Structure.Gantt Roadmap

In this roadmap, we'd like to share our vision for the features we're going to add to Structure.Gantt over the next few versions. We touch only the surface of each feature – if you have any questions regarding how a specific feature would work, please ask in the Google Group. (More so if you know some non-obvious thing about how it should or shouldn't work!)

Upcoming Versions and Dates

Our short term plans culminate with the release of Structure.Gantt 1.0, the first GA version. Before version 1.0 release, we'll have a few intermittent releases through the EAP program.

After version 1.0 the plans become fuzzier. To group features into broad release groups, we plan for version 1.5 and version 2.0. In reality, there will be versions 1.1, 1.2 and so on, but the details of which feature comes in which version will be available later, around the time version 1.0 is released.

Roadmap

Version 0.3 – MP

• Gantt Management – the user is able to configure and share one Gantt chart per structure. Basic permissions – same as structure permissions.
• Gantt Layout – the user is able to switch to Grid + Gantt layout. The layout provides time axis, synchronized with structure content, with zooming, panning, selection, toolbar and other UI controls.
• Basic Bars and Groups Display – the entries from structure are displayed on the timeline as bars or groups. No milestone support yet. 
• Duration based on Time Tracking – task duration is taken based on Original Estimate or Remaining Estimate + Time Spent. There's a default duration for tasks that don't have estimates yet. No Story Point support yet.
• Manual Scheduling – Start Date for a task based on a Date or Date/Time custom field in JIRA. 
• FS Dependencies – Finish-to-Start dependencies between issues based on JIRA's issue links.
• Automatic Unconstrained Scheduling – calculating Start Date based on the Project Start Date and dependencies, without resource allocation limits.
• Time-based Progress – showing progress calculate from Time Tracking values and Resolved/Unresolved state of issues.
• Drag and Drop – adjusting estimate, start date, progress using drag and drop. Creating FS dependencies using drag and drop.
• Critical Path – calculating and displaying critical path.
• Scheduling Conflicts – displaying scheduling issues with the actions to resolve them.
• Default work calendar – 8-hour day, 5-day week. Support for flexible and configurable calendars built in, but not available to the users yet.
• Time zone support – the user sees calendar in his time zone. Support for assigning time zones to tasks / resources built in, but not available to the users yet.
• Initial Performance Target – tested on 10,000 tasks.

Version 0.7 – MVP

• Milestones – based either on additional items or specific issue types.
• Work Calendars Advanced Configuration – ability to specify hierarchical work calendars, but without nice UI for editing.
• Story Points Based Duration – ability to estimate duration based on Story Points and velocity.
• Manual Finish Date – ability to use Start Date and Finish Date fields for a task, without Duration.
• Non-Link Dependencies – ability to create a dependency without creating issue link, linking issues and folders, information stored in the add-on.
• Resource Definition – defining a flexible concept of a resource (a person, a team, a constraint).
• Resource Allocation Chart – showing resource allocation right on the grid using special type of items.

Version 1.0 – GA

• SS, SF and FF Dependencies – support for other types of dependencies.
• Automatic / Manual Recalculation– this is needed for plan tracking, progress and changing Velocity in the middle of the project.

Version 1.0 Tentative

These features may make their way into version 1.0, but we might delay them until a later 1.x version.

• Constrained Scheduling – aka Resource Leveling, automatic scheduling that avoids resource overallocation.
• Agile Scheduling – special type of Constrained Scheduling, additionally tweaked for Agile teams and top-down roadmapping.
• Syncing to JIRA Custom Fields – writing the calculated values (such as Start Date and Finish Date) into JIRA custom fields.

Version 1.5

• Editable Work Calendars – a UI for managing calendars.
• Calendars Integration – integration with major providers of work calendars, such as Tempo, Portfolio.
• Export / Import – support for MS Project and other tools.
• Deeper Integration with Structure Attributes – lets Progress, Estimate, Manual Start Date be extracted from an arbitrary attribute (including calculated attributes).
• Actual Start and Actual Finish Dates – optional configuration option to have automatically managed fields define actual start and finish date of a task, regardless of scheduling and estimates.
• Milestone-driven and non-binary Critical Path  – a way to calculate critical paths for a specific milestone and calculate a relative risk for a task to become critical.

Version 2.0

• Printing – printable view or PDF export of a Structure grid with Gantt chart.
• Baselines – ability to save a baseline and later compare against it.
• Sandbox Mode – ability to play with "what-if" scenarios, without affecting the data seen by other users.
• Split Tasks – supporting a way to break down a task into pieces when dependencies change and the task already has non-zero progress.
• Structure of Structures, Gantt of Gantts – support configurations where a structure contains other structures and its Gantt imports the pre-calculated Gantt charts from those structures.