Jira is a powerful project management tool designed to help teams efficiently plan, track, release, and support software projects. Whether you’re in software development, marketing, IT, sales, or operations, Jira provides the flexibility and organization needed to keep your projects organized.
Due to its vast features and customizable settings, Jira might seem a little complex at first. This blog will break down everything you need to know about Jira in 7 simple steps. By the end, you’ll be able to:
- Set up your Jira account
- Manage tasks and track progress
- Organize workflows
- Generate reports for better decision-making
- Connect Jira with essential tools
Are you ready to master Jira for software project management? Let’s begin!
Step 1: Setting up a Jira Account
Using Jira requires users to set up an account. Here’s how you can do it quickly:
- Go to the Atlassian Jira website
- Click on ‘Get it free’ and sign up using your email address.
- Follow the on-screen instructions to create your account.
Step 2: Creating a Project
A project is a collection of tasks that need to be completed to achieve a certain outcome. Now that you’ve logged in, click 'Create Project' from the Jira Dashboard. You can choose from several templates available depending on your workflow, such as:
- Scrum (best for Agile project management)
- Kanban (ideal for continuous workflow management)
- Bug tracking (for teams focused on identifying and fixing bugs)
Once you have selected your project template, you’ll have to choose between two project types:
- Team-managed projects: Suitable for smaller teams requiring simple configuration.
- Company-managed projects: Better for large organizations that need standardization across multiple teams and projects.
From there, name your project, set privacy settings, and click submit. Once your project is created, let’s move on to understanding Jira basics. Remember, you can always customize your project later.
Step 3: Understanding the Jira Interface
Whether it's a small or a big project, Jira provides the necessary features to manage your work. But before you begin, take a moment to explore the Jira interface, which includes:
- Board: A visual task management hub
- Timeline: where you’ll plan and track work
- Issues: building blocks of Jira representing a single task/work
- Backlog: a central place to create, store, and manage issues
- Reports: for tracking progress and team performance
Step 4: Creating an Issue
Jira makes it pretty easy to identify, categorize, and distinguish between different types of work using issues. The “Issues” tab is where you’ll be spending most of your time, so get comfortable with it.
To create an issue in Jira, click “Create” in the top navigation panel. Next, choose any of the following issue types depending on your project:
- Task: a single, achievable piece of work e.g., create a UI design for the website.
- Epics: a larger body of work that can be broken down into smaller tasks/stories.
- Stories: represent a product requirement or a request from the end-user perspective, also called user stories.
- Bugs: a problem in software that needs to be fixed, from start to finish.
Fill in the summary box and provide information in the relevant issue fields. You can also assign the task to a team member, and set task priority, and due dates. Once you create an issue, your ‘new’ task will appear in the backlog or board of your project depending on your project template.
Step 5: Setting up the Workflow
The path your project takes from creation to completion is called a workflow. Each workflow in Jira consists of a set of statuses and transitions that your issue moves through during its life cycle, (To-do→In progress→Done). The “Board” displays all the issues in columns. You can easily update your workflow by adding and rearranging “issues” in the respective columns directly on the board.
Users can click the (+) button to add another step in the workflow (e.g., To-do→In progress→Testing→Done). Moreover, you can use the workflow editor to create, visualize, or edit the steps and transitions of the workflow.
Step 6: Creating Reports and Tracking Progress
Jira has powerful reporting features to help you manage project progress and drive data-driven decision-making. Depending on your project, different types of reports in Jira include:
- Agile reports: For Scrum and Kanban teams to keep track of velocity, spot bottlenecks, and predict future performance.
- Reports for DevOps: Understand product deployment frequency to streamline the product life cycle.
- Issue analysis: Get detailed insights into specific issues, including their status, assignee, and deadlines.
- Forecasts and management: Reports for companies managing projects to get insights on the team’s workload and project progress.
Open project settings in Jira, select “Features” and click on the “Report” tab to choose among reports such as:
- Burndown chart
- Burnup chart
- Control chart
- Velocity chart
- Epic reports
- Cumulative flow diagram
- Average age report
- Sprint report, and more!
Step 7: Integrating Jira with Other Tools
Once your Jira project is set up, it’s time to build great software. Jira allows for integration and automation to enhance productivity, save time, and reduce manual efforts. Whether you are managing a design, IT, business, or software engineering team, simply use the add-on feature to connect Jira with various tools, including:
- Confluence
- Figma
- Trello
- Slack
- Zendesk
- Microsoft tools
- Github
- Asana
- and more!
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Jira Free?
Yes, Jira has a free plan of up to 10 users and a 2 GB storage limit. However, paid plans are available for more advanced tools and larger teams.
Who Uses Jira?
Jira is widely used across various teams, including:
- Software development teams
- Project management teams
- Agile teams
- Bug tracking teams
- IT teams
- HR departments
- Operations
- Marketing
How quickly can I learn Jira?
You can learn Jira basics in a few hours; however, mastering advanced features may take a few weeks with practice.
What are the Key Features of Jira?
Jira provides the following features to plan, support, and manage workflows:
- Agile development
- Dashboards
- Reporting
- Rich APIs
- Time tracking
- Customization
- Security and privacy controls
- Integrations
- Mobile app
What are the limitations to consider with Jira?
Here are a few limitations of using Jira:
- Complex interface
- Can be expensive for larger teams
- Not suitable for non-agile teams
- Partial support in project automation
- Migrating projects is time-consuming
- Limited features in team-managed projects
Final Thoughts
Jira is a powerful tool that can transform how teams plan, track, and manage projects. This Jira user guide outlined 7 steps to using Jira, creating projects, managing workflows, and exploring useful features such as reporting and integration. While Jira may seem complex at first, with practice and dedication, teams can perform effective project management through Jira.
Get in touch with Red Star Technologies to streamline your project management with Jira. Contact our tech team at sales@redstartechs.com today.
