Jira resource management: Alternatives for smoother workflows

When it launched in 2002, Jira by Atlassian was synonymous with two things: task tracking, and software engineering. But, over the last two decades, Jira has evolved to be a tool for teams who plan, track, and deliver projects—regardless of department or industry. 

As Jira’s adoption has grown outside of technical teams, people responsible for resource management in those departments have started exploring what can be achieved on the tool. But, unfortunately, many find themselves running into limitations. 

Before we start exploring what these restrictions are, let’s draw a line in the sand to make it clear what we mean by “resource management”:

This article covers the best features available for using Jira for resource management, as well as areas where there’s room for improvement. In it, I’ll share resource management techniques and tools that go beyond what’s possible in Jira, and that give you a holistic way to manage people and resources.

Spoiler alert: That’s where Resource Guru comes in. 

With that in mind, this article will cover everything you need to level-up your approach to resource management. 

To get things started—and justify that TL;DR up there—let’s look at a side-by-side comparison of Jira and Resource Guru in more detail to understand what the drawbacks and opportunities are.

Jira resource management vs. Resource Guru resource management

As I touched on in the definition above, resource management is an umbrella term. It’s an overall process made up of a number of distinct stages, each with different purposes and steps.

I’ll elaborate on each of them in a bit, but here’s a quick snapshot of how resource management in Jira compares to resource management in Resource Guru, broken down by stage:

 

 

Can Jira be used for resource management? 

For some aspects of resource management, using Jira can be suitable (and we’ll cover those in dedicated sections later.) However, Jira is better thought of as a task manager than a complete solution for resource management. 

As the table above shows, Jira provides some of the tools you need for various steps, like a basic calendar view of tasks, and the ability to assign individuals to tasks. However, many teams require more in-depth functionality specifically for resource management.

In later sections, I’ll speak to each aspect of resource management in more depth, covering how Jira enables you to achieve some of the necessary tasks. 

How to do resource management in Jira

As I’ve said, there are multiple parts that make up resource management, so I’ll need a little more real estate to cover each of them in terms of how to perform resource management using Jira. 

Click here to jump to how to use Jira for resource management across different stages

But, for the time being, let’s talk about three things that make resource management with Jira infinitely more effective. Namely, using a Jira resource management plugin, extensions, or integrations. 

Here’s a quick breakdown of the difference between those, if you want to use Jira as part of your resource management process: 

 

 

Of course, you can also just use a completely dedicated tool separately, but if I had to pick just one of the above options, it’d have to be an integration.

While plugins can alter bits and pieces of functionality inside Jira, you’d fundamentally be building on a foundation that wasn’t meant for resource management in the first place. The same is true of extensions.

On the flip side, integrating Jira with a dedicated resource management solution gives you the full set of functionality you need to pull off something as complex as resource management, all while giving you access to tasks in Jira. This makes it the most holistically effective approach. 

How does Resource Guru integrate with Jira?

The Resource Guru x Jira integration is a fully native solution. Using it, tickets get pushed to Resource Guru in real-time via one-way sync where they’re available in a list beside the schedule. 

From there you can drag and drop the tickets to create bookings against them. And, if you’re using time estimates in Jira, you can compare to see how much time has been scheduled for each ticket, and how much more you should schedule.

In the following sections I’ll also speak more to the advantages of using a Jira integration like this as we explore the capabilities throughout each stage of the resource management process. 

How to do resource planning in Jira

Before I dive into the practicalities, here’s another quick definition to set the scene:

Unfortunately, this means using Jira for resource planning is one of the trickier aspects of resource management to pull off if you’re using the platform on its own. That said, here’s what you can accomplish with the basic functionality.

Jira resource planning using built-in features

Resource planning in Jira is quite rigid. While you can assign people to work and you have some flexibility around finding what people are needed for the job, it’s hard to get full context on what else they’re working on, and how suitable they are for the type of work at hand. 

Jira resource planning: What you can do on the platform

• You can link Jira spaces to teams that include a list of suitable people to work on associated issues. You can choose from that list of people and assign them to tasks

Jira resource planning: What you can’t do on the platform

• The no mechanism for differentiating unconfirmed work from confirmed work making identifying resource needs quite tricky
• Jira’s designed for assigning people to work. There’s no out-of-the box way to do resource planning for equipment or other resources

Resource planning: Jira integrated with Resource Guru

On the flip side, with a dedicated solution like Resource Guru, resource planning gets a whole lot smoother. Here are a few examples:

• Equipment management means you can plan how equipment and other non-human resources will be used throughout projects
• Tentative bookings let you reserve time for work before it’s locked in

How to do capacity planning in Jira

Let’s define this stage too before we get into it:

Jira capacity planning using built-in features

In terms of capacity planning tools, Jira falls quite short when used in isolation. While you can leverage some features to do certain aspects, there aren’t any truly dedicated features for team capacity planning in Jira. 

