QA Supervisor at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Valuable ticking feature, stable, and helpful support
Pros and Cons
  • "I have found the most valuable features of Jira to be ticketing, life cycle workflow, definition, and creation. Many of the features are useful."
  • "The solution could improve by having its own tool for quality lifecycle management."

What is our primary use case?

We use Jira in our organization for lifecycle management.

How has it helped my organization?

The solution has helped our organization do lifecycle management easily.

What is most valuable?

I have found the most valuable features of Jira to be ticketing, life cycle workflow, definition, and creation. Many of the features are useful.

What needs improvement?

The solution could improve by having its own tool for quality lifecycle management.

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Jira
March 2024
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For how long have I used the solution?

I have used Jira for approximately nine years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability of Jira is good.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Jira has good scalability.

We are using this solution extensively. We have more than 5,000 using the solution in my organization.

How are customer service and support?

We have been satisfied with the technical support from Jira.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We have used in-house developed tools previously and we had to do a lot of customization and this is why we moved to Jira.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this solution to others, it is a good option.

I rate Jira an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Software Engineering & Quality Manager at a leisure / travel company with 201-500 employees
Real User
Poorly designed and confusing with a dated user interface
Pros and Cons
  • "The initial setup was pretty straightforward."
  • "The work items structure is not hierarchical and that needs to be changed. It's too flat."

What is most valuable?

The integrations with other solutions, such as BitBucket for pull requests and the check traceability, are pretty good. That's about it. I'm not a big fan of the solution overall.

The initial setup was pretty straightforward.

What needs improvement?

The solution, in general, is a poorly designed and confusing product. The user experience is not ideal and the user interface is convoluted. The interface in particular could use a big refresh as the actual navigation within the interface is not particularly smooth.

The work items structure is not hierarchical and that needs to be changed. It's too flat.

There's excessive scope for customizing the project and the platform. Therefore, there are too many integrations, which leads to very high levels of complexity in terms of management.

Key indicators that are useful to Agile teams such as burn-down charts or burn-up charts, cumulative flow control, et cetera, are available, however, they're not easily accessible from the default user view, whereas they should always be present. Key indicators must always be present. They actually take a couple of clicks to actually get to them.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for two years. It hasn't been too long.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is very stable. It doesn't crash or freeze. There are no bugs or glitches. It's reliable in that sense.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable. If a company wants to expand it, it can do so.

We have about 200 people who use the solution currently. They're mostly software developers but they're end-users as well.

While the solution is being used extensively, we're fine with maintaining our current level of usage.

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical support is very good. We're satisfied with the level of support that is provided to us. They are knowledgeable and responsive.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I've personally used lots of other solutions, however, when I moved to this company, they already had Jira deployed. Jira is the only system of its type that's been used here.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is not very complex. It was pretty straightforward. If a company wants to implement it, the setup should be pretty simple.

There's ongoing integration work on a project like this. Therefore, the initial setup was only a few days, however, then, as you add things to it, you add more time to the deployment.

What other advice do I have?

We are a customer and end-user of the product.

I would highly recommend not using this product if your focus is software development. Organizations should seriously consider alternatives such as Azure DevOps or TFS, which are more focused on modern interfaces and more accurately modeled to modern workflows.

I'd rate the solution at about a three out of ten. It doesn't really offer a whole lot that's actually usable from a software development context beyond extremely simple and free alternatives.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Jira
March 2024
Learn what your peers think about Jira. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2024.
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Project Manager at Ibermatica
Real User
Good project management capability
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature is project management."
  • "When you first start to use the interface, it is confusing."

What is our primary use case?

We have a development team and we use Jira to manage our projects. We use several products by Atlassian whenever we create and work on a new project.

We have scrum masters who write new project stories, which are tracked by Jira.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is project management.

What needs improvement?

The integration and management features need to be improved.

When you first start to use the interface, it is confusing.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using Jira for about one year.

How are customer service and technical support?

In my company, we have a lot of knowledge and experience with Atlassian products. We have not needed to contact technical support.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have also used ALM Synchronizer and I find that it is better because it is easier to manage and it is a more agile tool.

What other advice do I have?

My advice for anybody who is implementing Jira is to install the plugin from Micro Focus because it is a better way to manage the interrelationship between these two tools.

Overall, my experience with Jira is pretty good.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Arun Srivastav - PeerSpot reviewer
CEO at Planfirma Technologies Private Limited
Reseller
Top 5
Increases transparency of our DevOps through better communication
Pros and Cons
  • "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."

What is our primary use case?

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

How has it helped my organization?

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

What is most valuable?

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

What needs improvement?

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.

For how long have I used the solution?

Four years.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Head of Embedded Development at Mecos AG
Real User
I like the workflows which help track the current state of tasks

What is our primary use case?

  • Agile, scrum project/sprint planning
  • Bug tracking
  • Workflows which help track the current state of tasks.

How has it helped my organization?

  • The organisation is more flexible and agile.
  • Tasks are easier to track. 
  • Generally faster and more focused.

What is most valuable?

  • Sprint planning
  • Overviews over tasks and which assignees are doing what
  • Specific workflows for projects.

What needs improvement?

