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How To Use Jira with Meisterplan

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In this article, you'll learn how to integrate Jira into portfolio planning with Meisterplan.

1. Overview: How to Integrate Jira into Portfolio Planning with Meisterplan

Meisterplan provides you with a professional PPM layer focused on capacity and resource planning.
You can easily integrate PM tools, such as Jira, into it.

We recommend the following process:

How_To_Jira_Overview.png

  • Plan new projects in Meisterplan, starting with rough resource demands and dependencies to other projects.
  • In Jira, refine the corresponding epics into stories and tasks and synchroonize them with the project plan in Meisterplan.
  • Teams remain productive in Jira, while Meisterplan provides an overview of all protfolios.

The integration is flexible and scalable – ideal for organizations that combine agile and traditional working methods.

Alternatively, you can start by creating new initiatives in Jira and transferring them automatically to Meisterplan. You can do this by setting up a Jira automation. We’ll show you how this works in section four. 

1.1 Mapping Table: Object Types in Meisterplan and Jira

This table shows the corresponding object types in Meisterplan and Jira, as well as the relevant mappings for consistent integration in project portfolio management.

Jira_Meisterplan_Zuordnungstabelle_EN

Both Meisterplan and Jira offer central planning units, effort estimates, and execution structures. These interact as follows and form the basis for integrated steering.

Mapping Table

 

Meisterplan

 

Jira

 

Planning Unit: Project ↔ Epic

In Meisterplan, projects are planned as structured containers for work – with defined start and end dates, estimated effort, and potential dependencies on other projects.

In Meisterplan, projects are planned as structured containers for work – with defined start and end dates, estimated effort, and potential dependencies on other projects.

Work Package: Task ↔ Story (Including Subtasks) 

Tasks are not created or planned directly in Meisterplan. Instead, existing tasks from project management tools, such as Jira, are visualized and will stay in sync automatically. Issues created in Jira – usually stories – are under an epic that can then be assigned to a project in Meisterplan and displayed as tasks. These tasks can be displayed in Meisterplan either by date or by sprint.

Stories are planned with specific effort estimates. Depending on the process, they can either be organized in agile sprints or assigned individual start and end dates. In Meisterplan, these structures can be visualized accordingly and integrated into overall project planning.

Capacity Requirements: Allocation ↔ Story Points or Remaining Estimate 

Each project in Meisterplan is assigned a total value for the amount of work involved across a specific time period – known as the allocation. This can either be a rough estimate or based on an already approved budget. Planning is done in hours, person-days, or as a percentage of a full-time employee (full-time equivalent, or FTE), depending on the desired granularity. Work effort in story points imported from Jira is converted using custom velocities per team or role.

Work within an epic is divided into individual stories, estimated, and assigned to specific teams, departments, or individuals. Effort estimates are typically made in the form of story points or time estimates (estimated in hours), which Meisterplan rolls up to the project. 

Resource Unit: Resource ↔ Assignee 

In Meisterplan, an individual employee is referred to as a resource and can be scheduled on a project.

In Jira, an assignee is defined as the person who is expected to work on a story.

Resource Unit: Team ↔ Team

For organizations with agile working methods, we recommend using the team object in both Meisterplan and Jira.

Teams in Meisterplan are made up of individual resources. The team capacity is calculated as the sum of the capacities of all assigned individuals. For each resource, you can individually specify what proportion of their capacity is available to the respective team. 

Please note: A Meisterplan team is not an organizational unit, such as a department.  

In Jira, a team is a group of employees (assignees) who work together on stories. In agile environments, planning is typically done using story points and a jointly defined velocity, which serves as the basis for capacity control.

Resource Unit: Role ↔ Team/Role (Custom Field)

For organizations with a conventional project structure, rough planning in Meisterplan on the role level is recommended. In Jira, this can be mapped either via roles or teams..

The capacity of a role is calculated from the sum of all capacities of the assigned resources and teams, as well as from additionally defined role capacities. During the planning process, these role assignments are gradually assigned to specific individuals.

Jira does not have a role object. If you still want to assign work to a role, you can either use the team object or create a custom field within Jira. During the planning process, stories are created and assigned to specific employees for work.

Scheduled Event: Milestone ↔ Milestones (Custom Type)

Meisterplan enables the display of milestones within individual projects. Additionally, cross-project dependencies between milestones can be visualized to make strategic dependencies transparent and plan resources in advance. 

