How to setup 'Start/End dates for Jira Team-Managed Projects (formerly known as next-gen projects)' inside ActivityTimeline

Owned by Ostap Zaishlyi
Last updated: Oct 19, 2023 by Instructor
3 min read

Jira Team-Managed (formerly known as next-gen projects) projects do not support the standard cross-project issue field, which means that setting up Planned Start/End Dates within ActivityTimeline in a typical manner is not possible. However, we have prepared a short guide to help you integrate and effectively work with Jira Team-Managed projects inside ActivityTimeline.

Before we proceed, it's important to note that there are two possible ways to handle Team-Managed projects within ActivityTimeline. The first option is simpler but less elegant, while the second option is more sophisticated but offers enhanced functionality. Both options have been successfully utilized by our various customers, so you can choose the one that best suits your needs.

1. Standard way

This method will require some manual configuration to be done inside Jira (if not done yet), as currently, Atlassian doesn’t allow to make these manipulations automatically from our side.

  1. Go to Jira Settings → Projects:

     

     

  2. Then you need to choose Team-Managed project you’d like to manage inside ActivityTimeline and click on the title:

     

     

  3. Once you open it, click on Project Settings → Issue types

  4. There you will need to add ‘Start date’ & ‘Due date’ fields as Context fields to every issue type you have in your project:

     

     

  5. Once you have this setup on all your Team-managed projects, go to ActivityTimeline Configuration-> Jira integration → Team-Managed Projects → Choose ‘Re-use Jira’s standard Start/Due date fields’ → Click ‘Update’:

     

  6. Finally, you’re all set, now you can plan your Team-Managed project both from ActivityTimeline and it’ll be displayed in Jira and vice versa.

IMPORTANT: Changing the field mapping may clear existing schedule on timelines. This could happen when the system will read the data from the different fields that may not contain data.
Contact technical support if you need any assistance.

We do agree that this is not the ideal solution, but until Jira releases API to allow to set these fields automatically, it should all be done manually .

2. Simplified way

Basically, this method allows to work with all Jira Team-Managed projects without any problems, but the limitation of it is that it’s not possible to set Start/End dates inside Jira itself, only in ActivityTimeline.

  1. Go to ActivityTimeline Configuration → Jira integration → Team-Managed Projects Settings

  2. Make sure that the option ‘Do not map to Jira fields’ is on, so that ActivityTimeline won’t be updating these fields in Jira:

 

In a nutshell, that’s it, you can go to the ‘Plan’ view and drag’n’drop or resize items without any errors. The system will be updating the assignee field in Jira, but not ‘Start/End’ dates.

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