ProScheduler vs. BigGantt – Gantt Chart for Jira

Even a short ten years ago, what worked in project management is no longer effective in the modern era. Between the movement of hybrid work models and our business adaptations to a global pandemic, your team will need more bespoke solutions to function and communicate correctly.

Change is truly the only constant in life. It is evident in the growing number of businesses moving through digital transformation to a project management solution more agile in response to the current marketplace. That means needing Gantt charts, scheduling, oversight, communication, and timing controls that can be quickly reported to leadership and HR when required. Without these developments, your project management team will not have the competitive advantage needed in the current market.

For that reason, we’ve taken a quick look at two of the most well-known project management apps for Jira – ProScheduler and BigGantt.

What is a Gantt Chart

Before we get into the details of our comparison, we should take a moment to review the capabilities of Gantt charts and why they matter to project management. At its core, a Gantt chart is a visual representation that is used for project planning. It helps project managers see the dates, milestones, and resource allocations of different data points, usually through a comprehensive horizontal bar chart with different colors and notes. 

Gantt charts assist in the planning and schedule of projects and offer quick reference tools for progress checks that everyone can view from the project manager to the specialist contractor. 

What is ProScheduler

 

 

The professional developers at Teamboard put together a comprehensive application with the advent of ProScheduler. This highly customizable planning resource aligns with Jira by simplifying all the gathered data into easily digestible pieces of information. The program offers a more detailed bigger picture of current project timelines, team processes, communication, and resource allocation that ensures you stay on task, on time, and under budget. 

ProScheduler has many advantages, but the primary among them is the integration of Gantt charts. With ProScheduler, you can easily manage and edit Jira issues quickly in the excel, spreadsheet-like tabular list view or take advantage of the horizontal bar view that is common with modern Gantt charts. This is an evergreen application that offers new features and add-ons frequently, including Gantt chart capability. These include milestones, baselines, critical pathways, auto-scheduling, and much more. 

The easy-to-use interface and visible data points make ProScheduler a must-have for project managers and teams. It gives you an all-in-one platform that creates customized reports, sets flexible work hours, and helps your team overcome timing issues like multiple time zones by offering bespoke scheduling models where every member is able to offer advice, inputs, and needs from a central location. 

Pros of ProScheduler

 

  • Integrates smoothly with Jira as a project management and resource planning tool/plugin
  • Easy to understand task planning and time tracking for all team members
  • An excellent reporting system for management and leadership needs
  • Scheduling and time tracking no matter the current hybrid or remote work model of your business
  • Interactive online Gantt charting capabilities
  • Easy to manage multiple projects in a single view that simplifies workload balancing
  • Generate timesheets as needed
  • Mobile application capability for both iOS and Android devices

 

What is BigGantt – Gantt Chart for Jira

 

BigGantt was created by BigPicture, which is a subgroup of Appfire. It operates primarily on what the company calls Boxes. These are designed to make your project portfolio management as easy as possible by grouping all products, products, teams, and portfolios into single “albums” or collections. The goal is to clarify where and what each project task is and then lay out the different particulars using Gantt chart visuals. 

There are no limits on the number of boxes or jobs you can create inside BigGantt. This method of using Gantt charts is essentially a WBS work breakdown structure. It gives you an incredibly agile response to team management. BigGantt focuses more on timeline and roadmapping for Jira. It allows you to see planning, monitoring, and managing work from a higher vantage point, so you are always kept aware of what is actually going on.

The major difference between BigGantt and ProScheduler is that the features coming around the corner for ProScheduler are already in use with BigGantt. This is only concerning Gant charts and not the other features of ProScheduler.

Pros of BigGantt – Gantt Chart for Jira

  • Unlimited boxes for project and portfolio management
  • The visual organization of all tasks with custom timelines and views for “what if” scenario planning
  • Create custom markers for project analysis
  • Agile roadmap compatibility with aligned task statuses
  • Auto scheduling of tasks and smart links
  • Milestone definition with baselines using a drag and drop system

Our Choice – ProScheduler

As far as Gantt charts are concerned, BigGantt has ProScheduler licked, but only for the time being. With new developments and implementations being released frequently by Teamboard, you can expect this advantage to go away pretty quickly. Once you look past the Gantt chart difference, ProScheduler has more features and benefits that provide a far more comprehensive project management application for Jira users.

We should not forget that Jira is incredibly complex and devours data at a breakneck speed and volume. Finding a piece of software that compliments this data is challenging enough, but landing on one with so many bespoke features and open communication offers your team a serious competitive advantage. This includes:

Advanced Resource Planning

ProScheduler uses Gantt chart visualization through drag and drop methods that immediately give you and your team a wide view of the project schedule, workload, and resource utilization. You can schedule tasks and assign multiple issues to different team members that adapt to the agile workforce environment.

Customized Reporting 

With so many companies and teams moving to hybrid or remote work models, it only makes sense to leverage a piece of software that can be adapted from any platform. You never know when someone on your team is completing a task from their mobile device while on a bullet train in Japan or relaxing in a spa on their laptop as they complete work. Being able to integrate a smooth program that allows for different communication styles is essential to today’s marketplace.

You need to be able to report all of this data quickly and in easy-to-read increments for your HR team and upper management. Everyone needs to have a transparent view of the different resources being allocated for each project. This reporting feature makes ProScheduler an excellent addition to your bag of tricks for successful project completion.

Conclusion

If you are a project manager who is used to and expects deep Gantt chart capabilities from the beginning to the end of your projects, go with BigGantt. They have many features and current strengths that you will be able to utilize. 

However, many of these features will soon be available on the ever-growing ProScheduler, not to mention the many other benefits of such a comprehensive application. For our investment, downloading and integrating Teamboard’s ProScheduler application only makes the most sense. 

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