Plan Mode

Overview

The Plan Mode allows you to plan your issues using a third dimension on your board. This third dimension can be sprints, components or releases.

Using Plan Mode

When using Plan Mode, your board will be presented in two parts

• the backlog area (left)
• the planner area (right)

Issues flow from the backlog to the planner, by simply dragging them between the two areas.

If you need to "un-plan" an issue from the planner, you don't need to remember where it belonged, just hover the appropriate issue and an "X" will appear. This "X" will restore the issue to its original place.

Backlog

The backlog shows the issues that are not yet planned/assigned to a sprint, component or release (depending on the third dimension selected in the planner).

In this area, you can

• select up to two different dimensions (columns and rows)
• filter by JQL or use our quick filters
• select saved boards, projects or filters, etc.

Basic board functionality is explained in more detail in Getting Started with Canvas for JIRA, so read that page first if you are not yet familiar with Canvas for JIRA

Planner

The planner shows a third dimension, different from the dimension(s) previously chosen in the backlog area.

This means that you cannot select a dimension already being used in the backlog e.g., if we have selected a board with priority by sprint, we won't be able to select the sprints dimension in the planner.

 If you don't see any of the three dimensions - sprints, releases or components - make sure that you have those selected in "Manage fields" within the Canvas administration.

Planning your Sprints

The following screenshot shows a sprint planning board, where the backlog is filtered to work just with stories, using Story Points by Components for the columns and rows. Thus, the team can easily plan based on the capacity and the targeted components for the upcoming sprints.

Sprint planning requires the selection of an existing agile board, before you can start planning your backlog. The planner shows the currently active and future sprints available.

For those users with the "Manage sprints" permission (check this page for further info), the planner will also display buttons to create, edit, complete or delete sprints.

Planning your Releases

This screenshot shows a board to plan releases (a.k.a. fix versions), where Priority and Components have been selected for the columns and rows.

In the example below, the team can balance the issues to be released in upcoming versions based on the priority given, as well as on the specific components.

The release planning requires the selection of a single existing project before you can start planning your backlog.

Planning your Components

This example shows a board to plan components, where the backlog is using Issue type by Sprints for columns and rows.

Here, the team can view the issues that don't belong to any component, but are already in a sprint.

In this situation, it's recommended to have all the issues organized.