Jira Plans and a portfolio governance app: what each does

Jira Plans, BigPicture, Structure and Tollgate come up together in searches for Jira portfolio governance, and they do different jobs. Jira Plans schedules work across teams, using capacity, dependencies and scenarios. BigPicture and Structure, by their own descriptions, organise and plan work across many Jira projects. A governance app such as Tollgate records why each project was funded, who approved it at each gate, and whether it is still worth the money.

Plans was formerly called Advanced Roadmaps, as Atlassian announced in November 2023, so you will see both names. If you are comparing portfolio tools for Jira, start by separating the planning question from the governance question. Tollgate's guide to Jira project portfolio management sets out the full method, and this page compares the two jobs side by side.

What Jira Plans does

Plans is included with Jira Premium and Enterprise. Everything in this section comes from Atlassian's own documentation.

A plan combines work items from boards, spaces and filters into one plan that spans multiple teams. Atlassian lists three main uses: estimating release dates for work across teams, answering staffing and resource questions, and mapping out yearly goals.

To support those uses, Plans adds:

• hierarchy levels above epics, such as initiatives, for grouping large bodies of work
• dependencies between work items, shown across teams
• a sandbox, so you can try changes and save them to Jira when you are ready
• scheduling work at a pace your teams can handle
• scenarios, for comparing different versions of a plan

Plans is a strong answer to "when will this work land, and do we have the people to do it?"

What Tollgate does

Tollgate is a Forge app for Jira Cloud, listed on the Atlassian Marketplace. It treats each project as a funded investment and adds the governance records Jira has no native home for.

Each project in Tollgate carries:

• an investment thesis, stating the problem, the outcome and the return you underwrite
• a business case with a financial case that computes a forward ROI target using NPV, IRR and payback
• gate approvals made by named governance seats, such as the sponsor, including people without a Jira licence
• separate registers for risks, decisions and changes, each with its own workflow
• work packages that carry scope and budget, with baseline, forecast and actual figures

Tollgate answers a different question: should this investment continue, and who decided? It does not keep a live realised-ROI score. The benefits verdict is the sponsor's call at the end.

Jira Plans and Tollgate compared, job by job

• Combine work items across teams into one plan. Jira Plans: Yes. Tollgate: No, uses your existing Jira projects.
• Estimate release dates across teams. Jira Plans: Yes. Tollgate: Not in Tollgate's documentation.
• Schedule work at a pace teams can handle. Jira Plans: Yes. Tollgate: Not in Tollgate's documentation.
• Show dependencies between work items. Jira Plans: Yes. Tollgate: Not in Tollgate's documentation.
• Compare scenarios. Jira Plans: Yes. Tollgate: Not in Tollgate's documentation.
• Record an investment thesis and business case. Jira Plans: Not in Atlassian's Plans documentation. Tollgate: Yes.
• Record gate approvals with a named sponsor. Jira Plans: Not in Atlassian's Plans documentation. Tollgate: Yes.
• Keep risk, decision and change registers. Jira Plans: Not in Atlassian's Plans documentation. Tollgate: Yes, as separate registers.
• Compute a forward ROI target (NPV, IRR, payback). Jira Plans: Not in Atlassian's Plans documentation. Tollgate: Yes.
• Track work-package budget against baseline. Jira Plans: Not in Atlassian's Plans documentation. Tollgate: Yes.

Each cell comes from that product's own documentation: Atlassian's for Plans, Tollgate's for Tollgate. Where a job isn't described there, the table says so.

Where BigPicture and Structure fit

Two other Jira apps come up in the same searches. Each description below uses only what that product's own pages say.

BigPicture, from Appfire, describes itself as a way to plan, prioritise and govern portfolios and programs in Jira. Its page lists Gantt timelines with dependencies and what-if scenarios, resource and capacity planning, budgeted-versus-actual cost tracking, risk matrices with heatmaps, and scoring frameworks such as RICE and WSJF.

Structure, from Tempo, describes itself as a way to see multiple Jira projects, programs and portfolios in one place. Tempo's help centre describes user-defined hierarchies of Jira issues, as many levels deep as you need, in a spreadsheet-like view with formulas for calculations.

If your main question is planning and capacity across many projects, read those pages alongside Atlassian's Plans documentation. If your main question is who approved each investment at each gate, and on what case, that is the job Tollgate's documentation describes.

Using Jira Plans and Tollgate together

The two fit together because they work at different levels. Delivery teams and program managers use Plans to schedule work across teams and test what-if scenarios. Sponsors and steering committees use Tollgate to approve investments at each gate and to see where each one stands against its business case.

A typical rhythm looks like this:

1. Intake and the commit decision happen in Tollgate, before delivery work is planned.
2. Once a project is approved, the delivery team plans the work in Jira and Plans.
3. At each gate, the sponsor reviews the investment in Tollgate, with delivery evidence from Jira.

Tollgate does not need a new issue hierarchy, so it does not conflict with the hierarchy levels you set up in Plans. The guides to project intake and stage gates in Jira cover the governance side in detail.

When you need neither

Some teams need neither tool. If you run a single team with one backlog and a stable budget, Jira's boards and timeline may be all you need.

Plans becomes useful when several teams share dependencies and dates. A governance app becomes useful when someone has to approve funding, and the organisation wants a record of who decided, on what evidence. For a wider look at the options, see Tollgate's guide to whether Jira is a PPM tool.

How to decide what you need

List the questions your steering committee asks at each meeting. If they are mostly about dates, dependencies and team capacity, start with Plans. If they are about funding, approvals and whether each project is still worth the money, start with governance. Both questions get asked, by different people, at different points in the month.

Frequently asked questions

Is Jira Plans the same as Advanced Roadmaps?

Plans is the current name for what Atlassian used to call Advanced Roadmaps, and it is included with Jira Premium and Enterprise.

Does Tollgate replace Jira Plans?

Tollgate works alongside Plans. Plans schedules work across teams, and Tollgate records business cases, gate decisions and the risk, decision and change registers for each investment.

Which portfolio app should I use with Jira for governance?

Separate the planning question from the governance question first. For planning, check Plans against Atlassian's documentation. For governance, look for an app that records business cases, names the approvers and keeps the decision log in the Jira project.

Jira Plans, BigPicture, Structure or Tollgate: which covers portfolio governance?

Each describes a different focus on its own pages. Plans schedules work across teams. BigPicture describes planning, prioritising and governing portfolios, covering timelines, capacity, financials and risk. Structure describes user-defined hierarchies of Jira issues in a spreadsheet-like view. Tollgate records the business case, the named approvers and each gate decision in the Jira project.

Tollgate is free for up to 10 users. Install free for up to 10 users.