Introduction to Jira

Jira is developed by the Australian company Atlassian and is used for software testing. It is a bug tracking tool based on agile methodology and by using it we can report issues to our software or mobile apps. Jira provides us with a way to change our workflow according to our needs and helps us to effectively collaborate with our team. It makes it easy for us to release our software’s different versions. In manual testing, Jira is the most used testing tool and it is also an open-source tool.

Why We Should Use Jira

There are many reasons for using Jira. Some of them are:

• It helps us to track, organize, and prioritize our work, which makes things faster for us. It has different newly added features and it provides improvement from time to time. In Jira, workflow is well planned. The project is divided into small parts, known as issues, which are of different types like documentation tasks, new features tasks, improvement tasks, or bugs. So it becomes easy for software developers to prioritize which issues to solve first based on date or other parameters. We can say it helps us to manage projects and maintain documentation easily.

• Jira is helpful for organizing and creating our own documentation. It provides us a way to group different tasks using component functionalities which makes it easy for us to create structured documentation.

• Jira can be used as a source of information for our newly released version of software, since it provides a place for software developers to plan their new features and fixes for new releases. Also, since the status of newly added features can be checked in Jira, it provides help to the QA team to write technical documentation.

• We can specify the due date for the new releases of our documentation. We can also configure the Jira tool to show notification of the deadline so that it can be done at the right time.

• Jira provides a much easier way to view issues through the confluence pages so that we can see which things are needed for updates, then we can create issues for them.

• We can measure the time spent on documents in Jira with the help of tempo timesheets which come bundled with the Jira tool.

Download and Install Jira

Follow the steps below to download and install Jira software.

• Step 1: First, visit the official site atlassian to download the Jira software based on your requirements. You can get a free or paid version of Jira software.

• Step 2: There are two types of versions for download: Long-term support release or the latest release. The long-term support release is for a large organization and as the name suggests the latest release is recommended for the team who wants the latest Jira features. Now select the OS version for which you want to download Jira then click on the download button. It will start downloading after agreeing to terms and conditions. For those who want to try it for free, they will be asked if they want to download Jira Service Management, Confluence, or both, and also they need to sign in or sign up.

• Step 3: After downloading, open the downloaded exe file and follow the instructions to install Jira software (by clicking the next button and the install button at the end).

• Step 4: After clicking the finish button and clicking launch Jira software, Jira will open and you will need to sign in with your account. Also, you will need to select the license type and your organization name and then you will need to generate the license.

• Step 5: Now you need to set up an administrator account by filling in the administrator details. Once your setup is finished then you are good to go.

Handling Issues in Jira

What is an Issue?

In Jira software, issues help us to manage code, estimate workload, and keep track of our terms. Different organizations track different kinds of issues, which can represent anything from a software bug, a project task, or a leave request form.
In Jira, project issues are the building blocks. Issues could represent a story, a bug, a task, or another issue type in our project.

The following shows an issue in a scrum backlog:

1. Selected issue: This helps us to view the issue’s details.

2. Issue details: Through this, we can see the assignee and description of the issue and also make comments and add content to the issue.

3. Issue actions: Through this, we can move an issue, see log time spent working on it, clone it, and perform other actions.

4. Backlog: Through this, we can estimate the issue and then we can plan our actions.

How to Create an Issue

Follow these steps to create an issue anywhere in Jira:

• Step 1: To create an issue first select ().

• Step 2: Next we have to write a summary of the issue.

• Step 3: Complete all required fields and any other fields that are needed. There are some optional fields that we can change if we want to configure more fields.

• Step 4: In the end, when we are done with all steps, select the create button.

How to Clone an Issue

We can clone an issue to create a duplicate of it in the same project. Most of the details in the clone issue will be the same as that in the original issue. But there are some details that don’t get cloned, for example time logged, links to confluence pages, comments, and history. Also, the resolutions will get cleared and the issue status will return to the first step of the workflow. We can link the cloned issue to the original issue, but that is not necessary.

Here are the steps to clone an issue:

• Step 1: Open the issue.

• Step 2: Select more actions (•••) then select clone.

• Step 3: Optionally, we can edit the summary of cloned issues.

• Step 4: If applicable to the issue we are cloning, we can select from these options.

  • Clone subtasks: To copy existing subtasks.

  • Clone attachments: To add any existing attachments.

  • Clone links: To add any existing linked issue.

  • Clone sprint values: To copy across the issue current and closed sprint values.

• Step 5: Select the create button.

How to Split an Issue

This is used when an issue is so big that it is better to divide it into two or more issues and make the work more manageable. On that note, we can only split an issue from the scrum backlog and the kanban backlog, and not from active sprints or the kanban board.
Navigate to the backlog of our scrum and kanban software development projects.
Right-click an issue and select split issue.

Conclusion

Issues are the first and most important part to use in Jira since they are the building blocks. Creating and handling an issue is easy and very straightforward. We just need to follow some simple steps and proceed according to them; since everything can be directly done through the UI, it becomes easy for any user to perform the steps.