This 90% complete guide demonstrates Atlassian Jira to track work across teams. After this Jira post is complete, I will share how you can use Atlassian Confluence to capture knowledge.

Small, Medium and Large businesses can use Jira to plan software development projects, plan projects, and assign tasks to teams or people.

Demo Team

I have created five users to simulate an average IT business. Each user will have different views on JIRA and Confluence.

• Helpdesk ([email protected])
• Developer ([email protected]
• Field Support ([email protected])
• Admin ([email protected])
• Manager ([email protected])

Setting Up Jira

The Manager logs into Jira | Issue & Project Tracking Software | Atlassian and click Get It free

Enter an email address and click Agree to signup

You will need to enter the code that was sent to your mailbox

Enter Account Details and Password

You will need to name site (e.g “fearbytest”)

Atlassian will take 1 minute to build your site

When the site is set up, you can access the website but a custom domain name.

Now, you can choose a site template. Many templates exist, but I know and prefer KANBAN boards.

Atlassian has in-depth help guides here Jira Cloud resources | Jira Cloud | Atlassian Support

Setup a KANBAN board

We have 5 team members; we will start with creating the Helpdesk board first.

I will choose “Not familiar” to “How familiar are you with Jira” to get help.

Click Get Started

Now we have a simple KANBAN board with three columns (TO DO, IN PROGRESS and DONE)

On the right, we have some help and a reminder we have 30 days to try the premium subscription.

We can jump straight in and create a sample JIRA Ticket

You can hover over the ticket and edit the summary

Result

You can click the ticket summary to open the ticket and view ticket details and notes.

The added note that said, “I tried calling John, but he was out of the office until 2pm”,

The ticket is in the In Progress column. We need a new column to move it to while we cannot resolve it.

Let’s create a column called “Blocked” to move the ticket there so we can look at it later.

Click the plus to the right of the Done Column.

You can add as many columns as you need. I added one called “Blocked,” where tickets can go that cannot be completed right now.

Workflow rules can be set to restrict how tickets are moved from column to column.

Creating Workflow Rules

Workflow rules can be configured to manage Helpdesk ticket flow.

You can configure rules to restrict who can move tickets or auto-assign the ticket when it moves to a new column.

JIRA can be set up to reflect your business’s stages and workflow easily.

It is best not to configure workflows until all columns are set up first. You can assign workflows to different ticket types.

Moving Tickets

Now that we have a new column called “Blocked” and a Workflow, we can move the tick to the Blocked Column by dragging it with the mouse.

Later, the ticket was picked up, and the note “I was able to get a hold of John and Solved the problem over the phone” was added; the ticket was dragged to Done.

Customizing Profiles

User profiles can be personalised

Manager profile updated

Creating More Issues

Let’s create some more issues to demo

Issues are coming in fast

Let’s add more people to help with tickets.

Adding More People to Jira Boards

Click the Add People button

Let’s invite the 4 other people to the jira site.

Users can be given different roles

The invited users will need to sign up for Atlassian and log in.

Email invites will land in mailboxes.

Every user will need to sign in and set their profile; the User will be asked what type of roles there are

and

Now, new tickets or existing tickets can be assigned to new users

I accepted the invite for the 3 other users and customised their profile.

I assigned random tickets to users to spread them out.

Viewing tickets for each user

You can click on each user and view their tickets.

All Users Tickets View

The Mangers Tickets

Helpdesk Tickets

Developer Tickets

Field Support Tickets

Admin Tickets

You can use one board for everyone or create one KANBAN board for each Team.

The sky is the limit on how far you set this up.

Adding Attachments

Attachments can be uploaded to tickets as long as your plan has free space

Using Labels

Labels (Tags) can be added to tickets to allow ticket to be searched later

Multiple labels per ticket

Viewing labels can help understand ticket without opening them.

Adding priority flags to tickets

Important tickets can be flagged for high priority

Flag notes can be added

Now this will not be missed

Linking Issues

You can link issues that are related

Search for ticket

Viewing ticket details will show links if setup

Mobile Apps

You can log in to the web app on phones or tablets, and Atlassian has dedicated mobile apps for iOS and Android.

Download Here: Jira On-The-Go: Manage Projects Anytime, Anywhere (atlassian.com)

I installed JIRA on my iPhone

I was prompted to login

I logged in with the [email protected] test account.

I was offered a home screen (that I can customise)

I added all sub team KANBAN Boards

Now, my Manager’s home screen has easy access links to all teams.

A user with less access would only see boards that they had permission to see.

I could see all Columns and tickets that the board offers.

This also works on Portrait view.

I could access every board (as a Manager)

I can set Push Notifications on my phone to get alerts when other users edit tickets.

Real-time push notifications are set up.

I can view every board and column

I created a new ticket (HELP-10) from my phone.

I can set all ticket details and all notes and move through the workflow.

I can assign it to any user.

I can add more notes to any ticket.

Ticket can be moved from column to column on mobile (following Workflow rules)

This works on tablets also (iPad).

I logged into my Ipad with the helpdesk account.

The Helpdesk user has lower access and can only see the helpdesk KANBAN board (as designed)

I customised the Helpdesk users home screen

The Helpdesk board can be seen on one screen.

Tickets can be opened and edited.

The web app is perfectly fine, but having native apps streamlines the experience.

Board Permissions

Any board can elevate or restrict access

Adding Issue Types

If you need more than title, details, notes, Labels, attachments, etc. you can add more properties or tickets.

I added a dropdown called “Busiones Priority

You can add several field types that would allow you to capture needed information that may be needed to save with the ticket. You can set if this is a required field or not.

Now, all tickets have a Business Priority field that can be set per ticket

Creating Child Issues

When viewing a ticket, you can create child issues.

Sub Task List

Subtasks can have different properties.

I had to edit the workflow to allow a parent task with sub-tasks to be revived after it was done. As I closed, the parent task, and the sub-tasks remained open.

Todo: I will change the work flow to now allow a parent task to be not closed by a workflow rule if sub task are open.

Premium Trial

The free tier has a 30-day Premium trial, so be aware of what will not work after the 30-day trial is up (if you use the premium features).

Jira Pricing Plans for Your Team Today (atlassian.com)

Setting Up Confluence

todo: Check back later for a link to a Confluence post.

v0.1 – 24th/08/2024 – Initial Post

v0.2 – 25th/08/2024 – Mobile App(s) screenshots and image alt tags