Using JIRA for Software Development

Configure JIRA for Software Development

You use many different tools during your software development process, and you can integrate them with JIRA to keep track of issues throughout your dev cycle. You'll need to setup just a few things to get started:

  1. Create a Project & Users
  2. Connect to source
  3. Get ready to review
  4. Get ready to build

Create a Project & Users

Before you can create issues, you need to create a project to contain them.

  1. Click 'Administration' then 'Projects' under the 'Projects' tab. 'Add Project' is at the top right.
  2. Project Key is the short prefix for issues: 'ABC-123'. Note that this cannot be changed later.

You can also import data into JIRA from another bug tracker. 

Unless you're exploring JIRA alone, you should start out by adding other users to your instance.

  1. From 'Administration', select Users, then Add User.
  2. Locate the new user and click the 'Groups' link in the far right column.
  3. Select the appropriate groups for the new user:
  • 'jira-users' can create and edit issues
  • 'jira-developers' can create, edit and log work (time spent) against issues
  • 'jira-administrators' has full access to Administration
  • note: these are simply defaults - you can change them later.

Documenation: Defining a Project, Managing Users

Learn how projects, issues, and workflows, fit together in this 2 minute video:

Connect to Source

Do you have an existing code repository? Whether it's in the cloud or on your own hardware, you can point JIRA to any repo and automatically link issues directly to source.

Link any or all of your repositories to JIRA with the simple steps below. Once you've connected to source, read on to learn how to Track your Reviews and Track your Builds.

Git or DVCS in the Cloud

If you're using Bitbucket and/or GitHub already, you can connect to JIRA in minutes with the free DVCS Connector. The JIRA DVCS Connector ties your Bitbucket, GitHub and/or GitHub Enterprise repositories to JIRA so you can link every commit to a bug or development task. See how easy it is to install and configure in this short video: simply enter your credentials and go!

Git Behind the Firewall

Atlassian knows that Git behind your firewall might involve a number of different configurations, so we have three options to connect to JIRA depending on your environment. Connect JIRA to:

  • Mixed Environment: Git plus SVN, CVS and/or Perforce behind the firewall
  • GitHub Enterprise
  • Atlassian Stash

Mixed Environment: get FishEye

If you've got a mixed environment of Git as well as traditional version control such as SVN, Perforce, and/or CVS, Atlassian FishEye makes it easy to integration all your repos with JIRA and supports any future plans you may have to migrate teams from SVN to Git.

FishEye makes it easy to understand the history of your source and integrate with JIRA for development traceability, real time dev activity, and contextual activities to perform actions on JIRA directly from a commit. FishEye is available as a free 30-day trial right alongside JIRA.

GitHub Enterprise: configure the connector

If you're using GitHub Enterprise already, you can connect to JIRA in minutes with the free DVCS Connector. The JIRA DVCS Connector ties your Bitbucket, GitHub and/or GitHub Enterprise repositories to JIRA so you can link every commit to a bug or development task. It's easy to install and configure.

No Repository Management: get Atlassian Stash

If you haven't set up Git repository management, look no further than Atlassian Stash. Stash is available as a free 30-day trial right alongside JIRA, and you can get up and running in minutes.

 

Subversion, Perforce, or CVS: get FishEye and Crucible

FishEye makes it easy to understand the history of your source and integrate with JIRA for development traceability, real time dev activity, and contextual activities to perform actions on JIRA directly from a commit.

Code review helps you ship better code, and Crucible enables code review that development teams actually enjoy. Crucible lets you track your reviews right in JIRA.

FishEye and Crucible are available as a free 30-day trial right alongside JIRA. If you're using SVN, Perforce or CVS for source control, you won't want to miss the killer plug-and-play integration you'll get with JIRA, FishEye and Crucible.

See how easy it is to get set up:

Get ready to Build

Create a complete release workflow with continuous integration and release management in Atlassian Bamboo. Bamboo gives you build results inside JIRA issues and streamlined issue creation from build result summaries to keep development progress flowing smoothly.

  • Visibility for stakeholders: real-time build results inside JIRA issues means project managers and team leads don't need to dig into the CI tool or bug developers for status updates. 
  • Flow for developers: create issues and track time spent resolving build failures in JIRA without ever leaving Bamboo.

Bamboo is available as a free 30-day trial right alongside JIRA. See how easy it is to get set up: