Meet the new BigPicture navigation
A faster, smarter, and more intuitive way to work is here. We’ve redesigned BigPicture navigation to give you a smoother experience and better access to what matters most.
→ Discover what’s new, explore key improvements, and review feature name updates on the New navigation page.
→ The rollout will happen gradually, and the previous navigation will be retired in September 2026.
Basic tasks / BigPicture tasks
Basic tasks have been renamed to BigPicture tasks as part of the new navigation rollout.
Both names refer to the same functionality. You may see either term depending on whether you’re using the previous navigation or the new navigation that is currently being rolled out in BigPicture.
Basic tasks (old navigation)
Basic tasks are stored by the App and are NOT synchronized with Jira or other connected tools like Trello. They can be viewed only using the App's Gantt, Scope, Board modules, or the WBS Widget.
They can coexist with other tasks and work great as placeholders or temporary tasks, and simulate higher levels in the hierarchy or serve as additional information boxes. The App uses them to replace non-issue Jira entities (like Components, Versions, Projects,) which it is unable to recreate in Jira while cloning the scope.
See the video about basic tasks below.
Scheduling
Basic tasks follow the same set of rules (including linking, sorting, etc.). However, dependencies (links) between basic tasks will not be synchronized. As basic tasks are not Jira issues, they do not use Jira fields, hence no dates are set as Start or End dates.
However, it is possible to aggregate the MIN (earliest) or MAX (latest) date from all the children's tasks by editing the Column Views, converting tasks to Milestone, and setting Baselines just like with other tasks. You can also manually color-code your basic tasks and multiple tasks using Task templates
Common use cases
As basic tasks are not stored in the Host Platform (in Jira) you can use them in a variety of ways. You can, for example:
convert them to milestones
convert them to Jira issues
use basic tasks as placeholders
use basic tasks as additional notes
use basic tasks to create a custom hierarchy and aggregate data
Convert a basic task into a Jira issue and select the issue type
Right-click on the issue in the WBS and select Convert to Jira issue.
Select a project in which a Jira issue will be created.
Select Issue type (Task, Story, Bug, or Epic, etc.) to a Jira issue that will be created.
The Jira issue creation dialog will appear. Fill out and modify the issue fields. Once you're done, click Create.
If the Jira issue's screen scheme does not contain some of the basic task fields, their field values will be lost after the conversion.
For example, if you have set an "original estimate" for a basic task, but the project in which you want to place a Jira issue doesn't allow for the use of the "original estimate" field, the app doesn't have a place to save the values.
If you convert a basic task into a Jira issue, values that can't be saved are lost.
In place of a basic task you will see a Jira issue
Create a basic task
Click the + (plus icon) > Create task > basic task
Fill in the task information. It is not mandatory to add Start date and End date.
Click Create
Create another
When the box is selected → after you click Create a new task creation box automatically appears.
Basic task statuses
basic tasks can have three statuses to choose from:
To-do
In progress
Done
Keyboard shortcut
Select a task on WBS (task tree on the left)
Use the shortcut to open the 'task creation box
Create as a milestone
To create a milestone, activate a toggle switch.
Task structure based on basic tasks
Building the task structure using the basic task can only be done manually using drag & drop or indent/outdent arrows.
Basic tasks templates
basic tasks can be arranged into Templates. Use this to add multiple tasks that represent repeatable items, such as project phases.
Assignee
Basic tasks can be assigned to users in the Resources module. To assign a task use the drag-and-drop mechanism. (You can also add the Assignee column in the Gantt module and then edit the fields in this column - it works for the Assignee field, not Jira Assignee).
The built-in assignee field will correctly display the assignment in other modules (in the Gantt module you can also use this field to assign a user to a basic task).
Assign team to basic tasks
It is possible to quickly assign a given Team to basic tasks by inline editing in a column view.
Workload of basic tasks
In the "Manual" workload contouring mode, you can assign workload to basic tasks. It will be accounted for in the general capacity calculation in the same manner as all other tasks.
Limitations
Task reports
Task reports cannot be created for basic tasks.
BigPicture tasks (new navigation)
BigPicture tasks are stored by the App and are NOT synchronized with Jira or other connected tools, such as Trello. They can be viewed only using the Gantt, Scope, Board modules, or the WBS Widget.
They can coexist with other tasks and work great as placeholders or temporary tasks, and simulate higher levels in the hierarchy or serve as additional information boxes.
See the video about BigPicture tasks below.
Scheduling
BigPicture tasks follow the same set of rules (including linking, sorting, etc.). However, dependencies (links) between BigPicture tasks will not be synchronized. As BigPicture tasks are not Jira work items, they do not use Jira fields, and no start or end dates are set.
However, it is possible to aggregate the MIN (earliest) or MAX (latest) date across all the children's tasks by editing the column views, converting tasks to milestones, and setting baselines just like with other tasks. You can also manually color-code your BigPicture tasks and multiple tasks using task templates.
Common use cases
Since BigPicture tasks are not stored in the host platform (Jira), you can use them in a variety of ways. You can, for example:
Convert them to milestones
Convert them to Jira work items
Use BigPicture tasks as placeholders
Use BigPicture tasks as additional notes
Use BigPicture tasks to create a custom hierarchy and aggregate data
Convert a BigPicture task into a Jira iwork item and select the work item type
Right-click on the BigPicture task in the WBS and select Convert to Jira issue.
Select a Jira space and work item type.
The Jira work item creation dialog will appear. Fill out and modify the fields. Once you're done, click Create.
If the Jira work item's screen scheme does not include some of the BigPicture task fields, their field values will be lost during conversion.
For example, if you have set an "original estimate" for a BigPicture task, but the space where you want to place a Jira work item doesn't support the "original estimate" field, the app doesn't have a place to save the value.
If you convert a BigPicture task into a Jira work item, values that can't be saved are lost.
In place of a BigPicture task, you will see a Jira work item.
Create a BigPicture task
Click Tasks > Create > BigPicture task.
Fill in the task information. It is not mandatory to add the start date and end dates.
Click Create BigPicture task.
Create another
When the Create another box is selected, and you click Create BigPicture task, a new task creation window automatically appears.
BigPicture task statuses
BigPicture tasks can have three statuses to choose from:
To Do
In progress
Done
Keyboard shortcut
Select a task on the WBS (task tree on the left).
Use the shortcut to open the BigPicture task creation window.
Create as a milestone
To create a milestone, toggle the switch.
Task structure based on BigPicture tasks
Building the task structure using the BigPicture task can only be done manually using drag & drop or indent/outdent arrows.
BigPicture tasks templates
BigPicture tasks can be arranged into templates. Use this to add multiple tasks that represent repeatable items, such as project phases.
Assignee
BigPicture tasks can be assigned to users in the Resources module. To assign a task, use the drag-and-drop mechanism. You can also add the Assignee column in the Gantt module and then edit the fields in this column - it works for the Assignee field, not Jira Assignee.
The built-in assignee field will correctly display the assignment in other modules (in the Gantt module, you can also use this field to assign a user to a BigPicture task).
Assign team to BigPicture tasks
It is possible to quickly assign a given team to BigPicture tasks by inline editing in a column view.
Workload of BigPicture tasks
In the "Manual" workload contouring mode, you can assign workload to BigPicture tasks. It will be accounted for in the general capacity calculation in the same manner as all other tasks.
Limitations
Task reports
Task reports cannot be created for BigPicture tasks.