Scenario mode (Resources module)

1 Introduction
2 Synchronization
- 2.1 Undo
3 Planning work with scenarios
- 3.1 Switching between scenarios
- 3.2 Scenario history
- 3.3 Merge
4 Scenario management
- 4.1 Create scenarios
- 4.2 Edit scenarios
- 4.3 Remove scenarios

Introduction

To find the optimal scenario or a version of your plan, you have to consider multiple factors, such as risks and delays, as well as pay close attention to the availability and workload of your resources.

With the Scenarios feature, you can easily try out different variants of your plan, compare the results, and find the best one before you merge the changes with the Live version.

Synchronization

When you create a scenario, changes to your tasks will only be synchronized with Jira or connected tools, such as Trello, after merging. All changes made to tasks are stored in the Scenario history, and you can easily undo them.

Undo

The Undo operation will only work in the "Scenario" mode.

If you have two tabs open (in one tab, Resources is in the "Live" mode and, in another one, in the "Scenario" mode), the undo option is not available.

Planning work with scenarios

Switching between scenarios

Once you have created multiple scenarios of your plan, you can switch from one scenario to another to see how it impacts your schedule and resource workload. All published scenarios will be visible to users when they click on the Scenario drop-down.

Scenario history

The scenario history lets you track changes to your tasks. To open the Scenario history, click on the change counter dot in the top-right corner of the scenario box.

The number signifies how many changes have been made:

When you click the change counter dot, a pop-up with a list of changes appears.

Alternatively, you can use the scenario drop-down to access the scenario history pop-up:

Each change can be expanded, allowing you to check the list of affected tasks and details of a change.

For each change, the following information will be displayed in the history dialog:

Order of changes
Key and summary — issue key and summary of the changed task
Reason
Result type
Live—the actual (live) period mode or period
Scenario—period mode and period change

The Scenario mode supports the following changes:

Start date (Updates made in Task details or "drag and drop" action on the timeline + Resizing)
End date (Updates made in Task details or "drag and drop" on the timeline + Resizing)
Period mode (Updates made in Task details)
Assignee ("Drag and drop" action between swimlanes)
Original Estimate, Remaining Estimate, Story Points (Updates made in Task details)
Contouring mode, Workload contour (Updates made in Task details)
Summary (Updates made in Task details)

"Drag and drop" actions made for the Teams between the swimlanes are not supported by the Scenario mode.

To compare scenarios, you can open the Resources module in a new window of your browser. Just remember to close the additional tabs before attempting to merge changes.

Merge

Click the "merge" button to merge the changes with the "Live" version.
Change list > Merge to live
Scenario drop-down > merge changes

Scenario management

You can have two scenarios per Box:

One public scenario
One private scenario

Note: BigPicture Enterprise allows you to have an unlimited number of scenarios.

Create scenarios

To create a new scenario, click on the "Live" button you can see in the top-left section of the screen in the module header.

Next, name your scenario and color code it. You will be able to change the name and color of your scenario later.

Set the "Private" toggle switch to on/off, depending on if you want it to be accessible to other users.

The user who created a scenario is listed as an "Owner" in the scenario details:

Edit scenarios

To edit a scenario, first, you have to select it from the list (you have to be in this scenario). Then, when you open the scenario drop-down, you can access the action menu of a scenario.

The scenario owner can't be modified.

Remove scenarios