Dotwork vs Tempo
Time tracking, capacity planning, portfolio and roadmapping tools, built mainly for teams that work in Jira.
Tempo captures time and plans capacity close to Jira work. Dotwork connects that labor to capabilities, investments, technology cost and strategy on one model.
At a glance
Workforce & org design
Tempo
Operating model
Dotwork
Usually runs alongside Dotwork
Dotwork connects to it and puts its data in the context of the whole enterprise.
The short version
What each is built for.
Tempo
Tempo builds planning and time tools, mainly for organizations that work in Atlassian Jira. Its products include Timesheets for time tracking, Capacity Planner for resource planning, Structure for program and portfolio views across Jira projects, and Strategic Roadmaps for roadmapping, along with cost tracking for Jira work.
- Capturing time against Jira work for billing, capitalization and reporting
- Planning team capacity and resource allocation
- Organizing Jira projects into programs and portfolios
- Building roadmaps for stakeholders
Dotwork
Dotwork is an AI-native enterprise operating platform built on the Enterprise Operating Model: one live, graph-based model that connects strategy, capital, work, technology and AI across the enterprise. For labor, Dotwork shows planned, time-written and ledger labor side by side at capability level, and connects that labor to investments and strategy.
- Showing planned, time-written and ledger labor side by side, kept separate rather than summed
- Connecting labor to capabilities, investments and strategy on one model
- Running OKRs, scoring and PI planning beside labor and capability cost
- Giving finance, portfolio and technology leaders one connected view of people cost
The core difference
How Dotwork and Tempo approach the problem.
Tempo captures and plans the time people spend on Jira work. Dotwork takes labor as one input to an enterprise model and connects it to capabilities, investments and strategy.
Context
Tempo holds context in worklogs, plans and Jira hierarchies. Dotwork holds it in a graph where teams, labor, capabilities, applications and investments are connected records.
Decisions
Tempo supports capacity and staffing decisions for teams and projects. Dotwork supports investment decisions by showing what funded work costs in labor and capability terms.
Time
Tempo records time as it is logged and plans capacity ahead. Dotwork keeps plan, time-written and ledger labor as separate measures across planning cycles.
Change
Tempo extends Jira with time, capacity and portfolio views. Dotwork starts from a reference Enterprise Operating Model and reads time and HR data as sources.
Architecture and data model
Side by side.
Tempo is where people log time and teams plan capacity, close to the Jira work itself. Dotwork uses that kind of data differently. It keeps planned, time-written and ledger labor as separate measures rather than adding them together, and connects labor to the capabilities and investments it serves. Those labor measures come from the model's runs and are shown in Dotwork, while Tempo stays the system where time is captured.
| Dimension | Tempo | Dotwork |
|---|---|---|
| Core model | Worklogs, capacity plans and portfolio structures on top of Jira | Graph-based Enterprise Operating Model spanning strategy, portfolio, cost, architecture and AI |
| Time capture | Timesheets for logging time against Jira work | Not a time-tracking tool; reads time data as a source |
| Labor measures | Logged time, capacity plans and cost for Jira work | Plan, time-written and ledger labor shown side by side at capability level |
| Portfolio and roadmaps | Structure portfolios and Strategic Roadmaps | OKRs, investment scoring, PI planning and feature-to-epic trace |
| Cost connection | Cost tracking for Jira projects and teams | Labor carried to capabilities, applications and investments |
The role of AI
Where the AI gets its context.
Tempo applies AI to time and capacity data close to delivery. Dotwork applies AI to questions that connect labor to capabilities, investments and strategy.
Tempo
Tempo is adding AI to its platform, including AI-assisted capacity insights for resource planning.
Dotwork
Dotwork offers an assistant that answers questions across the whole enterprise model, so one question can cross labor, investment, cost and strategy. Chat agents can create and update Dotwork records with optional review, and an MCP server makes the model available to outside AI tools.
A fair comparison
Where Tempo is strong — and where Dotwork is different.
Where Tempo is strong
- Widely used time tracking for Jira, close to where engineers work
- Time data that supports billing, capitalization and project cost reporting
- Capacity and resource planning for teams
- Program and portfolio views across many Jira projects with Structure
- Roadmapping for stakeholders with Strategic Roadmaps
Where Dotwork is different
- Shows plan, time-written and ledger labor side by side, kept separate rather than summed
- Connects labor to capabilities, applications and investments on one model
- Places labor beside other technology cost such as cloud, vendors and facilities
- Provides OKRs, investment scoring, PI planning and feature-to-epic trace in production
- Lets AI questions cross labor, cost and strategy through one model
Choosing
Which fits your situation.
Choose Tempo when
- You need time tracking inside Jira
- You need time data for billing or capitalization
- Team capacity and resource planning are the priority
- You want portfolio and roadmap views built on Jira
Tempo fits organizations on Jira that need reliable time capture, capacity planning and portfolio views close to delivery work.
Choose Dotwork when
- You need labor cost shown by capability and investment
- You want planned, logged and ledger labor compared without being blended
- Labor must sit beside cloud, vendor and other technology cost
- You want labor connected to OKRs and strategy
Dotwork fits enterprises that need to see what their people cost by capability and investment, beside the rest of technology spend and strategy.
The bottom line
Choose Dotwork when you want to connect the enterprise across systems and silos — with a lower total cost of ownership.
One operating model across strategy, capital, work, technology and AI, instead of another tool to integrate, reconcile and maintain alongside Tempo.
FAQ
Questions buyers ask.
Does Dotwork track time?+
No. Dotwork is not a time-tracking tool. It reads time data from tools such as Tempo and shows it beside planned and ledger labor at capability level.
Does Dotwork handle skills and org design?+
Only lightly. Skills inventory is limited in Dotwork, and it does not provide org-design or restructure modeling. HR and workforce tools go deeper there.
Can Tempo and Dotwork be used together?+
Yes, and that is the usual setup. Tempo stays the system for logging time and planning capacity, and Dotwork reads that data into its model through a connection configured for each customer.
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