Jira Teams with ActivityTimeline: Comprehensive Guide [2026]

Effective project management is crucial for businesses to stay competitive and deliver successful outcomes. Jira is an industry-leading project management solution that helps organizations plan, track, and roll out projects effectively. Team capacity management is critical for any project, and it provides powerful features to make it seamless.

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The following guide aims to provide you detailed insights about Jira teams, how to add teams in Jira, and highlighting best practices to optimize your team's productivity in 2026.

Overview of Jira Teams

From small startups to large multinational companies, everyone is using this versatile tool to ensure that teams are productive and strategies are implemented with efficiency. Whether you're working on software development, marketing campaigns, or any other project, Jira can streamline your processes and help you achieve your goals.

With it, teams can easily assign tasks to team members, communicate project progress, track updates, and prioritize work. Jira empowers teams to collaborate closely, work more efficiently, and develop a better understanding of their projects and needs.

At the start of any Jira project, teams can create a backlog which allows them to record all the work that needs to be done and ensure each task is properly tracked. To ensure team collaboration is seamless from start to end, Jira also allows teams to get an overview of each member’s work, assign tasks to different members, track status updates, and manage dependencies.

Teams have the power to see what is being worked on, who is currently working on it, and which tasks have been completed. Its project and issue tracking system allows team members to quickly plan out complex projects, assign tasks to the right people, view project progress in real time, and recognize the progress of others.

Setting Up Your Team in Jira

Setting up a real world team can be a simple and effective way to keep everyone organized and on the same page in regard to project plans, deadlines, and deliverables. As a project manager, you can use Jira to plan, track progress, and report on all aspects of the project.

First, you'll need to decide on the type of project you're working on and create an appropriate project plan. Start by creating one project.

Choose the appropriate project template based on your team's needs. Jira allows teams to configure custom boards tailored to specific workflows instead of using a generic view. There are templates for software development, project management, content creation, and more. Selecting the right template provides a foundation with preconfigured workflows and Jira issue types that align with your team's objectives.

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Next, you'll need to set up your team. You can use the Jira team management feature to create roles and assign people to each role. You may also designate a team lead for your newly created team who is responsible for monitoring the project's progress and making sure that everything is running smoothly.

Then, you'll be able to assign tasks within each role and assign users to each task. Defining clear ownership for each Jira ticket is essential for accountability and progress tracking. Monitor the progress of each task and assign users specific deadlines. This is useful for ensuring that everyone stays aligned on project progress and completion.

How to Create a New Team in Jira

Creating a team is fairly straightforward:

1. Access Jira: Log in to your Jira account and navigate to the Jira dashboard. Ensure that you have the necessary permissions to create a new team.
2. Go to the "Teams" Section: It is usually represented in the top menu.

3. Click on "Create Team": Look for the "Create Team" button and click on it. This will initiate the team creation process.

4. Provide Team Details: In the team creation form, enter the necessary details for your new team. You can add members by typing in their email addresses or selecting them from the list of users.

Once you have created a team, you can start creating projects and assigning issues. When you create a new team, you can also choose its visibility settings. You can set a team to be visible to select people, visible to all users, or hidden.

Easy Steps to Effectively Manage Multiple Teams

Jira not only has the tools to help teams collaborate but also provides the needed structure and insight to effectively manage them. Here are a few simple steps to help you manage your teams more effectively.

1. Set clear expectations. 

Outline your main goals to help focus your team's daily activities. This gives everyone a clear understanding of their individual responsibilities. You should also track progress and deliverables regularly to ensure your team meets its deadlines.

2. ‍Use Jira’s project and workflow management features. 

There are great project and workflow management options, such as different boards, sprint management, and custom workflows. This ensures tasks and projects are assigned and tracked accordingly. You can also use Jira's automation features to eliminate manual work by automating routine tasks such as assigning bugs and notifying stakeholders. Additionally, you can use built-in reports to monitor both team performance and overall project health.

3. ‍Assign teams the right tools for collaboration. 

