What is JIRA - How to Use Jira Testing Software Tool (2024)

What Is Jira?

Jira is a project management software developed by an Australian company called 'Atlassian'. The word Jira has been derived from the Japanese word 'GoJira', meaning Godzilla. The software is based on agile methodology. If you're wondering what is Jira and what is it used for, then the answer is that it is used for many purposes, including bug tracking, issue tracking, and project management.

Many businesses use Jira software in non-standard ways, such as warehouse automation tools, document flow, expense optimization, etc. The Jira dashboard contains several useful functions and features that enable easy handling of issues. Jira has recently tweaked some of its products for teams and organizations, including IT, marketing, operations, finance, HR, legal and other departments, as one of the most sought-after agile project management solutions.

Key Jira concepts

After getting an understanding of what is Jira, let's have a look at the key concepts of Jira:

1. Projects: Projects are used in Jira to containerize related issues so that a team can manage and organize its workstream around specific goals, products, or initiatives. Each project may be configured explicitly regarding workflow, permission, and other issue types. Grouping issues within projects eases focus and management-specific areas of work.
2. Issues: Issues are literally what is Jira built upon, and they mean any work item that may be required to be tracked in a project. They may be tasks, bugs, user stories, or other work elements, whatever the project needs. Each issue is then uniquely identified and can be customized with fields, attachments, and comments to provide a record of details on the work.
3. Workflows: Workflows define an issue's stages from creation to completion. They aid teams in understanding, through a visualization of steps or statuses, where an issue stands against its lifecycle. Therefore, workflows can be customized to work on different project types, allowing flexible and efficient problem management.
4. Boards: Boards in Jira are visual representations of workflow. They help teams track issues in real-time. In Agile, boards represent issues in columns against every workflow stage. This allows a team to see what is going on at a glance and just drag the issues from column to column as they move them forward in the workflow.
5. Sprints: In Scrum methodology, sprints are time-boxed periods of work. They help teams focus on specific tasks and deliverables within a fixed timeframe.
6. Epics: Epics are large bodies of work that can be considered high-level tasks or project goals. They are usually broken down into smaller, more manageable tasks called issues. Epics are a way to group related issues under one umbrella, with epic tracking progress toward a higher-level initiative, ensuring all associated tasks are completed toward the project's goals.
7. Versions: Project releases are tracked and managed using versions. Each version represents a particular set of user-ready features or fixes.
8. Dashboards: Dashboards offer a configurable view of project data, including status, Progress, and important metrics. They can be presented to stakeholders or other team members to give them insight into the project.

Different Uses of Jira

Let's explore what is Jira used for in this section of the article. Originally designed as a bug and issue tracker, Jira serves as a powerful work management tool for various use cases like:

• Requirement and Test Case Management – to manage manual and automated tests
• Agile Teams – Jira software provides scrum and Kanban boards for teams practicing agile methodologies.
• Project Management—Jira software can be configured to fit any project, from its onset through execution to completion.
• Software Development – for developing better software faster by incorporating Atlassian tools.
• DevOps – Atlassian open DevOps helps teams ship better software, stressing best practices.
• Product Management – Jira helps design detailed roadmaps, handle dependencies, and share plans and Progress.
• Task Management –Jira makes it easy to create tasks that can be worked on with details, due dates and reminders.
• Bug Tracking – the powerful Jira workflow engine ensures that bugs are automatically assigned and prioritized once captured.

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Which Teams Can Jira Help?

In addition to understanding what is Jira, one must also know which teams can Jira help. Jira can help a wide range of teams and departments across various industries. Its versatility makes it worthwhile for teams involved in project management, software development, and other collaborative tasks. Some of the teams that can benefit from using Jira include:

1. Software Development Teams

Jira was initially used in software development, which makes it suitable for development teams. It helps manage tasks, track bugs, monitor Progress, and facilitate collaboration among developers, testers, and other stakeholders.

2. IT Operations Teams

IT teams can also use Jira to track and manage incidents, change requests, and service requests. It helps themstreamline IT service management processes and ensures efficient technical issue resolution.

3. Project Management Teams

Jira is not only designed for software development but also has extended capabilities in project management. Managers of various projects in different industries create and trace tasks, allocate resources, set priorities, and control project progress.

