Preface

Over the years, Jira has grown from a simple bug-tracking system designed for engineers to manage their projects to an all-purpose issue-tracking solution. The term Jira now refers to a suite of products, including Jira Software, Jira Service Management, Jira Core, and others. With this change, each product is more focused on what it does and the value it provides. It is now easier than ever for customers to choose the product best suited to their needs, whether they are running an Agile software development project, a customer support portal, or simply a generic task management system.

With the latest Data Center offering, Jira is now the go-to solution for any enterprise that is looking to future-proof its teams with performance, reliability, scalability, and security.

In this book, we will cover all the basics of Jira and its core capabilities, as well as advanced features offered by the data center offering. We will also explore third-party apps that add additional features to the Jira platform. Packed with real-life examples and step-by-step instructions, this book will help you become a Jira expert.

Who this book is for

This book will be especially useful for project managers but it’s also intended for other Jira users, including developers, and in any other industry besides software development, who would like to leverage Jira’s powerful task management and workflow features to better manage their business processes.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Getting Started with Jira Data Center, serves as an overall introduction to Jira by going over its high-level architecture. We will cover both new deployments and how to upgrade from an existing deployment. We will also introduce the Jira Data Center offering from Atlassian. This will also serve as the starting point of the project that readers will go through.

Chapter 2, Using Jira for Business Projects, covers using Jira for projects that are not based on software development, for example, a generic task management solution. This chapter focuses on the use of the basic features of Jira, which are offered through the Jira Core product, which is bundled with Jira Software.

Chapter 3, Using Jira for Agile Projects, covers features that are specific to Jira Software. This chapter focuses on using Jira for software development projects, especially using Agile methodologies such as Scrum and Kanban.

Chapter 4, Working with Issues, introduces issues, which are the cornerstone of using Jira. The focus is to make sure users understand issues and what they do. You will also learn how to make each of the features available and customize them beyond the out-of-box settings.

Chapter 5, Field Management, introduces fields, and specifically how to use custom fields to customize Jira for more effective data collection. You will learn how to create new custom fields, and how to control field configurations such as visibility and rendering options.

Chapter 6, Screen Management, introduces screens. You will learn how to create new screens from scratch and specify which fields (system and custom) will be displayed. We will also cover complex scheme mappings to apply new screens to projects.

Chapter 7, Workflow and Business Process, explores the most powerful feature offered by Jira, workflows. The concept of issue life cycles is introduced, and various aspects of workflows are explained. This chapter also explores the relationship between workflows and other various Jira aspects that have been previously covered, such as screens. The concept of Jira apps is also briefly touched upon in the sample project, using some popular apps.

Chapter 8, Emails and Notifications, talks about emails and how Jira can use them to send notifications to end users. We will start by explaining how Jira sends out notifications to users, and then how Jira can process incoming emails to create, comment on, and also update issues.

Chapter 9, Securing Jira, explains Jira’s security model, starting with how to manage users, groups, and roles. Readers will then learn Jira’s security hierarchy of how permissions are managed. Lastly, we will look at setting up single sign-on using SAML, a common requirement with most enterprise organizations.

Chapter 10, Searching, Reporting, and Analysis, focuses on doing more with data collected by Jira, including searching, reporting, and using dashboards. You will also learn how to make this data and reports available outside of Jira, either via email or by displaying them in other applications.

Chapter 11, Jira Service Management, introduces Jira Service Management, which allows you to run Jira as a customer support portal. Readers will learn how to use Jira Service Management to run and manage a support queue internally while at the same time communicating effectively with customers.

Chapter 12, Jira and Third Party Apps, covers using third-party apps to extend the capabilities of Jira. You will learn how to find, install, update, and manage apps for Jira. We will also look at some popular third-party apps and how they can be used to take Jira to the next level.

To get the most out of this book

The installation package used in this book is the Windows Installer standalone distribution, which you can get directly from Atlassian at https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/download for Jira Software and https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/service-desk/download for Jira Service Management.

You will also need additional software, including the Java SDK, which you can get from http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/index.html, and MySQL, which you can get from http://dev.mysql.com/downloads.

If you are using the digital version of this book, we advise you to type the code yourself. Doing so will help you avoid any potential errors related to the copying and pasting of code.

Experience in XML, Java, or the Groovy programming language will be useful to better understand the code snippets in the book.

Any errata related to this book can be found on the following link: https://github.com/packt-pradeeps/Jira-8-Essentials.

Download the color images

We also provide a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots and diagrams used in this book. You can download it here: https://packt.link/9C0B9.

Conventions used

There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.

Code in text: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: “You should see both the New Employee and Termination issue types.”

A block of code is set as follows:

<Resource name="mail/JiraMailServer"
  auth="Container"
  type="javax.mail.Session"

When we wish to draw your attention to a particular part of a code block, the relevant lines or items are set in bold:

<security-constraint>
  <web-resource-collection>
    <web-resource-name>all-except-attachments</web-resource-name>
    <url-pattern>*.js</url-pattern>
    <url-pattern>*.jsp</url-pattern>

Any command-line input or output is written as follows:

  create database jiradb character set utf8;

Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. For instance, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in bold. Here is an example: “There is a Create another option beside the Create button.”

Tips or important notes

Appear like this.

Get in touch

Feedback from our readers is always welcome.

General feedback: If you have questions about any aspect of this book, email us at [email protected] and mention the book title in the subject of your message.

Errata: Although we have taken every care to ensure the accuracy of our content, mistakes do happen. If you have found a mistake in this book, we would be grateful if you would report this to us. Please visit www.packtpub.com/support/errata and fill in the form.

Piracy: If you come across any illegal copies of our works in any form on the internet, we would be grateful if you would provide us with the location address or website name. Please contact us at [email protected] with a link to the material.

If you are interested in becoming an author: If there is a topic that you have expertise in and you are interested in either writing or contributing to a book, please visit authors.packtpub.com.

Share Your Thoughts

Once you’ve read Jira 8 Essentials, we’d love to hear your thoughts! Please click here to go straight to the Amazon review page for this book and share your feedback.

Your review is important to us and the tech community and will help us make sure we’re delivering excellent quality content.

Download a free PDF copy of this book

Thanks for purchasing this book!

Do you like to read on the go but are unable to carry your print books everywhere?

Is your eBook purchase not compatible with the device of your choice?

Don’t worry, now with every Packt book you get a DRM-free PDF version of that book at no cost.

Read anywhere, any place, on any device. Search, copy, and paste code from your favorite technical books directly into your application.

The perks don’t stop there, you can get exclusive access to discounts, newsletters, and great free content in your inbox daily

Follow these simple steps to get the benefits:

1. Scan the QR code or visit the link below

https://packt.link/free-ebook/978-1-80323-265-2

2. Submit your proof of purchase
3. That’s it! We’ll send your free PDF and other benefits to your email directly