In today’s day and age, there are a load of different project management tools available for you and your team to utilize, which can make choosing which one to use even more difficult.
Rather than getting hung up on trying to decide which software to use, then the best way to decide is to read some reviews, and if you’ve been thinking about trying out Jira to see if it’ll be the right fit for you and your team, then this review should hopefully be able to shed some light on this tool!
In this review, we’ll aim to cover some of Jira’s main features, as well as the advantages, disadvantages, and the limitations of the software, so you’ll be able to make an informed decision on whether or not it’s right for you!
What Is Jira?
Released over two decades ago (2002), Jira is the flagship software developed by Australian company Atlassian in order to help software development teams, featuring plenty of tools which can be used to help software development teams to keep track on the development of a project, right from the initial planning stages, all the way to the release stage.
Since its initial release, Atlassian has gone to release Jira software in three different packages for you to choose from, which include:
- Jira Core – This is the most basic Jira option, and is designed to help non-technical users with its project and task management features.
- Jira Software – This is a more specialized version of the software, building upon the project and task management features of the basic version but with some additional, more advanced features designed to help software developers.
- Jira Service Desk – This isn’t a project management software tool like the other two options, and is instead a platform to be used for IT professionals and customer support services.
So, now that you are more familiar with Jira, let’s begin to look closer into the details of this software!
Who Is Jira For?
Since its release in 2002, Jira has always been one of the go to software tool choices, especially for those who are particularly experienced in the software and product development industries, so for the more technically minded people out there, it’s most certainly a popular choice.
As the years have gone through, Jira has slowly begun to make its software tool more accessible, and today it is an incredibly capable versatile project management tool that can be used not only by software developers, but also by a variety of other businesses and teams too.
Jira’s versatility is not to be overlooked either, and whether it’s using Jira’s various features to help software developers manage their projects via Kanban or Scrum boards, for Marketers to manage their product launches and events while working alongside multiple teams, or for those in HR who are looking to make their hiring processes much more efficient, Jira can be used for all of that and more.
Jira’s Key Features
Jira is filled with a vast number of great features, which certainly makes it difficult for us to cover them all in this section.
Instead, we’ll take a look at the features which we think are the key features for Jira, allowing you to get a better understanding of what this software is all about!
Scrum And Kanban Boards
When it comes to organization, Scrum and Kanban boards are extremely important in helping to organizing things. Scrum boards are particularly great for engineering teams, and are a great way to organize the sprint tasks into a more consolidated place.
The other benefit of Scrum boards is that you are also able to gather all of your workload into one convenient sprint, which means you are able to better keep track of the various stages of your project.
Kanban Boards are also particularly useful, helping you to streamline the visualization of the workload, and helping you to track a number of different projects, and how the various different tasks across the board are progressing.
This is great for fixing bugs, monitoring tasks, and conducting code review, and is certainly one of the best features of the software.
Custom Workflows
Outlining the processes and tasks needed in order to complete a project or resolve a particular issue is important, and the custom workflows features are a great way of visualizing the way in which the tasks and projects are developing and progressing.
Whether you decide to implement a template, or start entirely from scratch, these workflows are sure to help your work even better!
Roadmaps
Roadmaps are also extremely useful for allowing a team to have a clear vision of whatever you’re aiming to develop, and by using a roadmap, it allows you to set the working team clear goals to achieve.
These roadmaps can be useful for sales teams, team managers, and even development teams, so its versatility is definitely a great feature.
Detailed Reports
For team managers and stakeholders, being able to view a variety of detailed reports is incredibly useful, especially for engineering-based projects, and Jira allows you to view a variety of different reports, including things such as user workload, which allows you to see how much work each member of the team has done.
Average age of tasks, which allows you to see how long a task has been left uncompleted. As well as new recently created issues, which shows you the rate in which new issues have been created.
Jira’s Benefits
Jira has a large number of benefits, which is exactly why so many people opt to use Jira as a software when it comes to software development, and these are some of its biggest benefits:
Agile Management
For those who like to adhere to the principles of Agile project management, then Jira is definitely going to be a software you will enjoy using, as Jira certainly works to try and follow this approach, allowing you to break down larger tasks and projects into much smaller, and more manageable sections.
Issue Management
In its infancy and initial release, Jira was primarily focused as a bug tracking tool.
As Jira has developed and become more versatile, Jira allows users to get feedback on a number of different aspects of each project, yet it still manages to be excellent for receiving feedback on bugs and issues that may occur, and tracking the progress of the resolutions for each of these problems.
Customization
One of the reasons why people like Jira so much is because of its immense customizability, which not only allows you to configure the software to help you fit any of your particular requirements, and you can even integrate Jira alongside other third-party applications to help you do so too, including things like Slack, for improved team communication, or Toggl, for a super handy time management tool!
Jira’s Disadvantages And Limitations
Despite its great features and benefits, this doesn’t mean that Jira is without any disadvantages or limitations, so here are some things to keep in mind before deciding upon Jira:
Setup And Use
As Jira was initially designed for software development purposes, and although the launch of Jira Core does simplify the software slightly, it’s still rather difficult to set up and use for those who lack any technical ability, and its complex user interface is definitely a hindrance for potential users.
Jira Is Moving Away From Its Server-Based Licences
For those who already have Jira, or are considering starting using it any time soon, it’s worth noting that Jira’s planned move away from server licences will likely cause Jira some teething issues when they do eventually make the switch in 2024, so if you begin to use Jira now, just keep in mind that you might experience some turbulence with the way things work in the next couple of years.
Lack Of Collaborative Features
While Jira is a software geared towards use by teams, its distinct lack of communicative features between team members is certainly puzzling, and is exactly why so many of its users make use of third-party integrations, with tools such as Slack becoming particularly useful in this scenario.
Despite this ability to integrate third-party software in order to communicate with team members, the fact that it isn’t already a part of Jira’s features is extremely disappointing.
Final Thoughts
Jira is no doubt an incredibly useful app, in the right hands that is, and if you’re weighing up your options, then you’ll need to keep in mind that Jira is a somewhat difficult software to get your head around at first.
However, if you’re someone who is technically adept, then you’ll probably benefit a lot more from Jira and its features, but it’s important to keep in mind that both its lack of collaborative features and the move to the cloud next year will likely cause some issues along the way too.
