Jira

Jira is a proprietary issue-tracking product developed by Atlassian that allows bug tracking and agile project management. Although initially designed for managing and tracking software development projects, it has evolved to support many different project management and tracking needs.  

The fundamental building block in Jira is an “issue.” An issue can represent anything that needs to be tracked or accomplished – a software bug, a user story, a task, a requirement, etc.

Issues are grouped into projects. Each project in Jira has its own set of issues, and they can have different issue types, fields, and workflows depending on what you need to track.

Origins in Australia

Jira was developed by the Australian company Atlassian and was first launched in 2002. The name “Jira” is derived from the Japanese word “Gojira,” which translates to “Godzilla” in English.  

This name was chosen because Jira was designed to be a powerful tool to track and manage issues, much like Godzilla was a powerful monster in the movies.

Over the years, Jira has evolved from a simple issue tracker to a comprehensive project management tool, supporting different methodologies, including Agile ones such as Scrum and Kanban.  

Core Features of Jira

Jira is known for its flexibility and powerful features. It supports customizable workflows to map to your specific business processes.

It also supports agile development with features for managing backlogs, planning sprints, and tracking work using boards.

Jira’s reporting and dashboards allow you to track project progress, team productivity, and other metrics.  

Key Jira Details

Here are additional details about Jira that are helpful to know about:

1. Project and Issue Tracking: At the core of Jira’s functionality is the ability to create, track, and manage tasks, known as issues. Issues can be anything from software bugs to user stories to high-level business requirements. They can be grouped into projects, and a project can represent anything that requires a series of tasks to complete – like a software development project, a marketing campaign, a business process, etc.
2. Customizable Workflow: Jira supports customizable workflows that map to your specific business processes. You can set up custom statuses and transitions and specify who can move an issue from one status to another.
3. Agile Development: Jira supports both Scrum and Kanban agile methodologies. It allows teams to create backlogs, plan sprints, and track their work using boards. It also provides a range of reports to help teams understand their velocity, manage their backlog, etc.
4. Integration Capabilities: Jira integrates well with other tools, both from Atlassian (like Confluence, Bitbucket, and Trello) and from other vendors (like Slack, GitHub, and Zendesk). You can link related work across different tools and teams and see a consolidated view in Jira.
5. Custom Fields and Screens: Jira allows you to add custom fields to your issues, which you can then include on different screens (which define what fields are shown when viewing, creating, or editing an issue).
6. Permissions and Security: Jira has robust permissions and security features. It allows you to control who has access to what at a project and system-wide level. You can define roles and assign them to users and set up issue-level security schemes.
7. Reporting and Dashboards: Jira provides a variety of reports and dashboards for tracking project progress, productivity, and other metrics. This helps stakeholders stay informed and allows teams to continuously improve.
8. Scalability: Jira can handle large and complex projects with thousands of issues and hundreds of users. Both small teams and large organizations widely use it.
9. Mobile Access: Jira provides mobile applications, enabling teams to stay updated and track their work while on the go.

Conclusion

Jira is a versatile and powerful project management tool you can tailor to suit specific business needs.

However, Jira can be complex to set up and manage so it can be overkill for simple projects.  

Big picture, though, Jira’s flexibility and power make it popular for many organizations working on complex projects. Its broad range of features and integration capabilities make it a go-to choice for teams looking for a central hub for project management.  

What is Jira – 11 mins