  • Add relation for workload estimation between stories and subtasks
  • Linking to Confluence could be implemented. At the moment links can only be created from Confluence to JIRA, not the other way round.

For how long have I used the solution?

One to three years.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Senior Implementation Manager at Autodata Solutions
User
We now have an excellent helpdesk ticketing system with follow-up and escalation.

What is our primary use case?

It possesses excellent customization and serves the basic requirements: multi-project, products, customers and multi-level of users.

How has it helped my organization?

  • We now have an excellent helpdesk ticketing system with follow-up and escalation.
  • We used to have add-ons for remote support but it's not working, and it does not have powerful CMDB to help in building our KB and self-service for our clients.

What is most valuable?

Ticket management: We have our custom-defined ticketing number for each customer/product which helps in identifying the issue from the ticket number.

What needs improvement?

  • It should be able to open a channel with a customer through chat or remote desktop.
  • It should be able to define my KB articles and link it with a self-service ticket.

For how long have I used the solution?

More than five years.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Senior Consultant IT Infrastructure at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees
Consultant
User friendly and since it's structured, it's easy to ask people from non-technical departments to use it as well.

What is most valuable?

JIRA gives you all the features you need for organizing your work within one team and across teams in a very efficient and structured way. It is more than just a ticketing system and more than just a project management tool.

It is very user-friendly and very structured which makes it very easy to ask people from non-technical departments to come and join you within JIRA projects.

The amount of plugins is astounding, and many of them have a surprisingly high quality. While some are free, some other plugins are very expensive, but at the same time worth the money (at least this is what I think).

JIRA could be basically used to organize the work of a whole company, which is why it is so valuable.

How has it helped my organization?

JIRA helped us to work across teams and sites, while staying efficient and reducing communication overhead to a minimum. Since it plays very well with other Atlassian products, you can make sure that other members of the staff find JIRA issue related information much faster than in the traditional way (e.g. asking, search engine etc.).

What needs improvement?

JIRA is written in JAVA and therefore a bit hard to trouble-shoot. It also is very expensive once you have a lot of users. And since it is very flexible, it can also lead to situations where you loose overview of permissions, custom issue types etc. It also takes too long to create your own custom fields and issue types since you have to work yourself trough many layers of abstraction and features. But this is a well-known downside of flexibility and openness.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using JIRA for more than 2,5 years.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

No, deployment and upgrading was always straightforward.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Sometimes, it seems that JIRA gets a little slow. But is is very hard to say if the network connection, the underlying system or JIRA itself is the one to blame.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Not yet.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I used a heavily modified version of Sugar CRM, which was basically a custom solution. Never again.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was very easy.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Since JIRA gets really expensive when having a lot of users (and maybe plugins), you should try to avoid letting everyone in by default. Maybe it is better to only give those users access who really could benefit from this product.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user326337 - PeerSpot reviewer
it_user326337Customer Success Manager at PeerSpot
Consultant

Hi Valentin,

Considering that you've used JIRA for quite some time, have there been any significant changes to your experience since you wrote this review in August 2016?

As a JIRA expert, your feedback would be a huge help to us and to our user community!

Thanks

See all 3 comments
PeerSpot user
Manager HRO Application Development at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Top 5
It was designed to follow software development projects, but we also use it for our call centers to follow on "Learning Administration System" processes. But, its administration could be easier.

Valuable Features:

JIRA comes with a workflow designer which allows to design and keep track of execution of pretty much any process (similar to what a BPM solution would do but cheaper). In the new or existing workflows you can define new "statuses" which you can use as "Queues" to handle your process status or requests.

In principle, JIRA was designed to follow software development projects, but we are also using it as a solution for our call centers to follow on "Learning Administration System" processes.

It allows you to extend and define any new entities (record types), define sub-tasks, links between records as well as define new fields, screens and customize your UI based on your needs.

It also integrates very well with other applications thanks to its Restful API. In my case I integrated with JIRA from Webmethods EAI middleware as well as from SQL Server 2014 SSIS.

JIRA has a marketplace where many plug-ins are available (some for free) to extend any missing features, as well as it comes with an SDK to create your own one if needed. In fact, this is one of the biggest potentials from my point of view.

Among others Atlassian (JIRA's company) has two powerful plug-ins

  • Service Desk (to control SLAs in top of your processes) - actually not a plug-in a product on top of JIRA.
  • JIRA Agile which allows to follow Soft Dev Projects using SCRUM or KANBAN methodology.

Improvements to My Organization:

  • We deployed JIRA and JIRA Agile plug-in to keep track of our software development cycles using SCRUM methodology.
  • It has been our product of choice for some time now in order to deploy Learning Administration Systems for our customers.

Room for Improvement:

I strongly believe that ease of use for the administration part (workflows, screens, field definitions) could be improved. Sometimes it is difficult to understand "where you are" when administering JIRA.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user678153 - PeerSpot reviewer
it_user678153Agile Coach & Sr. Project Manager at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
Vendor

I completely agree with you about its administration being easier. Especially since we grant Admin access to a very small group. We (PMs) end up having to work with many groups that aren't even our own and provide training where necessary.

See all 2 comments
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Updated: March 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Jira Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.