What is JIRA Software? Understanding this Project Management Tool Better

JIRA software is a tool which is used to manage projects. This tool helps teams in planning, tracking, and managing work. It is a world-class software with number one project management tools for sharp teams.

This software is used for different purposes, for software development it is used for planning and launching campaigns. Whereas, in marketing it is used for managing and tracking workflows, and in the IT sector it is used for building creative workflows. In this blog we will explore more about ‘what is JIRA software?’, ‘why is JIRA so popular?’, its key concepts and features, and ‘what is JIRA used for?’.

What is JIRA Software?

So, what is JIRA software? It is a sharp software development tool, which is used for project management and tracking issues. This software gives a central platform for managing tasks, bugs, and other kinds of issues. JIRA aids teams in organizing and prioritizing their work. This software development tool has a variety of customizable features and workflows that permit teams to adopt it according to their needs.

This software also provides a lot of reporting and dashboarding features that aids teams stay on top and make data driven conclusions. This software supports a variety of languages like English, French, etc. Also, a 30-day free trial version is accessible on JIRA.

Why is JIRA so Popular?

This software is highly configurable, has plenty of integrations, and most of the engineers are familiar with this software. Let us explore some of the reasons on why is JIRA so popular:

• It is made for strong and agile teams.
• It is good at tracking projects.
• It can track time spent on any issue with colors.
• This software has multiple search options.
• JIRA’s project reports are very impressive and powerful.
• This software has 1000+ add-ons and plugins.
• JIRA works with many products like Salesforce, GitHub, Slack, Tempo, Trello, etc.
• This software’s security levels and permission schemes make sure that the right people get access to the right information, with no mess.
• This software is good on mobile, it is compatible with Android and iOS devices.
• One can create, manage and visualize in a simpler way with this software.
• With this software one can customize their own dashboard and manage their own portfolios.

Key JIRA Concepts

This software is the number one agile project management tool which is used by teams to plan, track, support, and release world class software with confidence. Let us explore key JIRA concepts:

1. Issues- This presents basic pieces of work that teams can create and track with time. Issues can span from simple tasks and feature requests to bugs and product defects.
2. Workflows- This presents path issues that follow from creation to completion. Teams can integrate and introduce new steps to the workflows, and edit it with this software to show their business processes.
3. Projects- Projects present a wide collection of issues grouped together to achieve the same goals and objectives. Teams who use this software, create projects per department, team, product or any large initiative related to their business. JIRA provides multiple types of project templates that tailor to any team’s processes, like Scrum, Kanban, and others.
4. Components- These are effective to streamline projects and are further divided into functional sub-sections. Components are like containers that can group JIRA issues and make them easily available through a dedicated page. Further, components are shown in detail including, name, description, lead, default assignee and associated issues.
5. Labels- These are particular tags and keywords that can be related with JIRA issues. It is a comfortable way to classify the same issues that don’t belong to the same epic or story.
6. Boards- Teams who use JIRA can track and visualize issues within native and fully customizable boards. Boards are a part of the project template. Any project can have one or a combination of boards which depend on the team’s preferences and scope of work.
7. Reports- Reports here are important as they help teams to keep track of their projects, manage workloads, prioritize tasks, identify bottlenecks and predict future performance. One can identify four JIRA reports like, reports for Scrum teams, reports for Kanban teams, Forecast and management, and Issue analysis.

Features of JIRA

Now, as we read about ‘what is JIRA’, we know that it is a project management and issue tracking tool with various features. Let us explore some features of JIRA:

• JIRA connects teams for flawless collaboration.
• One can get real-time dashboards, unique reports, and contextual insights.
• With this software, we can plan and organize tasks, create milestones, and map dependencies.
• We can link our work with goals so that anyone can see how their work contributes to the company's objectives.
• With this software one can visualize their work with lists, boards, backlogs, and more.
• JIRA can track time spent on issues, which involve working hours per day, week, and more.
• We can create a timeline, direction guidelines, and a list of goals.
• With this software, we can share updates, real-time chats, comments, and ideas.
• This software can decide who gets access to what.
• With this software, we can create tasks, feature requests, bug reports, and helpdesk tickets.
• JIRA has a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) in which we can break big objectives into smaller and manageable tasks.

Final Words On ‘What is JIRA?’

As we learned in this blog on ‘what is JIRA’, why is it so popular, key concepts, features of JIRA, and what is it used for through jira course online. It is widely used by software development teams of all sizes and is commonly known for its easy to use and customization abilities.