ActivityTimeline Help Center
ActivityTimeline Help Center
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Common Planning and Time Tracking Scenarios

ActivityTimeline connects resource planning, daily work, time tracking, and reporting in one workflow.

The scenarios in this section show how to combine Planner, Workspace, Timesheets, and Reports to solve common planning and resource management challenges.

Each scenario follows a practical cycle:

Plan → Track → Review → Adjust

Choose the scenario that best matches what you are trying to achieve.

Scenario 1: Plan and Rebalance a Sprint Based on Real Capacity

The situation: You are preparing the next sprint and need to understand how much work the team can realistically complete. Some team members may have vacations, meetings, other project commitments, or different working capacities.

The primary goal: Build an achievable sprint plan, identify overload before the sprint starts, and rebalance work when priorities or availability change.

In this scenario, you will learn how to:

  • display Jira sprint work in ActivityTimeline;

  • review team and individual availability;

  • distribute sprint issues between team members;

  • identify overbooked or underutilized users;

  • split or reassign work;

  • compare planned and completed effort after the sprint.

Scenario 2: Manage Shared Specialists Across Multiple Projects

The situation: Developers, designers, QA engineers, consultants, or other specialists contribute to several projects or teams at the same time. Different project managers may be planning work for the same people.

The primary goal: See every commitment in one place, prevent conflicting assignments, and decide which project should receive the specialist’s available capacity.

In this scenario, you will learn how to:

  • display work from multiple projects and teams together;

  • review the complete workload of a shared specialist;

  • split one Jira issue between several contributors;

  • rebalance assignments across projects;

  • analyze how a person’s or team’s capacity is distributed.

Scenario 3: Forecast Capacity for the Next Quarter

The situation: New projects, releases, or initiatives are expected in the coming months. You need to understand whether the organization has enough available people and skills before making delivery commitments.

The primary goal: Compare future demand with available capacity and identify overload, idle capacity, or staffing gaps early.

In this scenario, you will learn how to:

  • create tentative plans with Placeholders;

  • reserve committed time with Bookings;

  • account for existing Jira work and time off;

  • forecast utilization by week or month;

  • identify missing positions or skills;

  • represent future hires or additional resources in the plan.

Scenario 4: Reserve Team Capacity Before Assigning Individual Users

The situation: You know which team will deliver an Epic, initiative, or future project, but it is too early to assign the work to specific people.

The primary goal: Reserve capacity at the team level, confirm that the team can accept the work, and distribute it to individual team members later.

In this scenario, you will learn how to:

  • plan work in the Teams view;

  • reserve capacity for Epics or initiatives;

  • distinguish team-level work from individually assigned work;

  • review total team workload and remaining availability;

  • move from high-level team planning to detailed user planning.

[Reserve Team Capacity Before Assigning Individual Users]

Scenario 5: Capture, Review, and Approve Complete Timesheets

The situation: Employees work on Jira issues as well as meetings, training, support, and other activities. Managers need to ensure that time is logged correctly and reviewed before the reporting period ends.

The primary goal: Capture a complete record of work, identify missing or incorrect hours, approve submitted worklogs, and protect completed reporting periods.

In this scenario, you will learn how to:

  • log time from Workspace or Jira;

  • use the timer for real-time tracking;

  • capture meetings and other non-Jira activities;

  • categorize worklogs;

  • find missing or incomplete timesheets;

  • review and correct individual worklogs;

  • approve worklogs and close reporting periods.

Scenario 6: Compare Planned and Actual Work

The situation: Work has been planned and time has been logged, but you need to understand whether execution matched the original expectations.

The primary goal: Identify underestimated work, unexpected effort, missing worklogs, and planning assumptions that should be corrected in the next planning cycle.

In this scenario, you will learn how to:

  • compare planned hours with logged hours;

  • find users who logged less or more time than expected;

  • identify projects or issues that required additional effort;

  • review project progress and remaining work;

  • analyze results by user, team, project, Epic, or issue;

  • use actual results to create more realistic future plans.