Is there a need for an additional tool such as MS Project for creating/managing a detailed schedule?

[douglas.unger]

Hello.

I know JIRA provides for a project schedule. Has it been the experience of the JIRA users in this community that another scheduling tool was needed or particularly useful in managing a project?

Thank you.

[Scott Theus]

Hi @douglas.unger ,

That all depends on the level of detail you need and if one tool is able to provide it all. There are things that MS Project can do that Jira cannot, like enforcing the successor/predecessor relationship so that work on a successor cannot start until the predecessor is complete, creating a critical path and calculating positive and negative slack (there may be an app in the marketplace to do that in Jira, but it does;t handle that out of the box.) MS Project also handles EVM calculations well, and will set baselines for what-if scenarios, risk management, contingencies, etc. Jira does not do that out of the box either, but there are apps for it. 

The key is to fit the tool to your process, rather than changing your process to fit the tool. 

-Scott