Jira capacity planning: What you can do on the platform

• On Jira, team capacity planning is restricted to understanding how much time and effort the work will take as opposed to how much availability someone has to do that work. You can use time estimates to track this
• You can roughly calculate the workload per person on an individual level by grouping issues by assignee in certain views. To go any deeper, you’d need to explore if there is a suitable capacity planning plugin for Jira

Jira capacity planning: What you can’t do on the platform

• There’s no official time-off tracking in Jira that comes out of the box meaning you can’t account for downtime when doing capacity planning
• There is no default view for actual availability versus estimated availability
• By default, there are no automated warnings when someone goes over capacity

Capacity planning: Jira integrated with Resource Guru

Compared to the limited number of Jira capacity planning features, capacity planning in Resource Guru is highly detailed. With multiple dedicated features, you can balance workloads among your team to keep them productive. 

• Time off tracking makes it easy to plan for the capacity you’ll have available while people are on vacation, off sick, or taking other time off
• Availability bars give you an indication of how much capacity a person or piece of equipment has left in a given day
• Clash management stops people and resources from getting double-booked so you have accurate insight into how much time they have remaining to complete work
• Custom availability lets you take individual working hours into account and flexibly adjust them as people’s capacity changes

How to manage resource allocation in Jira

Definition time once again: 

Jira resource allocation using built-in features

Allocating a person to a task is easy in Jira. It’s just a matter of clicking a dropdown list and selecting someone. However, the real missing link for successful resource allocation in Jira is getting a wider view of what else that person is working on.

If they’re assigned to multiple high-priority tasks, it can be hard to choose which of those tasks is truly the highest priority, if they have limited time to complete them. 

Jira resource allocation: What you can do on the platform

• You can assign one person to each task by default
• You can assign multiple people to subtasks
• You can easily assign people to tasks on Jira, though you lack some critical context about their availability and capacity
• You can set a priority per task in Jira which shows how urgent it is

Jira resource allocation: What you can’t do on the platform

• There’s no way to view availability in terms of how much work from other projects is consuming someone’s time
• Skills management is not a native Jira feature meaning you can only find potential assignees who are suitable for specific tasks using a Jira resource planning plugin or an integration

Resource allocation: Jira integrated with Resource Guru

Resource Guru provides a variety of ways to allocate resources that are informed by variables that are uniquely important to your business, and historical data.

• Sort, group, and filter the schedule (more on that in the next section) to quickly navigate to who and what you need to make bookings for
• Set project rates and budgets to know who you can afford to assign to certain projects—especially useful if you work with clients

How to schedule resources with Jira

Another quick definition before we go deep:

Jira resource scheduling using built-in features

While Jira now offers a calendar view, this is unfortunately one of its weaker points in the resource management mix. The functionality is quite limited and inflexible; essentially just displaying a list of tasks laid out against different dates. For true resource scheduling, you need the ability to make swift changes as plans change.

Jira resource scheduling: What you can do on the platform

• You can view tasks in a calendar view based on their start and end dates
  • You can move issue dates around using drag and drop
  • You can extend or contract issue durations in the calendar view

Jira resource scheduling: What you can’t do on the platform 

• You can’t create new issues from the calendar view
• Any issues that don’t have a start or end date assigned don’t show on the calendar
• The calendar isn’t broken down by person or resource, so you can’t see granular information on that level at a glance, though you can filter the schedule by assignee to see one person at a time

Resource scheduling: Jira integrated with Resource Guru

Resource scheduling is a core part of Resource Guru. And it’s hard to argue with the reviews on sites like G2. Here are a few functionality highlights:

• The schedule itself offers a bird’s eye view of all your people and resources so you can quickly assess how best to make resource scheduling decisions
• As mentioned above, you can sort, group, and filter the schedule for faster navigation. You can also save and share views to collaborate with other people involved in resource scheduling
• Repeat bookings let you set recurring instances for work that happens regularly
• Timezone support means you can confidently create bookings for team members worldwide, without the mental battle against daylight savings time
• Approval workflows let you protect in-demand people from overworking
• The Waiting List keeps track of unconfirmed bookings when people or resources don’t have enough availability—an organized way to get that work scheduled effectively and protect people’s time

How to do resource tracking in Jira

Here’s what I mean by resource tracking, just so we’re on the same page here too:

Jira resource tracking using built-in features

We touched on Jira time estimates before, but that’s the core of the platform’s native resource tracking capabilities. As the name suggests, these are just approximations of how much time is needed to complete tasks. Detailed resource tracking requires more accuracy to be fully effective.