In Jira, a custom issue type Milestone is often used to display key project milestones. The due date marks the planned date.  

Time Booking: Actual Time Worked ↔ Time Tracking/Work Log

Actual time worked is recorded as time entries and compared with historical allocations – an important basis for analyzing plan deviations and optimizing resource utilization. 

Please note: Users who track their time in Jira must be defined as resources in Meisterplan.

In Jira, time tracking is done either directly on the story or on subtasks that arise during implementation. These actual times can be seamlessly transferred to Meisterplan to compare resource planning with actual effort.

2. Setting Up the Integration

2.1 Preliminary Work

  1. Check wether all the object types you plan on using are available and configured in both Meisterplan and Jira.
  2. Create entities to be planned (team/role/resource) in Meisterplan.
  3. Ensure corresponding entities in Jira (team/role/resource).

2.2 Connecting the Systems

  • Create and name a Jira link (desired link name to be displayed in Meisterplan). 

  • Enter the Jira URL. 

  • Click Add configuration details to link Meisterplan to the Jira instance and configure the details.  

  • You can add an additional Jira link with a different connector setup for each team that has a different working mode. 
 

Jira_Link_EN

  • Jira username: Email address of the user or service account in Jira used to connect to Meisterplan. 

  • Jira API token: Token created in Jira. 
 

Jira_Link_2_EN

 

2.3 Defining the Settings

Resources & Role or Team Assignments 

This selection determines which resource unit allocations are assigned and synchronized.

Meisterplan

 

Jira

 
Resource-Role Matching EN.png
 

Jira_Ressources_EN

 

 

  • Working with teams: Select the Jira field that corresponds to the team object in Meisterplan. Team names in Meisterplan and Jira must match. 

    If you work in an agile environment, we recommend planning at the team level in both Meisterplan and Jira – from rough to detailed planning within the team. In this case, prioritize teams to keep planning flexible, team-oriented, and close to actual delivery.
     

  • Working with roles: Roles in Meisterplan can be assigned to teams or a custom role field in Jira. The names in Meisterplan and Jira must match. 

    If you are planning in the traditional way, we recommend gradually converting roles to specific resources in Meisterplan. In Jira, detailed planning is done in the same way – from roles to specific assignees. In this scenario, the priority should be on assigning resources to ensure a consistent and controllable connection between planning and delivery.  

  • Working with resources: When enabled, Meisterplan resources are linked to the assignee field in Jira. The email addresses of the resources and Jira users must match. 

Effort Basis

This selection determines where the effort comes from in Jira and how it is converted, if necessary.  

Meisterplan

 

Jira

 

Jira_Ressources_2_EN

  • Team or role effort: Select the Jira field for effort estimates. We recommend using story points. The velocity can be set in the resource pool for each team and role. 

  • Resource effort: Select the Jira field for effort estimates. We recommend the Remaining Estimate field, which is displayed in Jira via time tracking. At the start of a project, the value corresponds to the original estimate, i.e., the estimate in Jira. 
 

Jira_Story_Points_DE/EN

 

Please note: Story points cannot be used for resources. 

Actual Time Worked

Actual times are optional and can be transferred from Jira to Meisterplan or maintained directly in Meisterplan. 

Meisterplan

 

Jira

 

Jira_Import_AWT_EN

  • Actual time worked: Select whether the actual time worked recorded in Jira via time tracking should be imported into Meisterplan .
 

Jira_Import_TimeTrack

If sub-tasks are included, time tracking will also be recorded for sub-tasks. Otherwise, Meisterplan assumes that time tracking takes place on the story.

Milestones 

Milestones are optional and can be transferred from Jira to Meisterplan or maintained directly in Meisterplan.

Milestones from Jira are only imported into the plan of record in Meisterplan.

Meisterplan

 

Jira

 

Jira_Import_Milestone

  • Jira Issue type: Select the issue type that represents the milestone in Jira. We recommend creating a separate milestone type as a work item in Jira. 

We recommend creating milestones in Jira across the entire company.

  • Jira issue date: Global field in Jira that represents the milestone date. We recommend using the existing due date.  
 

Jira_Import_Milestones_2

 

Automatic Data Synchronization
Automatic master data synchronization is currently possible via Jira Automation, Power Automate, or Zapier, as well as webhooks, which all utilize the Meisterplan Rest API.

