Jira Reviews

We use JIRA for software development projects and the implementation of business workflows. Our company runs more than one hundred projects on a single instance server. Besides core IT projects, we have implemented business processes on dedicated JIRA instances to manage high volume (greater than five thousand issues per month) non-conformities for some business lines. 

Transparency of development projects, as well as approval processes for some business projects, has improved massively. Interaction of business units and IT happens very often via JIRA and considered to be very helpful. As many of our developments are requiring some level of compliance, the workflow and documentation of approvals are very handy. 

There is a very flexible configuration of "issues" and related life cycle. On top of it, the number of "add-ons" is overwhelming and of very good quality. I would consider the reporting capabilities to be the best feature, as ultimately the visibility of issues allows management of the projects.

My main concern is the administration of projects, especially user groups, and this requires root access rights but there is no concept of layered admin rights. Projects can be managed by a limited admin, but the creation of projects needs root admin rights. In decentralized project ownership, this gets tedious.

We used an open-source system called Mantis, which was considered unsuitable for use outside the IT world.

The setup of JIRA is straightforward.

To try this solution, use their cloud offering to get familiar. After that, it's in my view worth the money.

We went right away to JIRA without evaluating other options.

JIRA, its add-ons, and the Atlassian product world are already very powerful and it is difficult to name significant blank spaces.

This is a very powerful solution. Get some advice and training to make the most out of it. You may miss out on some of the capabilities if you don't.

We use this solution for product development and issue tracking.

This solution provides us with a centralized view of issues, simple time registration, and excellent integration to Bitbucket.

The most valuable feature of this solution is the source linking on the commit level to git.

The speed of this solution needs to be improved.

Backlog pruning and visualization are poor. 

Uupdate:

Speed has improved slightly in backlog view with Jira 8.0, but there is still room for speed improvements.

It's difficult to group and manage the backlog and priorities on multiple simultaneous epics to get clear overview of how the backlog reflects a planned roadmap. (perhaps due to the fact that we have too many issues in the backlog)

We use this solution for our scrum team and user story management.

This solution assists us with being able to quickly and easily start sprints and keep accurate track of them, including billing using a time-tracking add-on.

This solution is very easy to set-up and use. It is very intuitive.

The permissions can be challenging to get right.

We use this solution for Agile project management and BAU work delivery in sprints / DevOps.

This solution has helped with team collaboration and task delivery.

The most valuable feature is the Burndown Chart to see work that is outstanding.

The reporting needs to be improved.

We use this solution for Agile Scrum-Based DevOps on AWS with a Linux, Cloud-Based SaaS environment for mission-critical applications.

JIRA has increased the transparency of DevOps and it has enforced systematic, process-driven, communication.

The most valuable features are the customized Dashboard, Sprint Planning, and Automatic Notifications.

This solution would be improved with the inclusion of integration with SVN, and auto-sync with the build release number. I would like to see a more customized workflow, as well as support for the Google Doc storage of Documents.

Our primary use case is ALM, which is very well supported by Atlassian.

We have realized an improvement of 30% in terms of the duration of our small projects (six months with three to four people).

The most valuable feature is the full integration between Work management, Source code management, and Test Automation.

This integration allows a full traceability during the development processes, which is mandatory for some industries like automotive, or security

The hierarchy for Jira tickets is too flat.

Our primary use case is executing the SDLC.

This solution has improved our organization by enforcing transparency and communication. Individual roles and responsibility are defined and followed.

The features that we find most valuable are the Workflow, Scrum workflow, and Dashboards.

We have found that improvement is needed in their customer support (communication, which is ironic).

It would be very useful to have drag and drop time tracking.

Our primary use case for this solution is work management and task management.

We use this product quite extensively, and we're planning to roll out a module for the Accounts Department to be able to map manpower costs to project work, directly. That is something that we're working on right now.

Based on the flexibility that it offers us, we can adapt to different projects with different cycles. Based on whatever cycle we are working on for a particular project, we can configure the solution to suit us. This helps us to manage the work, essentially in one place, and we have visibility of all projects that are going on in the company.

The most valuable feature is the flexibility of the configuration, being able to configure it to suit your own needs.

The plugin management needs a lot of work. Sometimes you have issues with plugins and it stumps the vendors, as well as the Atlassian support.

I think that more extensive reporting would be very good because sometimes it is a hassle for us.

It is pretty stable. I would give it a ninety-five.

In terms of stability, it is pretty impressive and I would give it ninety-five. We have not had any load issues.

We currently have between twenty-five and thirty users, whose roles range from Software Developer to Chief Executive Officer.

I would rate the solution's technical support an eight out of ten. 

I have used a couple of solutions, but I have used this one for my entire career in working with different teams. I have had to integrate my own solution as well, but the majority of my work has been using this product.

I have worked with both the hosted application and the cloud version. For the cloud, the initial setup is very easy. You can do it in basically two minutes and you're out but for the server, the setup entails a lot more.

This is quite understandable because you're going to be managing it by yourself, onsite. For the Cloud, it's pretty straightforward, but if it's the server version then you need a lot more focus and experience to be able to configure it correctly.

The last time I installed a server instance we had to do it overnight and it took me between four and six hours.

The deployment was done in-house.

There is no maintenance required for the cloud version.

I would say that we have seen ROI with this solution. When we are looking for some sort of information, it just makes our lives much easier because we are able to do things without having to talk to anybody. You know exactly what is going on. It limits personal interaction but helps us to get our jobs done quickly.

Licensing is on a monthly basis, and it is based on what you use. There is a base cost and then as you include other items, the cost rises. Our last payment was perhaps $1600, which includes both user licenses and add-ons.

There are no additional costs beyond the licensing fees, and it covers support.

Before choosing this solution we evaluated SmartShift for work management, and we also tried Trello.

My advice for anyone who is implementing this solution is to ensure that your in-house processes are clear. Things have to be clear, as much as flexible, because if it is not correctly configured then it could just be a mess. So, you have to be very clear on what your processes are in-house, and then based on that you can translate them into Jira.

Knowing in advance what kind of information you're looking for from Jira will help you in being able to set it up correctly.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.