Have you ever wondered how applications are made? Where the very first idea comes from and what journey it must take to transform into an actual product? In the following case study we will give you an insight into this creative process by explaining thoughts and motivations behind one of our products – Team Planner – Resource Planning and Capacity Planning. We will also share the real-life use cases from SolDevelo Domain Leaders, who came to use the app in their daily tasks and appreciate its benefits.
Team Planner – Resource Planning and Capacity Planning
Team Planner is an app for Jira designed to help teams manage and visualize their workload, resource allocation, and capacity planning. This tool is useful for project managers, team leads, and other stakeholders who need to ensure that their teams are efficiently utilizing their time and resources while meeting project deadlines.
Team Planner allows you to:
How it all started – the idea behind Team Planner creation
The idea for Team Planner was born inside the SolDevelo Products Department. The story began when the team noticed the need to solve the challenges they faced during sprint planning. While working on projects, they realized they often took on too many tasks that couldn’t always be completed on time. This led to the idea of developing a tool that would visualize the team’s plan and help them manage sprints more effectively.
Piotr Bogacz, Senior Software Developer at SolDevelo Products Department, decided to create the first version of Team Planner. ‘Initially, it was my personal project’, he says, ‘but after sharing the idea with the management, we got the green light to develop it further. The final product was a collective effort of our team and the difference between the initial version and what we eventually released on the marketplace was enormous. We dedicated eight sprints to perfecting and implementing the first version of Team Planner, which quickly became an essential part of our workflow. Then we created a plugin version with features such as ‘drag & drop’ and simultaneous editing, which significantly improved user experience. Today, we can’t imagine sprint planning without this tool, and we also successfully use it during our daily stand-up meetings.’
Overcoming obstacles – a team success story
Team Planner has also successfully been used in SolDevelo’s Service Delivery Department. Damian Szafranek, Frontend Domain Lead, shared his thoughts on his team’s relationship with planning, and how it changed since they decided to use Team Planner.
Organizational struggles
‘In one of our projects, we only planned our work at the sprint level. We would estimate our capacity and fill the sprint backlog with as many tickets as we could handle. We calculated capacity separately for the front-end and back-end teams. But that was it when it came to planning – developers would simply pick up tasks from the sprint and work on them. Unfortunately, this approach didn’t work well. There was a lot of chaos, and tasks often weren’t finished on time. Many epics were started but hardly any were fully completed.’
New tool, new approach
‘So, we decided to change our approach. We shifted our focus to the goal and created a plan to achieve it. That’s when we introduced the Team Planner. Our whole plan was there and the first tickets were assigned to specific team members, with deadlines set for each task.
During daily stand-ups, we shared the Team Planner screen with our plan, checked if we were sticking to it, discussed any obstacles, and made adjustments if needed. This way, the team always had a clear view of what we were planning to do and the deadlines. The daily meetings also changed, focusing more on delivering the work according to the plan instead of just giving status updates. This new approach helped us deliver the project successfully. It worked so well for everyone that we’ve decided to start using the app in all our projects.’
Use case summary
Team Planner helped Damian’s teams resolve their problems with planning. Below, you will find a brief summary of his use case.
The problem
The capacity was calculated at the team-level, but the specific tasks were picked up ad-hoc, which ended up in the planned sprint scope being hardly ever completed on time.
The solution
The approach was changed into more goal-oriented. Tasks were planned around the goal, assigned to specific team members, and had deadlines set. The plan served as a reference during daily meetings, and was modified according to the situation.
Team Planner features supporting the new approach
Assigning issues to users
Team Planner allows you to easily assign issues to users. In this case, the feature greatly helped the team with more accurate and effective task allocation. Having an insight into not only team, but also individual capacity resulted in more grounded planning and better final results.
Individual capacity
Individual capacity of each user is displayed under their name. It helped the team keep an eye on everyone’s workload, and served as a point of reference during creating and modifying the plan.
Planning issues on a timeline
In Team Planner you can move issues around the timeline, and stretch or shrink them to plan them out. In this case, the visualization of issues and their deadlines motivated the team to always keep the plan in mind and deliver the expected results on time.
Editing the plan simultaneously
Team Planner supports simultaneous edition – multiple users can edit the plan at the same time, and all changes are saved automatically. In this case, the simultaneous edition turned out to be very useful during daily meetings, where the team could quickly verify their progress with the plan, and easily modify its elements if needed.
A good plan requires a good mindset
Piotr Wargulak, SolDevelo’s Java Domain Lead, notices that for Team Planner to be effective, a team mentality is crucial where everyone is aware they are working together towards a shared goal. When this mindset is implemented, the benefits of using Team Planner become evident.
Collaborative planning
With the right mindset in place and Team Planner in action, the team can easily see who’s working on what and when tasks are due. If someone falls behind, they update the plan, and everyone can immediately see how the delay affects the overall schedule. This makes it easier for the team to spot issues and they quickly jump in with a ‘How can we assist?’ question.
Identifying bottlenecks
Team Planner also highlights tasks that were poorly estimated or have issues; if a taskbar stretches across an entire week, it’s obvious, whereas, in a standard stand-up, you might just hear ‘I’m working on ABC-123’ and be unaware of that. This visualization of the plan makes it easier to address problems and keep everything on track.
When the team creates the plan collaboratively, they can quickly spot the need to shift their focus and reallocate their efforts wherever needed.
Use case summary
Piotr’s team was able to battle its challenges with the help of Team Planner, but it required a change of mindset in order to bring actual results. Below, you will find a brief summary of Piotr’s use case.
The problem
The lack of visibility into the team’s capacity and the specific tasks’ progress made it difficult to work efficiently and allocate resources accordingly. Another challenge was to identify estimation issues early on.
The solution
With a new collaborative approach, the team learned to plan out their tasks on a timeline, while keeping their shared goal in mind. If something didn’t go as planned, resources were quickly relocated. The team was also looking out for any errors in estimation, and worked to fix them as soon as possible.
Team Planner features supporting the new approach
Progress visualization
The main issues in Piotr’s team stemmed from the lack of visibility into the team’s progress. Visual progress bar with percentage of issue statuses helped the team keep track of how the work was progressing, and identify delays straight away. Thanks to a transparent timetable view with estimates (Story Points or Original Estimate) and issue statuses, it was also easier for the team to see where the work is stuck and why.
Drag & drop for easy resources relocation
Team Planner helped the team enhance quick bottleneck identification, and also provided it with flexible ways to modify the plan once a problem has been spotted. By dragging & dropping issues it is possible to quickly change assignees, modify date ranges, add issues to the plan or unschedule them.
Goal
Team Planner supports a goal-oriented mindset by reminding team members their shared aim each time they open the plan.
There’s still more to come
Team Planner helps teams improve efficiency and achieve their goals by offering tools for better task allocation, visibility into individual and team capacity, and progress tracking. It addresses the need for structured planning, clear resource allocation, and quick adaptation to changes, enabling teams to meet deadlines and resolve bottlenecks effectively.
Piotr Bogacz says that although the team is pleased with the growing number of clients using Team Planner, they are convinced that the app has much more potential to still be realized. He believes that this is just the beginning, with many opportunities ahead for further development and refinement of their product.
