPicture and WBS Gantt-Chart). These tools allow Jira users to visualize tasks, dependencies, and timelines in a Gantt chart style. Alternatively, you can integrate a platform like GanttPRO with Jira Cloud to get advanced Gantt chart functionality.
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Jira Roadmap is a simpler alternative to a Gantt chart. It lacks features like detailed task dependencies and hierarchies. Instead, it focuses on providing a timeline view to help teams track high-level project progress, without the detailed control of a Gantt chart.
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Jira and GanttPRO are examples of project management tools suited to different needs. Jira is mainly focused on Agile methodologies, particularly for software development. GanttPRO stands out for its timeline-focused planning and advanced Gantt chart functionality. It is ideal for traditional project management workflows and teams involved in various industries and spheres.