Preface
What This Book Is About
This book is about JIRA, the popular
issue tracker from Atlassian. An issue tracker lets
people collaborate more effectively when there are things to be done. It
also replaces copies of spreadsheets in email. You can use an issue
tracker for everything from tracking bugs in software to customer support
requests, and beyond. I
like to say that JIRA is a big To Do
list for
teams.
The book is intended for readers who administer a JIRA instance or design how JIRA is used locally. It assumes a basic familiarity with what JIRA can do and provides more information about how JIRA is intended to be used.
Each chapter should help clarify some confusing aspect of JIRA
administration. The chapters are only loosely connected to each other,
with the intention that they can be read in any order. Most new administrators start with the chapters about schemes and workflows. Chapter 1
and Chapter 2 are warm-up
chapters that
deal with two specific aspects of JIRA administration. Chapter 3
through Chapter 5 covers more system-wide aspects such as schemes, workflows and making sure your changes don’t affect other people unexpectedly.
Chapter 7
through Chapter 11
covers upgrades, migrations and then finally some common frustrations with JIRA.
The intention of this book is to supplement but not repeat the extensive JIRA documentation, freely available at http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRA/JIRA+Documentation.
In selecting the different topics to cover in this book, I was conscious of the different questions that I, as a software toolsmith, am asked about JIRA every day. I chose the most frequently asked and difficult ones. If you can’t find a particular topic and think it should be in a book such as this, then please do contact me with more details.
Some of the topics that are covered are expanded versions of entries already posted to my old blog “Practical JIRA Development,” at http://jiradev.blogspot.com. The chapters that are based on these entries are Chapter 1, Chapter 2, and Chapter 4.
JIRA Versions and System Details
The fourth release and current refers to version 7.0 which was released in October 2015. Where there are differences between versions of JIRA and the Atlassian-hosted JIRA Cloud service, these are noted in the text.
The first release of this book referred to JIRA version 4.2.4 Standalone, which was released in February 2011.
The second release referred to version 5.0, which was released in February 2012.
The third release referred to version 6.0, which was released in May 2013.
The target system used throughout this book is a Linux server with JDK 1.8 and MySQL. The main differences for other operating systems, deployment types, databases, and JVMs are the installation instructions and the names and paths of certain files. These details are described in the online JIRA documentation.
There are two main choices for deploying JIRA:
- JIRA Server
This is the original JIRA deployment package, also known as Standalone and Behind the Firewall (BTF). WAR packages for JIRA Server are no longer provided by Atlassian since JIRA 7.0.
- JIRA Cloud
Formerly known as Studio and OnDemand, this is the cloud version of JIRA. Some features of JIRA Server are not available in JIRA Cloud.
Development Environment
This book was written using OSX 10.10.4 on a MacBook Pro (Retina, mid-2014), using DocBook 4.5, Emacs 22.1.50.1 and git 1.7.5.4. The output files were generated using a custom web-based authoring tool named Atlas, developed by O’Reilly for their authors. Using a web-based tool allows books to be updated more frequently and the different output formats generated automatically.
Coauthor
The fourth update of this book for JIRA 7.0 includes a new chapter by my ServiceRocket colleague Mikey Schott (Chapter 6).
- Mikey Schott
Mikey has worked as a corrosion survey technician, a satellite janitor, and a record store employee, but seems to have found most success consulting and training people on JIRA. His non-paying gigs include community theater acting and crossword puzzle solver. He is also a member of the Atlassian Certification Advisory Board.
Technical Reviewers
- Stafford Vaughan
Stafford started using JIRA in 2005 after completing a Software Engineering degree in Australia and joining CustomWare, Atlassian’s leading services partner. He is a founding author of Atlassian’s official JIRA training course materials, and has spent the past five years delivering training to hundreds of organizations worldwide. Stafford currently lives in San Francisco and works in Silicon Valley at Apple.
- Bryan Rollins
Bryan is the General Manager for Atlassian JIRA.
- Paul Slade
Paul is a member of the Atlassian JIRA development team.
