Improve Team Productivity with Best practices for Customizing Jira Workflows
Jira is a popular project management tool used globally. Developed by Atlassian, Jira started as a simple tool for managing minor business issues but has developed into an all-round platform. It offers Jira service management, Jira asset management, and much more.
But Jira’s customizable workflow is one of its strongest features. It allows teams to adapt workflows to their unique project management needs.
Most users hardly delve into what Jira workflows can do. Therefore, we will explore how Jira customizations can bring out the true potential of your team.
A History of Jira
Jira was developed by Atlassian in 2002 as a bug-tracking tool for software teams. However, it quickly evolved into a comprehensive project management platform. Over time, Atlassian introduced different versions, such as:
Today, Jira is widely used across industries from small to enterprise-level project management.
What is a Workflow in Jira?
It’s important to know what workflow is in Jira before getting into customization. A workflow in Jira represents the sequences of steps and transitions that an issue follows from creation to completion. In short, it defines how work moves through different stages.
Workflows typically include approvals, conditions and automation rules. For example, here is an example of a workflow in Jira service management.
Other Jira products can have different workflows based on their use cases. But the great thing about workflows is that they are customizable. They can be tailored to different projects, teams, or issue types.
Why Jira Customizations are Important?
The default settings of Jira software often don’t meet all the needs of a team. For example, custom healthcare solutions might need to track the correlation between patient data and medical equipment. They can customize Jira service management to reflect this relationship.
Without customization, teams can be lost in the mishmash of irregular data. Therefore, a customization removes the clutter and presents a clearer picture.
Best Practices for Customizing Jira Workflows
1.?Plan Your Process
The first step is to clearly outline your team's processes to ensure workflows align with actual practices. Furthermore, know your audience, which means tailoring dashboards to the specific needs of your team.
2. Strive for Simplicity
Overcomplicating workflows with too many statuses and transitions is good for nobody. Therefore, keep your workflow as simple as possible.
A simple workflow must have these elements:
For example, four to six steps are considered optimal for a workflow in Jira service management.
3.?Use Built-in Features
Jira admins can use standard Jira workflow features to improve performance. The software offers built-in conditions, validators, and post-functions to enforce rules and automate tasks.
4.?Collaborate with Stakeholders
Jira is normally used by multiple departments within a business. A workflow designed for one team might affect the operations of others as well.
That is why you need to engage team members and stakeholders in the design process to ensure the workflow meets everyone's needs.
5.?Iterative Testing
Don’t release workflows straight after designing them. Test them in a staging environment and gather user feedback for continuous improvement.
For example, you can test a workflow in Jira service management to check SLA breach codes before finalization.
6.?Update Regularly
Workflows need to change with the changing business requirements. Particularly if a workflow uses data for multiple projects, outdated transitions or statutes can slow down performance.
Therefore, keep workflows current to reflect evolving project needs and priorities.
A Word on Jira Dashboard
Jira dashboard is a customizable interface that provides an overview of key project information, such as:
The dashboard primarily consists of widgets that display specific data like issue statistics, burndown charts, or sprint progress. Jira dashboard is another great way of customizing your Jira environment.
It allows full customization to arrange gadgets to prioritize important data. You can personalize dashboards for specific roles.
Moreover, you can also create custom gadgets for tracking unique statistics.
Conclusion
Jira is like a Swiss Army knife that has multiple tools up it sleeves that can handle each and every aspect of project management. Jira service management acts as a help desk, Jira asset management organizes IT assets, while Jira software empowers development teams.
Customization, however, is at the core of using these tools to the maximum. A customized workflow improves your team’s productivity and optimizes processes.
Following these best practices, you can make the most of Jira’s capabilities. Remember that any tool is only as good as how it is used.