Project portfolio management

Jira resource allocation: How to manage team workloads

Poor can lead to project delays and team burnout. Fortunately, Atlassian’s project management software, Jira, offers useful built-in resource management tools. However, they aren’t always enough to optimize your team’s capacity. Project managers may need additional help from third-party integrations.

Here, we will explore Jira’s resource allocation capabilities and limitations and explain how to do resource allocation in Jira. We’ll also illustrate how Tempo enhances Jira workload management processes to improve decision-making.

What is Jira resource allocation?

Resource allocation distributes tasks and responsibilities among team members based on project requirements and team capacity. Effective resource allocation ensures teams meet deadlines and evenly distribute work.

However, this is easier said than done. Poorly allocated resources can lead to bottlenecks and missed deadlines. That’s why project managers turn to Jira’s tools to help them assign work, track progress, and balance workloads.

There are three primary benefits to resource allocation in Jira:

• Better workload distribution: Jira’s employee capacity insights help managers distribute tasks equally between team members.

• Improve task visibility: Jira allows teams to monitor task requirements and assignments, improving visibility.

• Efficient sprint planning: Jira helps teams adopt agile practices like splitting large initiatives into multiple sprints.

Jira’s resource allocation fosters improved collaboration, ensuring teams are aligned and equipped to meet project goals.

Jira’s resource allocation features

Project managers use Jira for resource management because of its helpful features that facilitate workload and assignment oversight.

Workload management

With Jira’s workload dashboard, project managers can track team members’ active assignments in real time. It provides a clear overview of the number of tasks assigned to each team member alongside their estimated completion times.

These visualizations enable project managers to manage employee capacities, maintaining balanced workloads across the team. By preventing any one person from taking on too much, the dashboard helps reduce bottlenecks.

Example: A software development team working in Jira can use this dashboard for workload management, ensuring that tasks like coding, debugging, and testing are assigned evenly. If one developer takes on too many tasks, work can easily be redistributed.

Sprint planning

The agile board in Jira supports sprint planning, helping teams break broader projects into manageable development stages. The system allows managers to organize tasks according to their importance and match them to team members’ availability. Additionally, it provides a comprehensive overview of project progress, promoting adaptability and easy workflow adjustment.

Example: A marketing team using Jira can create a sprint for content creation. With clear sprint progress reports for various design and editing phases, project managers can quickly revise plans or change course to account for market shifts without missing deadlines.

Custom dashboards and reports

Jira’s custom dashboards allow teams to track assignments and deadlines from a centralized view using customizable widgets and charts. Managers can generate Jira resource allocation reports for these dashboards to analyze resource utilization and task completion rates.

Custom dashboards help managers forecast future workloads and make data-driven decisions. They also offer valuable insights into task dependencies and priorities, enabling teams to proactively manage resources and avoid potential bottlenecks.

Example: A construction project manager could create a custom dashboard that displays equipment allocation, labor scheduling, and task completion status, encouraging smoother execution.

Time tracking and timesheets

Jira integrates time-tracking tools to help teams log and monitor hours spent on tasks. Project managers can compare actual work hours versus estimated time and adjust project timelines accordingly. The tool also fosters accountability by tracking individual contributions.

Example: Consulting firms that use Jira can leverage time tracking to ensure client projects are billed accurately and consultant workloads remain manageable.

Roadmaps and Gantt charts

Jira’s roadmaps and Gantt charts provide a high-level overview of a project’s timeline, allowing managers to monitor task dependencies, milestones, and deadlines. These features highlight potential workload spikes and resource constraints in advance so teams can plan around them and maintain efficiency.

Example: A software engineering team juggling multiple project launches can use a Gantt chart to sequence dependent development tasks. With this insight, they can allocate their time efficiently and chart the most direct path to project completion.

What resource allocation features are missing from Jira?

Despite its strengths, Jira has limitations that can impact project efficiency:

• No advanced forecasting or capacity planning: Jira doesn’t provide robust tools that predict future workload distribution. Teams may struggle to forecast hiring needs or workload fluctuations.

• Limited real-time resource tracking: Jira also lacks real-time tracking capabilities to monitor how resources are being used. Without this, managers may struggle to reallocate tasks on the fly.

• No automated workload balancing: Jira won’t automatically prevent over-booking, meaning managers must manually check whether team members are overloaded.

• No built-in, skill-based task assignments: Jira doesn’t match tasks based on team members’ expertise or past workload patterns. A skill-based allocation system improves efficiency by ensuring managers assign the most qualified person to each task.

To address these limitations, many teams integrate third-party from the Atlassian marketplace that enhance real-time tracking and workload management. These tools provide better visibility into team performance and support data-driven decision-making.

How do you allocate resources to a project in Jira?

With a little help from Tempo’s tools, resource planning in Jira is easier than ever. Here’s a step-by-step guide for allocating resources:

1. Define project scope and requirements: Start by outlining the tasks, deadlines, and required resources. A clearly defined project scope ensures work is allocated efficiently.

2. Assign tasks based on capacity: Use Jira’s workload dashboard to check team members’ availability before assigning work. Avoid overloading one person if others have lighter workloads.

3. Monitor and adjust workloads: Regularly check Jira’s timesheets and roadmaps to track progress. If a team member is falling behind, redistribute tasks as needed.

4. Utilize Gantt charts and forecasting tools: Visualize work schedules using Gantt charts. If your project requires forecasting features, integrate Tempo’s .

5. Prevent overbooking with Capacity Insights: Finally, enable using Tempo to avoid overloading team members. This add-on ensures that workloads are evenly distributed.

Enhancing strategic alignment and decision-making with Tempo

Although Jira offers a solid foundation for workload management, sprint planning, and reporting, it has limitations. Tempo integrates seamlessly with Jira to provide more control over capacity planning and workload distribution.

Tempo’s suite of project management tools can provide the following functions:

• Advanced capacity planning: Accurately forecast workloads to prevent overwork or underutilization.

• Real-time tracking: Instantly view team workloads and dynamically balance priorities.

• Workload dashboards: Gain insights into performance, task distribution, and utilization.

• Automated reporting: Generate data-driven reports on resource availability and progress.

• Overbooking prevention: Set work limits and distribute tasks efficiently.

Without proper resource alignment, teams risk missed deadlines and increased operational costs. When your organization uses Tempo, it enjoys increased agility, improved collaboration, and maximized efficiency.

to build a strategic, data-driven approach to resource allocation and optimize your team’s productivity.