Hi. I'm currently using Jira to monitor certain projects. However, I have a question regarding the d

[Mauricio Patiño]

See above

[Brant Schroeder]

@Mauricio Patiño Welcome to the Atlassian community

Looks like the question did not fully post.  Can you either edit the question or post it in the comments. 

[Mauricio Patiño]

Hi. I'm currently using Jira to monitor certain projects. However, I have a question regarding the default timelines. What we really want is to graphically depict on the timeline if an activity is delayed and has a dependency on another activity. That is, if activity 1.1 is a predecessor to activity 2.1 and activity 1.1 is delayed, how can we visually see the change on the timeline indicating that both activity 1.1 and activity 2.1 will be delayed? We have seen that there are different fields such as start date, baseline start date, or actual start date, etc., but we do not know how we can edit the timeline configuration to maybe show the contrast between the estimated start date vs the actual start date. Thank you!!

[Brant Schroeder]

@Mauricio Patiño do you have an app installed or are you just using delivered functionality? 

[Mauricio Patiño]

I installed "Big Picture" but I haven't found the way to do it.

[Brant Schroeder]

Here is what BigPicture offers.  Project scheduling and capacity visualization are two I have found the most useful.  

Project scheduling

Project scheduling features help you assign the right resources to the tasks. Functionalities like Calendar, Agile board, and Gantt chart visualize entire schedules, dependencies, and tasks. They also allow you and your team members to see who and when is assigned to what task.

A work breakdown structure and a Gantt chart in BigPicture.

Availability tracking

Resource availability is never static. You will need to account for people taking sudden and annual leaves; share some of the resources with other projects; and secure niche or high-in-demand skills when they become available. So, to be able to match people and other assets to the respective project activities, you need to have insight into their individual time-off schedules and workload plans.

Capacity visualization

Resource capacity is the number of work (hours) an individual or team can perform over a certain period. For example, a typical capacity for an Agile team member would be 40 hours per week. Subsequently, you gradually “deplete” their capacity by assigning tasks to people until you hit their maximum workload (per period).

However, you surely do not want to do the arithmetic operations each time you assign a task to ensure you do not under or overallocate any of your resources. Therefore, you may want your resource management software to do the following three things.

BigPicture visualizes resource capacities with colors. This resource planning software also provides workload details for every resource, their workload period, and the tasks they are currently assigned.

First, it should do the simple math for you. Second, indicate the spent and remaining hours for each resource and team. And finally, visualize capacity thresholds so you can immediately see the status without even looking at the numbers.

Analytics and reporting

The reporting features give you insight into the performance of individual teams, team members, skills, or a sum of all of these. You can also use the reporting feature to analyze the work progress to determine potential bottlenecks or underperforming assignees.

Capacity report for resources having the skill “Project Manager” in BigPicture.

Collaboration and view sharing

Collaboration features allow teams or team members to follow their own and each other’s tasks. It will help them anticipate the scope of their work and plan for it. On the other hand, it could also help them to strengthen their teamwork and complete tasks that require the attention of more than one person.

On the other hand, thanks to the collaboration tools, stakeholders who are not part of the project team can see who is working on what and when (or where—in case some work can be carried out only in certain locations).