Concept of a box

Introduction

The concept of boxes we introduced to BigPicture and BigGantt makes project and project portfolio management as easy as possible. With boxes, you can group all your projects, products, teams, or portfolios just like you would organize your photos into various collections. In combination with advanced filtering options, this approach will give you unprecedented clarity and control over every undertaking you're responsible for, even if you count them in thousands.

You can use boxes to organize tasks in Jira and other connected platforms. Two basic principles apply to boxes:

• There is no limit to the number of boxes maintained using the app.

• There is no limit on how many objects (tasks, projects, versions, etc.) a box can hold. The scope of the box can include any set of Jira issues.

With boxes, you can manage the following areas:

Box within a box

The brand new concept of boxes within boxes allows you to easily, with a single click, narrow down the scope of your work to the desired granularity level without losing any features offered by different modules.

Manage boxes and box types

Agile, Waterfall, or Hybrid? Whatever methodology, the App is designed to comply with the organization's chosen framework or any array of frameworks. Be it a SAFe® program, a LeSS product, a Prince2® project, an ART,
 a Program Increment (PI), an iteration, a phase, you name it — each of these frameworks now has a default template available in the App, already preconfigured to be consistent with it.

Thanks to the box type templates, you will save a lot of time as you configure a box type only once. When the preconfigured setting of a given box type fails to match
 an unusual or more complex business scenario, you can customize it freely or create a new one from scratch.

You can use the following predefined box types:

• Agile project - A built-in type that is recommended for projects run in Agile methodology

• Classic project - A built-in type that is recommended for classic (waterfall) projects

• Hybrid project - A built-in type suitable for hybrid projects involving Agile and classic approaches

• Hybrid stage - A built-in type that helps to organize a hybrid project schedule into stages

• Iteration - A built-in type that helps to schedule work iteratively

• LeSS Requirement Area - A built-in type designed for multiple teams working together on one product.

• Portfolio - A built-in type that stores Agile, classic, and hybrid types of projects

• Program - Basic Box type that lets you divide the work into lower levels such as Iterations, Stages, or Program Increments

• Program Increment - A built-in type that allows for grouping iterations into increments (recommended for SAFe® adopters)

• SAFe Art - A built-in type to represent an Agile Release Train (recommended for SAFe® adopters)

• Sprint - A built-in type that helps to schedule work iteratively

• Stage - A built-in type that helps to organize classic project scope into stages

Learn more on the Box types page.

Play with sample data

Play around with the app without affecting your data.
To play with sample data:

1. Click Expand from the menu at the top in the Overview module.

2. Click Play with sample data window.

Choose what type of data you want to play with. You can test on:
a. Agile Project
b. Classic Project
c. Hybrid Project
d. Portfolio
e. SAFe ART
f. Resource management

3. Choose the Play Now button.

You can set up a Box based on your Jira projects. To import Jira projects:

1. Choose Import Jira Projects window in the Overview module.

2. Select one or more Jira projects you want to include in the scope of a Box.

3. Select a Box type. You can choose from:
   a. Agile Project
   b. BP TW custom
   c. Classic Project
   d. Hybrid Project
   e. LeSS Requirement Area
   f. Program
   g. Program Increment
   h. SAFe ART
   i. Solution Train

4. If you have selected multiple projects, you can create a separate Box for each. Adjust a toggle switch accordingly.

5. Click the Import button.

Tasks added to the box are arranged in the correct order, the same way as in Jira. First, go to projects, sprints, version, components, tasks with hierarchy level, and the rest of the tasks.

Create a new portfolio

Portfolio boxes help you organize your work and provide you with reporting capabilities. 
Learn more on the Create a new portfolio page.

The video presents how to create a portfolio box.