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Jira Basics

Updated Jan 27, 2020 ·

This notes is based on Atlassian's course on Jira Fundamentals

Agile and Scrum​

Agile is a project management methodology focusing on iterative development, continuous releases, and regular updates based on feedback.

  • Increases delivery speed and collaboration
  • Helps teams adapt to market changes

Scrum is an agile framework, primarily used by software teams, organizing work into short, focused periods called sprints.

  • Focuses on completing a batch of issues within a sprint
  • Emphasizes team collaboration and incremental progress

Jira​

Jira offers several products for different types of team management:

  • Jira Software
  • Jira Work Management
  • Jira Service Management
  • Jira Align

This guide focuses on Jira Software.

What is Jira Software?​

Jira Software helps teams manage and track work, acting like a team-wide to-do list for better organization and timely delivery.

  • Transparency: Everyone can see work progress.
  • Efficiency: Teams can plan and track start and end dates.
  • Collaboration: Keeps team discussions and comments well-organized.

Jira Work Management​

Jira Work Management is designed to help teams manage business projects and processes efficiently.

  • Tailored for non-technical teams like marketing and finance
  • Simplifies tracking, approvals, and reporting across teams

Jira Service Management​

Jira Service Management is used for IT and customer service teams to manage requests and incidents.

  • Streamlines support requests and incident handling
  • Integrates with ITSM workflows for better support

Jira Align​

Jira Align connects business strategy to technical execution, aligning teams and projects.

  • Helps scale Agile practices across teams
  • Tracking of project progress and alignment with goals

Jira Roles​

Jira has two primary roles:

As a User​

Your main responsibility is to update work items (called "issues") daily. Issues track progress, questions, and notes.

  • Update issues when work is completed.
  • Use issues to ask questions or add notes.
  • Regularly update issues to reflect progress.

Issues may vary in size; some may take hours, others months. Each issue has an assigned person responsible for updating it.

Working in Jira​

Jira Project​

A project in Jira is a collection of issues that helps organize work. Every issue belongs to a project, which is named based on how your team structures its work.

  • Project name is visible under the Jira logo.
  • View all projects via the 'Projects' dropdown in the navigation bar.

Project Names​

Project names give insight into how work is organized in Jira.

  • Projects can be named after teams or specific deliverables.
  • Helps identify how work is structured within Jira.

Projects Types​

There are two main types of Jira projects:

  • Team-managed projects: for smaller teams controlling their own processes.
  • Company-managed projects: standardized for larger teams, managed by Jira admins.

These types determine how workflows and team management are handled in Jira.