With so many options available, you need to find the right tool for your specific needs. Having the right tools at the right time can make collaboration and productivity a breeze. Instead of jumping between different apps, you can connect third-party tools to bring all your data into one place. For example, Jira connects seamlessly with Confluence, Bitbucket, and Trello, which allows your team to manage documentation, code, and tasks within a single workflow. In addition, teams can stay on top of progress with Jira's email notifications and Slack integration.

4. ‍Nurture team culture. 

Jira is designed to facilitate asynchronous communication, reducing the need for live meetings. But still one of the key elements of managing teams effectively is to ensure team members are comfortable and open to expressing their thoughts. Good team morale will ensure that team members are engaged and motivated. Building a good team culture can also help to improve productivity and creativity.

5. ‍Ensure consistent feedback on how teams work. 

Consistent feedback is essential to foster effective communication between team members. You can easily do this by leaving comments directly on Jira tasks or sharing quick updates in Confluence and Slack. When you regularly discuss progress, performance, and improvements, your team can collaborate better and make smarter decisions.

Best Practices for Using Jira Teams

To make the most of Jira Teams and ensure optimal productivity and efficiency, it's essential to follow these best practices:

1. Use Agile Boards

If your teams follow Agile methodologies, leverage Jira's Agile boards, such as Scrum or Kanban boards, to visualize and manage work items. Organize tasks into sprints, set priorities, and track progress toward each product release using burndown charts or cumulative flow diagrams. It is highly recommended to keep a Jira Board and workflows simple to allow teams to spend more time working and less time updating tickets. Ultimately, agile boards provide transparency, facilitate collaboration, and promote iterative development.

2. Implement Effective Project Management 

Use task management features to their fullest potential. Break down work into granular tasks, assign them to team members, and set clear priorities with due dates. Encourage teams to regularly update task statuses and provide meaningful comments to keep everyone informed about progress and any obstacles. Regular backlog grooming in Jira helps teams focus on high-priority items and prevents backlog bloat. Additionally, make sure users log their work hours to track time effectively.

3. Monitor and Track Metrics of Multiple Projects

Leverage Jira's reporting and tracking capabilities to monitor team and project performance. Jira has a wide variety of useful reports that can help you easily track your team's progress. Track metrics like team velocity, cycle time, and burndown charts to gain insights into productivity, identify areas for improvement, and make data-driven decisions.

4. Use Jira Dashboards

Jira Project Dashboard is a customizable visual space that gives your team a single, consolidated view of project information, metrics, and reports. These dashboards serve as centralized hubs of information, allowing several teams and stakeholders to monitor project progress, track key performance indicators, and gain valuable insights at a glance. A comprehensive planning dashboard also helps teams visualize workflows and monitor both individual and team workloads more effectively.

5. Try 3d party add-ons

These add-ons provide extra functionality that can improve the workflow and make the process more efficient. They help teams save time and budget by streamlining daily activities. Benefits of adding add-ons include improved resource planning and team management, customized reporting, and timesheets.

Integrating Jira Teams with Other Tools: ActivityTimeline

Managing multiple teams within a single project in Jira often requires clear visualization of workflows to ensure effective collaboration and task management. For teams needing these expanded capabilities, the Atlassian Marketplace offers various plugins that can supplement your planning process.

For example, ActivityTimeline s a resource planning and tracking add-on that provides dedicated sections for timelines, timesheets, and reporting. The app allows managers to plan team and individual activities on visual timelines. 

Through the main Planning Dashboard, you can see who is doing what and when it will be done, as it displays all projects alongside tasks, team schedules, and individual timelines. Users can schedule tasks with a simple drag-and-drop feature, log work directly from the interface or inside the Jira issue view, and track overall progress. All data remains fully synchronized between Jira and ActivityTimeline. Additionally, every timeline features a workload indicator that monitors user and team workload for any given period.