Jira resource tracking: What you can do on the platform

• Jira lets you set time estimates, and see a visual breakdown of logged time versus remaining time

Jira resource tracking: What you can’t do on the platform

• Jira does not provide similar monetary estimates per issue

Resource tracking: Jira integrated with Resource Guru

Resource Guru streamlines how people log their time so you get more accurate data. 

• Bookings made in the schedule create timesheet entries automatically so your team doesn’t have to rely on memory to log work they’ve completed
• Your team can then bulk log entries in a few clicks—meaning they can log a week’s work in seconds

How to track resource utilization in Jira

Let’s define this one too to set the scene:

Jira resource utilization monitoring using built-in features

Utilization is business-critical if you want to ensure people don’t get overburdened or left twiddling their thumbs. Unfortunately, Jira doesn’t come with a built-in utilization report, but there are some ways to manage utilization on a high level on the platform. 

Jira resource utilization: What you can do on the platform

• Basic built-in Time Tracking and User Workload resource utilization reports in Jira let you sense-check how much time tasks take and how many tasks are assigned to individuals, but you cannot natively compare this against capacity

Jira resource utilization: What you can’t do on the platform

• There’s no out-of-the-box utilization calculation or reporting meaning you would have to use a plugin or integration to get this data

Resource utilization: Jira integrated with Resource Guru

As part of the upgraded reporting suite, tracking utilization in Resource Guru has become even easier. More on that in a sec, but here are some of the features we’ve already touched on that are note-worthy utilization tracking features too: 

• Availability heatmaps can be set up to scan both total utilization and billable utilization
• Built-in timesheets are easy for teams to complete and managers to assess. You can use these to identify actual time spent on work with increased accuracy 

How to do resource forecasting in Jira

One more definition, for good measure: 

Jira resource forecasting using built-in features

Jira gives you decent visibility into work that’s ready to be assigned, and of what’s in the pipeline and already set up with start and end dates. However, Jira could benefit from more detailed reporting that helps you plan for the future.

Jira resource forecasting: What you can do on the platform

• You can use the Jira timeline view to see upcoming work you’ve already planned for the future, you can informally use that to get some idea of what similar future projects will look like

Jira resource forecasting: What you can’t do on the platform

• Reporting in Jira doesn’t give you the historical resource utilization you need to make informed decisions about resource forecasting

Resource forecasting using Jira integrated with Resource Guru

• Our reporting suite shines here too. Not only are the reports fully customizable, you also get out-of-the-box reports with clear data visualization to help you understand data more easily and use it to forecast more effectively

I’ve covered a lot in the last few sections, but there are a few final questions worth addressing when it comes to Jira resource management. 

Frequently asked questions about Jira resource management

What is the best way to do resource management in Jira?

Since Jira wasn’t designed specifically with resource management in mind, the best way to do resource management in Jira is to integrate it with a purpose-built system like Resource Guru. 

What are the benefits of using Resource Guru with Jira?

Overall, Resource Guru is a more comprehensive piece of software for resource management where you can complete every stage of the process in a single tool. 

By integrating Jira with Resource Guru, you can assign work while taking individual capacity into account, schedule based on real-time, custom availability, and report effectively on budget burn, both in terms of time and money. 

How do I start using the Resource Guru integration with Jira?

Once you have both a Resource Guru account and a Jira account, you can connect the two systems by navigating to Settings -> Integrations in Resource Guru.

You can get full instructions in our Help Center. Integrations are available on all Resource Guru plans.

Which teams benefit most from using Jira and Resource Guru together?

As I touched on at the start of this article, Jira has evolved from just being for technical teams.

Generally though, as well as teams who build software, the industries that would benefit most from the Jira x Resource Guru integration include agencies, engineering, consultants, construction, and professional services.

The best way to approach resource management with Jira

Jira is a powerful platform for managing work but, when it comes to managing resources, it wasn’t built to go the distance on its own. From capacity and forecasting to utilization and scheduling, resource management is a multi-layered process that needs deeper visibility and richer functionality than Jira offers out of the box.

By combining Jira with a purpose-built solution like Resource Guru, you can transform fragmented workflows into a streamlined system—one where availability, skills, budgets, and timelines come together. That means more clarity, better decisions, and smoother delivery.

If you’re ready to unlock Jira’s full potential and elevate your resource management workflows, take the next step and explore how our native Jira integration works in action. Or, if you’re ready to transition fully to a dedicated resource management platform with purpose-built features for every stage, take out a free trial of Resource Guru.

A quick note on the details

While I’ve made every effort to ensure the accuracy of available functionality mentioned in this article, software evolves pretty fast. I may have missed newer or more hard-to-find features on Jira. If you do spot any inaccuracies, you can forward them to me using the email address in my author bio below.