4. Marketing Teams

This means that marketing teams could use Jira for campaign planning, management of marketing activities, tracking of deliverables, and task scheduling. It gives insights into marketing projects' implementation of set tasks in line with the timeline set.

5. Product Management Teams

This solution allows product managers to define product roadmaps, track feature requests, prioritize enhancements, and collaborate with development teams to deliver customer-centric products.

6. Manufacturing and Operations Teams

Jira can also track production processes, monitor equipment maintenance, manage inventory, and ensure quality control in an organization's manufacturing and operations.

How Jira Works in Product Management

After you get an idea about what is Jira and how it works in Project Management, you can make the best use of it. Jira allows the team members and product managers to see the big picture surrounding product development. The software roadmaps build a flexible plan for what the agile team aims to achieve, providing a visual of how to connect the pieces. The roadmaps help in:

• Tracking team Progress
• Map and account for dependencies
• Iterate and update with more information about project, product or customer requirements
• Building multiple roadmap versions and sharing them with stakeholders

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Different Features of Jira

Understanding what is Jira isn't enough, one must also understand its different features.

1. Scrum and Kanban Boards: These are visual boards for Agile framework-based task management. While Scrum boards organize work in sprints, Kanban boards deal with the continuous management of workflow to track and prioritize work in real time.
2. Roadmaps: Jira roadmaps provide a big picture of your project timeline and milestones, thus helping teams plan, visualize, and broadcast their projects' long-term strategy or vision and Progress.
3. Bug and issue tracking: Jira is utilized for tracing bugs and issues. Groups can log, track, and manage bugs or issues throughout their life cycle to ensure problems are solved efficiently and do not affect project progress.
4. Agile Reporting: Jira agile reporting provides reports on burndown and velocity charts, which are instrumental in letting the teams know the performance, Progress, and bottlenecks ahead in Agile projects.
5. Custom Workflows: Custom workflows define several stages and transitions that tasks may undergo. They tailor the workflow to a team's unique processes and ensure that work progresses in an organized and efficient way.
6. Integrate with over 3000 apps: Jira can integrate with over 3000 applications. This feature allows teams to connect with their other tools and platforms, such as Slack, GitHub, and Confluence, to drive productivity and smoothen workflows.
7. Audit Logs: Jira audit logs track and record changes made within the system. This records all the actions taken for security, compliance, and accountability purposes.

Jira components

Jira components are a way of grouping and categorizing project issues. They serve similarly to subsections or modules in a project that depicts different parts of a project or product. This enables the teams to break down the project into smaller and more manageable sections so that ownerships can easily be assigned, Progress can be tracked, and responsibility can be managed.

Each issue can be assigned to one or more components, which helps teams filter and focus on work related to specific areas. For example, in a software development project, components would be "Frontend," "Backend," and "Database," so each team member can filter by their area and be assured that all areas of the project are covered. Components also aid in producing reports and metrics that give deeper insight into how different project parts perform.

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Jira Issues and Issue Types

What Is Jira Issue?

A Jira issue helps track bugs or underlying issues in a project. You can create topics after having imported a project. There are several valuable features under issues like:

• Issue Types
• Screens
• Workflows
• Fields
• Attributes

Jira Issue Types

Issue Types in Jira display every item that could be created and tracked with the testing tool. Issues fall into categories like new features, sub-tasks and bugs.

The issue type schemes available are:

• Defaults Issue Type Scheme - One where all newly created issues are automatically added.
• Agile Scrum Issue Type Scheme – This is for issues and projects dealing with Agile Scrum

How to Create an Issue in Jira

It is also crucial to know how to create an issue in Jira, in addition to what is Jira and what are its features. Here's how you can create an issue in Jira:

• Step 1 – Open the Jira application and log in with your ID and password.

The free Jira dashboard will open. Select Project. Choose from Simple Issue Tracking, Project Management, Agile Kanban, Jira Classic, etc.

• Step 2 – Mention the Issue Details
• Step 3 – Enter the detailed information for issue creation
• Step 4 – Open the issues menu to search and perform various functions.
• Step 5 – Select Summary to view details about the issues.

