How to turn a Jira export into an exec-ready Gantt chart

The gap between a Jira board and the slide your steering committee reads — and the two-minute way to close it.

Jira is where the work actually lives — issues, epics, sprints, assignees. But when leadership asks for a project timeline, Jira's own roadmap and timeline views rarely fit the room: they're too granular, they're not slide-shaped, they're not on your program's brand, and you can't hand an executive a Jira login just to read a status update.

The job isn't to export the Jira board — it's to curate it into a five-to-eight-phase story an exec can absorb in a minute. Here's how.

Step 1 — Get the data out of Jira

1. Open the issue list (or write a JQL filter for the project / epic / release you're presenting).
2. Use Export → Export CSV (current fields is fine).
3. You mainly need: Summary, Start date (or Sprint start), Due date, Assignee, and Epic Link or Status for grouping.
4. Don't over-clean it in Excel — the next step maps the columns for you.

Step 2 — Turn it into a curated Gantt

Paste the Jira rows (or drop the CSV) into GANTT360°. The import wizard auto-detects Jira column headers and maps summary, dates and assignee for you — and it runs entirely in your browser, so the file never touches a server (worth mentioning to whoever owns your data policy).

Then do the part that actually matters — curate:

• Group by epic. Roll 80 issues up into 6 phases. The epic becomes the phase; the issues become its drillable sub-tasks.
• Collapse for the exec view. Present five phases with summary bars; drill into any phase live if the CFO asks which task is slipping — no backup slides.
• Add the milestones execs track — go-live, gates, key decisions — that don't exist as Jira issues.
• Wire the dependencies so the timeline reflows when the first date moves (and it will).

Step 3 — Present, share, and report

• Editable PowerPoint export. Drop the curated Gantt into your master deck as real grouped shapes — edit text or recolor in PowerPoint afterwards.
• Shareable link. Send execs a read-only, drill-interactive link as the pre-read — no Jira license, always the latest version.
• AI status report. Generate the exec-language weekly update — KPIs, risks, decisions needed — straight from the same chart, so your narrative never drifts from your plan.

The whole loop — export, import, curate, present — is a couple of minutes once the plan is in place, and it repeats cleanly every reporting cycle. See the full steering-committee workflow, or paste a Jira export in and try it on your own project.