Our in-house experts are happy to assist you with configuration.

3. Linking Meisterplan Projects with Jira Epics

Once you have created and roughly planned your projects in Meisterplan, at some point the corresponding epic will be created in Jira and, ideally, estimated in more detail. To link the epic from Jira with the project in Meisterplan, follow these steps:

  1. Meet Prerequisites: Make sure that a Jira link is configured in Meisterplan and that you have the required user permissions.
  2. Start Linking: Select the Meisterplan project that you want to link with a Jira epic. Open the Information Panel by clicking the link icon in the right sidebar. Click the Jira tile under the already linked tools and then select the desired Jira link from the list to proceed.
  3. Select Epics: You can select the epic to import from a filterable list.

Visit our Help Center for more details: Importing Jira Data as Meisterplan Projects.

Link Epics.png

4. Bringing Epics from Jira into Meisterplan

If, unlike our recommended process, you prefer to first create epics in Jira and then bring them into Meisterplan as projects, there are several options.

4.1 Importing Epics Directly from within Meisterplan

  1. Meet Prerequisites: Make sure that a Jira link is configured in Meisterplan and that you have the required user permissions.
  2. Start the Import: Click Add and then Import Projects. Select Jira from the already linked tools and then choose the desired Jira link from the list to proceed.
  3. Select Epics: You can choose the epics to be imported from a filterable list.
  4. Result: After the import, a new Meisterplan project is created for each epic. This allows you to visualize Jira tasks and efforts within your portfolio and compare them against your Meisterplan allocations.

Add Import Projects.png

4.2 Optional: Pushing Epics Automatically from Jira

If you currently start scoping projects within Jira, you can automatically push new project ideas you create in Jira to Meisterplan. 
This is a description of how to set up a Jira automation rule that does this for you. When a Jira epic is created, a corresponding project in Meisterplan with a default length of 12 weeks will be generated. The Meisterplan project start date will match the epic creation date.  

4.2.1 Prerequesites

  • A Meisterplan system that is connected to your Jira system via an integration.
  • An API token that has been created within Meisterplan.

Api-Token.png

4.2.2 How to Set Up the Automation

In your Jira space, go to Space Settings -> Automation and click Create Rule -> Create from scratch.
How_To_Jira_Automation.png

 

This is what the automation 
should look like:

How_To_Jira_Automation_1.png

 

Step 1

Add the When-condition Work item created.
How_To_Jira_Automation_2.png

Condition Settings

How_To_Jira_Automation_3.png

This triggers the automation whenever an epic is created in Jira.

Step 2


Add the Then-action Send web request.
How_To_Jira_Automation_3.png

Action-Settings

How_To_Jira_Automation_4.png

Web request URL: 

Meisterplan API-URL for creating projects in the Plan of Record.

https://api.us.meisterplan.com/v1/scenarios
/planofrecord/projects

(api.eu for European Meisterplan systems)
 

Web request body:

Select Custom Data to enter the data needed to create the project. 12 after finish defines the duration in weeks and can be adjusted.

{
„projectKey“: „{{issue.key}}“,
„name“: „{{issue.summary}}“,
„start“: „{{now.jiraDate}}“,
„finish“: „{{now.plusWeeks(12)}}“
} 

Delay execution should be ticked to let the automation work properly.

Headers: 

Value: The API token of your Meisterplan system.

Step 3

Add the Then-action Send web request
(will be added as an and-action).
How_To_Jira_Automation_5.png

Action Settings

How_To_Jira_Automation_6.png

Web request URL:

https://api.us.meisterplan.com/v1/scenarios/
planofrecord/projects/{{webResponse.body.id}}
/taskManagementLink

Web request body: 

Select Custom Data to enter the data needed to create the project. 

{
    "toolKey": "mp_trial",
    "projectIdOrKeyInTool": "{{issue.key}}"
}

toolKey is the name derived from the name of your Jira link in Meisterplan.

Headers:

Value: The API token of your Meisterplan system.

Step 4

Enable the rule. Every new Jira epic will create a project in Meisterplan above the Cut-Off Line.
Jira_Links_Step_4.png
 The use of Jira automation is free, but the number of rule usage runs depends on the Jira plan and ranges from 100 to unlimited runs per month. See more here.

 

 

 

 

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