Clearlane
Guide · 5 min read

How to make a Gantt chart in Jira

Jira already holds everything a Gantt chart needs: a start date, a due date and the links between work items. Here is how to turn them into a plan you can read at a glance, on any Jira Cloud plan.

What a Gantt chart needs from Jira

  • Start date and Due date on each work item. Both are standard Jira fields.
  • Dependencies: the “blocks” link says which work has to finish before other work can start.
  • Grouping: epics group the work items that belong together.

If the Start date field does not appear when you edit a work item, add it to that work type’s edit screen in the project settings. Nothing else needs to be set up.

What Jira gives you out of the box

Every Jira Cloud plan includes a basic timeline. Cross-project planning with dependencies across teams (Plans) is part of the Premium and Enterprise plans. Many teams on Free or Standard want something in between: a clear Gantt chart of one project, where they can drag dates around and see what clashes.

Step by step with Clearlane Gantt

  1. Open your project and choose Clearlane Gantt in the sidebar.
  2. Pick the whole project, one version or one epic.
  3. For work without dates, click its empty lane: it gets a one-week bar you can then stretch.
  4. Drag bars to move them, pull an edge to change the length.
  5. Drag the dot at the end of a bar onto another bar to say “this blocks that”.

Read the plan like a project manager

  • Brass arrows mark clashes: work planned to start before the work blocking it ends. Click the arrow to move the blocked work right after its blocker.
  • Late work is open work whose end date has passed. Move it to a realistic date, or finish it.
  • Release markers show your versions’ release dates, so you can see at once whether the work fits before them.

Common mistakes

  • Planning every subtask. Plan stories and tasks; subtasks change too often to be worth a bar.
  • Forgetting dependencies. A plan without links looks fine until two teams wait on each other.
  • Treating the chart as a promise. A Gantt chart shows intent. For a date you can promise, use your team’s real pace, for example with Clearlane Forecast.

See how Clearlane Gantt works →