Organizations focused on the successful completion of projects and adjusting well to the changing needs employ Jira. This tool entails powerful features, enabling organizations to implement agile practices. This comprehensive guide is for those who aim to get started here, beginning with what is Jira software.
Behind every successful implementation of a project is a clear roadmap of the tools, governance and resources. Every why and how is laid out and studied by experts to figure out further steps. Picking the right tool is an imperative step in this process, wherein Atlassian's Jira stands out strongly. This guide, 'what is Jira' will help you understand the use and role of it.
Jira is a project management and issue-tracking tool created by Atlassian. It helps teams plan, track, and manage tasks, bugs, and projects. This tool, widely used in software development, comes equipped with advanced features like Agile boards, customizable workflows, and reporting. It also improves overall collaboration, ensuring teams stay organized and aligned on project goals.
Enrol in igmGuru's Jira Course Online program to start your career in project management.
This software by Atlassian is a software development tool used primarily for project management as well as issue tracking. It helps software development teams in planning, releasing and tracking software projects. It can integrate seamlessly with other tools for software development, . Its customizable workflows and features give it the flexibility to adapt to all needs and circumstances.
Its centralized platform is brilliant for managing all issues, bugs and tasks. It also has good dashboarding and reporting features, enabling teams to make data-driven decisions.
Let's get to know some key concepts to obtain a better understanding of all the advantages it has to offer.
In this tool, Boards visually represent the workflow to teams so that they can keep a check of issues. While in Agile, issues are presented in columns counter to every workflow stage. Teams get to keep a track of activities and haul the issues from one column to the other.
This tool is built upon Issues; it could be anything from tasks, user stories or any other work elements. These issues are customizable with attachments, fields and comments to deliver a detailed record of work.
Sprints are a part of Scrum methodology, which are fixed or time-boxed length periods of work. Teams use sprints to assist them to perform tasks and deliver services within a selected timeframe.
Epics are gigantic work bodies or large scale projects splitted into tiny and doable tasks called issues. It ensures that tasks are executed, finished and ready to meet the project goals with its tracking progress.
Dashboards are useful to obtain insights from a project as it provides one with valuable project data. This data includes the progress, status and other metrics of a project. This enables an individual to present their project to teams and stakeholders in a comprehensive way.
Projects in Jira are beneficial for teams to keep related issues together. This makes it easier to handle work around certain tasks and goals. Each project can be set up with its own workflow, permissions and issue types. Organizing issues enables the team to remain focused on their work.
Versions are put in work to handle and trace project releases with its effective features and fixes.
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This software is quite in demand in the IT sector. But what is Jira used for? Here are some common use cases of this software.
Top use case globally of this software is project management due to its exceptional configuration abilities. Managers can either use the available templates or even create customized ones to fit their requirements. There are different steps on using this tool for project management and these are the ones to know about -
Software developers utilize Jira capabilities for managing budgets, stakeholders, and feature requirements from the very beginning. Integration of various CD/CI tools leads to high transparency throughout the software development lifecycle (SDLC). It also deploys new features rapidly by integrating feature-flagging tools.
Open DevOps is Atlassian's open and integrated toolchain, wherein this software plays an imperative role. It supports seamless integration of internal tools with third-party ones like GitLab, Opsgenie, GitHub, Confluence and others. Consequently, teams get to focus on better practices like automation, continuous delivery, testing, etc.
Agile software teams use this tool for Scrum and Kanban boards to consistently practice their agile methodologies. These boards work as task management hubs for these teams to organize tasks into customizable workflows effortlessly. Thus creating transparency in timelines and task status. Teams also benefit with its real-time performance reports and time-tracking feature.
This tool is exceptional when it comes to tracking bugs, which is an important aspect in every project. Upon capturing a bug, this tool prioritizes it automatically, which leads to the project manager tracking its progress until completion.
Jira is attracting a large number of companies from all around the world. Approaches of Agile are getting adopted across a number of teams. This made Atlassin to step up and deliver its services across distinct teams within a company. This section covers how Jira can benefit multiple departments within a company.
Jira Service Management is suitable for a number of support professionals to get done with tasks like issue ticketing, change and incident management. It provides a path for customers to seek help from agents, along with assisting them to deliver the service to their customers.
