With the Task Connector, you can connect your Task or Project Management tools with Meisterplan to compare the capacity planned in the external tool vs. Meisterplan. In views such as the List, you can also get a quick overview of the deviation across your portfolio.
Jira Connector
If you are using our Jira Connector, see the article Comparing Jira Effort in Different Views for details.
How You Can Compare Effort and Allocation
You have different options for comparing the effort from an external tool with the corresponding Meisterplan allocations: by color-coding a view, by applying a filter, or by adding one or more of three fields to a Meisterplan view such as the List.
System Fields
You can find three system fields with data on connected tools:
- Connected Tool: displays the name of the connected tool (e.g., Asana, Jira)
- Deviation Status Compared to Connected Tool: summarizes the status of the deviation, either within or outside the configured allocation threshold; learn more below;
- Missing Allocations Compared to Connected Tool: displays the the sum of missing allocations in Meisterplan (in days or hours, depending on the allocation unit currently selected in the Portfolio Designer, with FTE defaulting to days);
Example: In the screenshot above, "Internal Reorganization Project" has 48 fewer days allocated in Meisterplan than in Project for the Web and is outside the allocation threshold.
You can configure the following views to display one or more of the three system fields:
- Portfolio Designer: Group by
- Portfolio Dashboard
- List
- Board:
- Display Columns/Swimlanes by
- Configure Board > Card Details
- Roadmap: Group by
- Project Details
- Project Overview
Color Schemes
You can select the field Deviation Status Compared to Connected Tool as a color scheme for a quick visual guide:
Example: In the screenshot above, the "Internal Reorganization" project is red because its allocation deviation from the effort in the connected tool is above the configured threshold. "New Reporting Engine" is within the acceptable deviation (i.e., it's green), and the other projects in gray are not connected to any tool.
You can color the following views according to deviation status:
- Portfolio Designer
- Team Planner
- Board
- Roadmap
Filters
You can use the fields Connected Tool and Deviation Status Compared to Connected Tool as filters:
Example: In the screenshot above, the Board view is filtered to only display projects outside the allocation threshold. The "Internal Reorganization Project" corresponds to this filter.
You can apply the fields as filters in the following views:
- Portfolio Designer
- Portfolio Dashboard
- List
- Board
- Roadmap
Configure the Deviation Threshold
Not every deviation is critical. Especially in larger projects, a difference of a few days may not matter and can change again when the project progresses. To focus only on relevant projects, you can configure the percentage of deviation so that only projects with a significant enough deviation will be defined as Outside Allocation Threshold in the above-mentioned fields, filters and color schemes.
In the left sidebar, click Integrations and select Task Connector. In the toolbar, click Configure Threshold:
Meisterplan compares the remaining effort from the connected tool with future allocations in Meisterplan for each resource or role on a project. When there are more allocations in the connected tool than in Meisterplan for at least one resource or role, the project is marked as Outside Allocation Threshold. When you configure the threshold, only deviations that are equal to or higher than the percentage will be marked as Outside Allocation Threshold in fields, filters, and color schemes.
In the above screenshot, only deviations of 10 % or more are considered. For example, when the remaining effort for a resource estimated in Jira is 100 days and Meisterplan has 95 days allocated, the project will be categorized as Within Allocation Threshold, because the deviation is only 5%. When the estimation in Jira changes to 110 days, the project will be categorized as Outside Allocation Threshold, because the deviation is now more than 13%.
You can configure the threshold both under Integrations > Task Connector and Integrations > Jira Connector, but it is the same setting that applies to all connected tools including Jira.