Sub-Task

Sub-task issues help split up parent issues into various, more minor tasks. Subtask can be created:

• Under parent issue
• By Creating an issue into a sub-task

WorkFlows

The five main stages of Jira workflow after creating an issue are:

• Open issue
• Resolved Issue
• In Progress Issue
• Reopened Issue
• Close Issue

Plugins in Jira

Plugins like Zendesk, Salesforce, GitHub, and Gitbucket can work more effectively in Jira. Some such plugins allow support teams to report issues directly into Jira, creating unlimited private storage areas with full-featured support for issue and test management.

Jira Agile

Developers use the Jira Agile or Scrum method to follow a roadmap of planned features for future versions of the products. Agile follows roadmaps similar to other Jira methods for tracking the issues. To Do >In Progress>Done.

Creating Issues in Agile

To create an issue in Agile, go to the main menu under the Agile tab. Select "Getting Started." This will prompt you to create a new board for issues from Scrum or Kanban.

How to Create an Epic in Agile

Epic is an issue type in Jira Agile. Epic refers to a significant user story that could be broken down into multiple smaller stories. Completing an epic may require several sprints. Create a new epic in Agile or use the issue created in the Jira board.

Use of Clone and Link in Jira

You can even clone an issue using Jira, so multiple teams can work separately on it and resolve it quickly.

Jira Link is another helpful function. It allows users to link issues and create associations between problems on the same or different Jira servers.

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How to Use Jira

After getting an idea as to what is Jira used for, we will now explore how to use Jira. Effective use of Jira includes key processes for project management, task tracking, and team collaboration.

1. Setup a Project: First, create your project in Jira. This will act as an umbrella for all relevant tasks and issues. Now, select a project template best suited for your project, like Scrum or Kanban for Agile teams, and set up the project with permissions and notifications.
2. Create and Manage Issues: These are the primary working items in Jira. You can create issues related to tasks, bugs, or even user stories and delegate tasks to team members. Customize issue types, set priorities, and add details like description, attachment, and deadline for context and clarity.
3. Boards: Visualize your project's workflow using Scrum or Kanban boards. Scrum boards help organize tasks within sprints, whereas Kanban boards deal with functions continuously. Drag and drop issues between columns to update their status and track real-time Progress.
4. Plan using roadmaps: Look at the project timeline and key milestones. This aids in planning upcoming work, aligning teams' efforts, and thus informing the stakeholders of the overall strategy and Progress.
5. Tracking and reporting of Progress: Jira has built-in reporting tools such as burndown charts, velocity charts, and sprint reports to track your team's performance against bottlenecks. Review such reports regularly for data-driven decisions and efficiency improvement.
6. Customize Workflows: Personalize your project's workflow by defining the stages an issue must pass during its cycle—from creation to completion. You can customize transitions and set up automated actions, creating unique workflows to match your team's processes.
7. Integrate with other tools: Enhance Jira with integrations with other apps and platforms, like Slack, GitHub, and Confluence. Tightly aligned tools bridge communication, code management, and documentation gaps, allowing all your tools to work together.

Following these steps, you can manage projects in Jira, work with your team collaboratively, and make sure that tasks are done efficiently and completed on time.

Reports in Jira

Jira software aids in delivering and continuously improving performance using agile reports, such as burndown charts, sprint reports, epic reports, version reports, control charts, velocity charts and cumulative flow diagrams. These real-time insights will help youmake data-driven decisions.

Advantages of Jira

• Jira is a bug-tracking tool that allows software developers to plan, track and work faster.
• Jira is the primary source of information for future software releases. Developers can easily plan the new features to be added and the bugs to be fixed in the next release.
• Helps in organizing Documentation Tasks
• Helps in tracking Documentation Progress
• Helps Meet Deadlines
• Facilitates Faster Feedback
• Integration Available with third-party software

Disadvantages of Jira

• Restricted File Size Upload
• Reports generated are not reusable
• Complicated User Interface

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Conclusion

Finally, Jira—full-featured and a powerful project management tool for teams to create an organized platform to track and finish their work efficiently. Understanding what is Jira and what its uses are, is important for Project management. Now that you’ve read about the main reasons why the Jira tool has become one of the most popular bug tracking tools, feel free to use it for project management. Learn more in-depth about Project Management and what is Jira along with its features and use with Simplilearn’s PMP® Certification Training.

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