Lighthouse - Getting Started
What you need to get started with Lighthouse
In this post we will give you an overview of the basic features in Lighthouse, so you know all the basics to get started.
Note that this is the state as of February 2025. The most up-to-date way Lighthouse is forecasting can always be found in the docs themselves, as this post may be outdated.
Lighthouse is the flagship product of Let People Work. It allows you to forecast completion dates with confidence and supports a wide range of scenarios, including projects with multiple teams and handling features that are not broken down yet.
It’s free to use, is open-source, and doesn’t need any cloud connection.
Join our Slack Community to learn from other users and become part of the development.
What Is Lighthouse?
Lighthouse is a tool that helps you run probabilistic forecasts using Monte Carlo Simulations in a continuous and simple way. It connects to your Work Tracking Tool (currently Jira and Azure DevOps are supported) and will automatically update your team’s Throughput and your project’s forecasted delivery dates.
You can use it with a single team for doing manual “When” and “How Many” forecasts, as well as for tracking projects with one or multiple teams.
Free, Open-Source, and No Cloud Connection
Lighthouse is hosted on GitHub under an MIT License. It is free to use, whether you are an individual, small company, or big enterprise. No hidden fees, no subscription service. Furthermore, Lighthouse is running on your systems. There is no cloud service involved where it stores any data, everything stays on the system that runs it.
Cross Platform
No matter what system you have, Lighthouse will run. We support Windows, macOS, and Linux, and provide Docker containers to run it.
Check out the Installation portion of our documentation for more information.
Jira and Azure DevOps
The two most popular systems for tracking your work are supported. There is a seamless integration with both Jira and Azure DevOps, and you get the full power of their respective query languages to define your teams and projects.
Check out the Concepts portion of our documentation to learn more.
Live Demo
If you want to see it live, you can either just run it in docker, or even simpler, check out our Live Demo.
Note that the Live Demo will not run real forecasts, but is there to show you the various options and the UI of the tool. We recommend trying it out with your data on your machine to get into the details.
Continuous Forecasting
One of the main features of Lighthouse is the fact that all your forecasts are automatically updated. Forecasting is most powerful if you do it continuously, and Lighthouse was designed with this in mind. Set up your teams and projects, and always get an up-to-date view of your forecasts.
Team Level Forecasts
Answer "When will it be done" and "How much can we accomplish in a given timeframe?" without time-consuming estimation sessions.
Simply define your Teams and start running forecasts based on the Throughput. This eliminates the need for Story Points or other forms of estimations and accompanying meetings, allows teams to focus on delivering value while providing stakeholders with accurate insights, and also supports you in creating a realistic plan for your Sprints, Product Increments, etc.
Project Tracking
Answer stakeholder questions like "When can we deliver these features?" with confidence.
Create a new Project by telling which teams are involved and what Epics or Features are part of it, and you are ready to go. Instead of days, an initial project plan is done in minutes. And kept up-to-date as long as the project goes on:
With Lighthouse, you can manage projects from initial planning to delivery, whether you have a single or multiple teams that contribute to features.
Forecast Sprints, Product Increments, Releases, Quarters, or anything else that you define as a Project. Lighthouse helps you create transparency and is based on the historical data of the involved teams.
Have some important date coming up? No problem, dynamically create Milestones and see how likely it is to deliver each Feature of your project till then.
Keep the Overview
Are you interested in keeping an overview of many teams and/or projects? Don't get lost in spreadsheets and slides with various ways of reporting. Stay on top of multiple teams and projects effortlessly.
Lighthouse offers you one dashboard for all your Projects. You can see real-time updates reflecting the current state. This helps you focus on analysis and action, rather than gathering data and spending time in status meetings.
Getting Started
Our documentation at https://docs.lighthouse.letpeople.work is the best place to get started. Do you need support? Join our Slack Channel and get help from us and other users who already use the tool. Or reach out to us to discuss what options we offer to businesses that need tailored support.