How to Import Jira Teams into ActivityTimeline

Importing Jira Teams into ActivityTimeline is simple and helps you set up your workspace quickly. An administrator can configure this one-time integration with a few steps:

1. Go to the Configuration menu from the dashboard.

2. Click on 3d Party Integration.

3. Choose Jira Teams Integration.

4. Provide your email and click on the “Create Token” link, this will redirect you to the page where you can create an Atlassian Token, which will work as a password for the integration.

5. If you make changes to a team in Jira and want to see those updates immediately in ActivityTimeline, navigate to Configurations → Teams → Import Jira Teams, ensure your team is selected, and click Update

6. Now, return to ActivityTimeline Configuration → Jira Integration → Click ‘Create Team Field’ → Write the name for the new Team field that will be added to your Jira Issue Screens under Team Field Setting → Click ‘Submit’. This field will be used to assign tickets on a team level both in ActivityTimeline and in Plans.

7. Lastly, go to Plans → Fields → Manage Custom Fields. Choose to add a new custom field and find the AT Team field in the list:

Once finished, your Jira Teams are available in ActivityTimeline, and automatic synchronization will keep the user list updated. Team leads can also independently manage users within their teams directly from the planner.

Team Panel in ActivityTimeline

You can choose among various timeline views using a separate Team Panel. It can be adjusted to show either a broad overview or fine details. By utilizing these timeline views, you can assign tasks to entire teams (such as epics and program increments), set due dates and estimates, and monitor project advancement.

To make planning even more flexible, the app supports custom events like placeholders for tentative tasks and bookings to reserve time. Administrators can also assign specific skills and positions to users, allowing the system to generate dynamic, functional teams for cross-project planning.

Also ActivityTimeline has a built-in workload indicator. ActivityTimeline uses color-coding to display total team workload and availability, helping you see who is overloaded at a glance.

For time-tracking, ActivityTimeline offers comprehensive Timesheets that allow users to track the hours spent on specific projects or tasks. The user interface is intuitive and allows you to generate timesheets based on worklogs, which can also include non-working days like holidays or sick leaves. This data can then be exported as an Excel file for further analysis.

Users can sync external tools like Google Calendar or Outlook to import external events and log time directly from their calendar schedules with a few clicks.

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There are three different types of timesheets available depending on how you want to group and view data based on the level of detail you need: Progress Timesheets, Timeline Timesheets, and Detailed Timesheets. These options allow project managers to closely monitor task completion, track progress, and easily identify any operational bottlenecks.

Advanced Team and Project Reporting

For deeper insights, the Reporting section provides dozens of detailed templates for teams, users, issues, and projects.

For example, if you want to understand your resource utilization or see if you need additional team members to complete a project, you can generate a Jira Time Tracking Report, Team Utilization Report or Capacity Chart. These reports show capacity on both a team and an individual level for any chosen period. 

You can easily toggle workload parameters to include or exclude specific users and team panels.

Users can generate reports in a few clicks and export them to Excel files immediately.

Real-World Success with ActivityTimeline

Here’s a little humble brag: our client Medtronic leveled up their project and resource management by ditching Excel and adopting ActivityTimeline.

Sebastian Quiroga, Business System Analyst at Medtronic, sums it up perfectly:

"Before, everything was done on Excel. It was pretty complicated for the planning, almost impossible to do..."

With features like vacation management and powerful reporting tools, Medtronic now effortlessly assigns tasks, tracks progress, and optimizes team capacity. Managers rely on timesheets for daily oversight, while leadership uses reports to keep things running smoothly. This shift has helped them boost productivity and manage their growing operations with ease!

Conclusion

Jira provides a comprehensive way of improving teamwork and project management through the platform. Organizations can use the many features and capabilities of the app to track work activities, optimize communication, and improve productivity.

With access to customizable dashboards, task administration solutions, plugins, and immediate updates, teams can stay organized, monitor progress, and make informed decisions on whether they need additional resources. Jira creates a concentrated system where members of a team can unite, pass on knowledge, and attempt to meet project objectives.