This platform has its own basic tool for project management called Jira Work Management. It's curated for teams that aren't necessarily a part of IT and software development. It is suitable for departments like finance and human resources to perform general task management, alter requests and workflow approvals.
Jira Align is an impressive agile planning solution for professionals to manage large scale projects. It offers portfolio strategy, technical execution.
This software provides software development teams with the features and functions they need. This tool can manage projects, bug tracking, perform and manage fundamental software development tasks.
You may also read: What is a Pipeline in DevOps
Let's explore some key features of Jira that contribute to the growth and popularity of this robust platform.
It is highly accessible and can be used on any device, from a computer to a mobile phone. Users can add comments, view and create issues while sitting at home or from the office. It also gives notifications regarding issue updates to keep the user equipped with the latest information.
In this tool, Users can have a thorough understanding of their project's timeline by keeping a check on how much time is spent on issues. It gives coverage to many parameters like working hours per week or day, etc. It enables the project's timeline to be more manageable and cost-effective for users through tracking the information.
It prioritizes the data by providing a number of security features like strong password policies, permissions and two factor authentication.
Users can obtain a complete outline to track their project's progress. This ensures that the team is updated with the project status, which could further help in early detection of threats. Give a structured approach to the product development process by making a timeline and list of goals. It connects the teams to communicate and collaborate throughout the project lifecycle.
Users get a complete sketch of the present state of their project through Jira's dashboards. It tells users what issues are being worked upon, the future measures to be taken while being shareable.
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Knowing the extensive features, you may want to use Jira software for your company. It requires you to purchase the Jira license. But how. It is an easy but multistep process. You can purchase it by navigating to the official website, selecting the plan and doing the payment. The complete process is explained below:
The first step is to understand your requirements for which you want its license. It has two types of editions, including Jira software and Jira Service Management.
Select the Jira edition that fits best for all your requirements.
It is essential to have an Atlassian account to pursue its plan.
It provides a unique feature known as a trial license, which is a subscription period. Use it to understand what features you need to use.
Copy the license key from the generated page for the trial license. Us the given instruction to activate a plan:
It all comes down to how to use Jira. Getting started with this software requires a few steps to be fulfilled. Here are the ones to follow.
Go to the Jira site. Click on the 'Projects' dropdown menu in the top navigation. Select 'Create Project'.
There are plenty of Jira templates available that are crafted to be used for different requirements. Three most often used templates for software teams are Scrum, bug tracking, and Kanban.
The board in Jira displays a category of issues in columns. Each of these columns reflect a point in the team's workflow to take work through completion. While the board enables configuring a lot of things, setting up the columns is enough for the time being.
Issues work as the building blocks in every Jira project. There are many things an issue can represent like a bug, a task, a story, epic or a feature to be built.

With this software, teams can save significantly more time in terms of managing work by utilizing the Jira apps, which are over 3000. These can be customized to adapt to the use cases and project needs. Cog > Apps > Find new apps. The app can either be chosen from the categories provided or searched by name. The options available are 'Install, 'Free trial' and 'Buy now'.
Once the board reflects enough work, it's time to start inviting team members.
Once the team joins in, collaboration and tracking can happen seamlessly. A sprint must be created to commence work tracking in a scrum project. Work can be tracked on the board in a kanban project. Move work between columns as the task progresses.
There are numerous possibilities and opportunities attached to optimally understanding 'what is Jira software'. This guide is only a point in the direction. Anyone can enjoy a bright career in project management and other fields by learning a tool like Jira.
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It is pretty easy to understand and begin using the workflow with Jira tools. With some practice, one can also gain proficiency.
Since Jira is primarily crafted to be used for issue tracking and project management, using it as a CRM tool can be quite tricky. It might become simpler after gaining efficiency.
The tool is used mainly for project management as it supports most agile methodologies like Kanban, Scrum, etc.
The main types of Jira are Jira Software for development teams and Jira Service Management for IT and support teams.
Jira is used to create and manage tickets for tasks, bugs and service requests. It helps teams track progress and collaborate efficiently.
Course Schedule
| Course Name | Batch Type | Details |
| Jira Training | Every Weekday | View Details |
| Jira Training | Every Weekend | View Details |