- Matt Quail
Matt is a member of the Atlassian JIRA development team.
- Matt Silver
Matt Silver has worked in the technical support field for 10 years and now works for Twitter. He’s an avid rock drummer and lives in Northern California.
- Roger Symonds
Roger has built and run Atlassian training courses delivered globally to over 20,000 attendees, and personally delivered training at a hat-trick of Atlassian Summits. He’s a Sydneysider who enjoys flying gliders and playing guitar.
Conventions Used in This Book
The following typographical conventions are used in this book:
- Italic
Indicates new terms, URLs, email addresses, filenames, and file extensions.
Constant widthUsed for program listings, as well as within paragraphs to refer to program elements such as variable or function names, databases, data types, environment variables, statements, and keywords.
Constant width boldShows commands or other text that should be typed literally by the user.
Constant width italicShows text that should be replaced with user-supplied values or by values determined by context.
- Administration→System→System info
Shows menu selections within JIRA, in this case the Administration menu item, the System menu item and then the System Info menu item. The Administration menu item is now a gear icon in the top right corner. Previous versions of JIRA had a separate menu item named
Administration.
The shortcut g g is a helpful way to find specific administration action.
Tip
This icon signifies a tip, suggestion, or general note.
Caution
This icon indicates a warning or caution.
Using Code Examples
This book is here to help you get your job done. In general, you may use the code in this book in your programs and documentation. You do not need to contact us for permission unless you’re reproducing a significant portion of the code. For example, writing a program that uses several chunks of code from this book does not require permission. Selling or distributing a CD-ROM of examples from O’Reilly books does require permission. Answering a question by citing this book and quoting example code does not require permission. Incorporating a significant amount of example code from this book into your product’s documentation does require permission.
We appreciate, but do not require, attribution. An attribution usually includes the title, author, publisher, and ISBN. For example: “Practical JIRA Administration by Matthew B. Doar with Mikey Schott (O’Reilly). Copyright 2015 Matthew B. Doar, 978-1-449-30541-3.”
If you feel your use of code examples falls outside fair use or the permission given above, feel free to contact us at [email protected].
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Content Updates
The complete list of changes in each release of JIRA can be found at http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRA/Production+Releases. The End of Support announcements are located at https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRA/End+of+Support+Announcements+for+JIRA. Reading the Release Notes and Upgrade Notes for each major release is particularly recommended. This section lists the changes that are related to this book.
February 29, 2012
The changes in JIRA 5.0 that are related to the content of this book include the following:
The administration screens were all changed in JIRA 4.4.
User directories were added to JIRA 4.3.
The workflow graphic designer tool was shipped with JIRA 4.4.
The REST API has been developed further, and as of JIRA 5.0, can now modify issues.
JIRA now has Linux and Windows installers.
June 4th, 2013
The changes in JIRA 5.1, 5.2, and 6.0 that are related to the content of this book include the following:
JIRA 5.2 and 6.x require Java 1.7.
Usernames can be changed in JIRA 6.0.
JIRA 6.0 updated the UI look and feel to match other Atlassian applications.
JIRA 6.0 also introduced a new issue view in the Issue Navigator that shows more of each issue’s details.
Workflows and their associated fields and screens can be exported and imported more easily.
Workflow schemes can be edited in place, without copying and updating every project that uses them.
JIRA 6.0 displays better on mobile devices.
Issue fields can now be edited without editing the whole issue.
Users can be deactivated properly.
Issue collectors can be defined for each project to make it easier for non-authenticated users to add content to JIRA.
Links can be to issues in other JIRA instances and there is a JIRA to JIRA issue copy add-on.
The website plugins.atlassian.com (PAC) was renamed to marketplace.atlassian.com, and the studio.plugins.atlassian.com website was removed.
JIRA plugins were redefined as a specific type of add-on, and this release uses the term
add-on
in preference toplugin.
For more information, see https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRA/Managing+Add-ons.
October 1st, 2015
The major changes in JIRA 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, and 7.0 that are related to the content of this book include the following:
JIRA 6.1 introduced the ability to change project keys as well as project names.
The graphical workflow design was rewritten and its functionality extended.
Project templates were added. These templates help you to use copies of standard workflows and screen schemes for particular kinds of work, e.g., an Agile team. JIRA 7.0 adds the ability to create a project using the schemes of an existing project (
Create with shared configuration
).Integration between JIRA and other Atlassian products such as Stash and Bamboo has been increased. For example, you can create git branches for a bug from within JIRA.
With the release of JIRA 7.0, SOAP access has finally been removed, along with the section about SOAP in Chapter 9 in previous releases.
Custom icons for statuses were replaced by colored lozenges in JIRA 6.2. Project icons changed from squares to circles as part of the UI standardization of the Atlassian products.
JIRA 6.1 introduced the Audit Log and 6.3 extended it. This allows JIRA administrators to track who changed the configuration of JIRA.
JIRA 6.3 added a limited form of data import from CSV files for regular users.
JIRA 6.3 introduced the concept of Data Center. Atlassian’s Enterprise Data Center products allow multiple instances of JIRA to use the same database for improved performance for concurrent users, and better disaster recovery.
Data Center is part of the Atlassian Enterprise Services program that includes Premier Support (PS) and Technical Account Managers (TAM). These offerings are intended for larger customers where JIRA is a critical business tool.
JIRA 6.4 was released with Java 1.8, and JIRA 7.0 is not tested with Java 1.7. Along with other internal changes, this resulted in significant performance and stability improvements.
JIRA 6.4 extended the idea of project templates and introduced a new project view that integrates JIRA Agile boards more closely with JIRA.
In the JIRA Cloud environment, a new class of add-ons named Atlassian Connect has been developed. These add-ons use webhooks to send data to remote servers, then display the results in the JIRA Cloud instance. This model improves the stability of the JIRA server because nothing third-party is run directly in the same JVM as JIRA. It also helps solve the long-term issue that JIRA Cloud was not as customizable as JIRA Server.
Tip
JIRA 7.0 introduced the idea of applications, which are related to how JIRA and the JIRA Agile and JIRA Service Desk add-ons are bundled. Three different logical packages now exist, each for a different kind of team:
JIRA Core—the original JIRA application.
JIRA Software—JIRA Core along with JIRA Agile. Intended for software development teams and others using Agile boards.
JIRA Service Desk—JIRA Core plus the JIRA Service Desk add-on. For teams that work with help desks,
More detailed information about migrating to the JIRA 7 applications can be found at https://confluence.atlassian.com/migration.
Acknowledgments
People at Atlassian who have been particularly helpful over the years include Jonathan Nolen, Sarah Maddox (now Google), and Jessie Curtner. The Atlassian founders Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar, and all of the JIRA team have always been responsive and encouraging. The Atlassian Support teams have graciously put up with my detail-oriented comments and never-ending stream of issues, particularly Boris Berenberg and John Garcia. Thank you all!
Within the Atlassian community, Jamie Echlin, Nic Brough, Neal Applebaum, and Leonid Maslov stand out for the number of times they’ve answered questions from myself and others in the old JIRA Developer’s Forum and its replacement site Atlassian Answers. Other experts that I have benefited from discussions with include Andy Brook, Jonathan Doklovic, David Fischer, Jobin Kuruvilla, Bob Swift, Vincent Thoulé, and David Vittor. Many thanks to all of you, and see you at the next Atlas Summit!
My sincere thanks also go to all the clients of Consulting Toolsmiths for directly and indirectly providing me with the knowledge of which parts of JIRA confuse many JIRA administrators. Many thanks to Rob Castaneda, Adam May, Jesse Miller, Yesi Cisneros and Mikey Schott and all my other colleagues at ServiceRocket (formerly CustomWare) for doing so many parts of a successful business that I’d rather not have to. More gong! (formerly cowbell)
Behind all I do is my dearest wife Katherine and beloved children Lizi, Jacob, and Luke. Thank you all, and may the love of God rest and remain with you always.