Creating and Managing Projects in Jira: A Beginner’s Guide

Managing a project can become chaotic without proper structure. Agile teams require the right tools to maintain order and prevent time consuming and costly mistakes. JIRA is considered the “gold standard” for agile project management, offering robust tracking, collaboration, and efficient workflow management features. However, for beginners, it can be overwhelming.

This article serves as a “crash course” in Jira, including basic usage, step-by-step instructions for project creation and management, and an overview of advanced features.

What is Jira Software

Jira Software is a project management tool developed by Atlassian Corporation, a software company. Originally, Jira was designed for agile software development to plan, track, and manage work efficiently.

Over time, Jira has expanded to become a flexible tool for managing various project tasks, making it an ideal solution for IT, marketing, operations, finance, HR, legal, and other departments.

Some notable products in the Atlassian ecosystem that complement Jira’s capabilities and offer a comprehensive suite for various project management include:

Confluence – a team workspace for knowledge sharing and collaboration
Jira Service Management – a service desk platform for IT operations and support teams
Jira Align – a platform that bridges the gap between business strategy and technical execution, using data from Jira to align work across teams with organizational goals.

Using Jira Software improves project management by enabling team collaboration within a logical structure, ensuring transparency, and keeping everyone on the same page.

Jira is highly flexible and can be customized to fit the specific needs of any team. Whether you follow Scrum, Kanban, or your own unique agile methodology, Jira’s adaptability makes it very effective for project management.

Additionally, Jira provides detailed reports and dashboards, helping all stakeholders track progress and stay informed throughout the project’s lifecycle.

Jira key concepts for beginners

Before we get into project creation and management details, let’s briefly cover the main Jira concepts you’ll encounter:

Projects are customizable collections of issues that teams use to coordinate various tasks, such as product development, tracking project milestones, managing marketing campaigns, implementing IT infrastructure changes, etc.
Issues are the core element of Jira and represent different types of work items such as tasks, bugs, stories, and epics.
Boards are visual tools for managing issues within a project. There are two types of boards:
- Scrum Boards for sprint-based work and is focused on iteration.
- Kanban Boards for continuous workflow management without sprints.
Sprints are time-boxed periods where a set amount of work is completed.
Backlog is a space where you can prioritize and manage work that can be pulled into sprints.
Workflows define issues’ lifecycles, moving them through statuses like To Do, In Progress, and Done. They can be customized to fit specific project needs.

How to create a project in Jira

Creating a project in Jira is straightforward; the steps are listed below. However, before creating a project, you need to make initial decisions to ensure everything aligns with your team’s workflow and goals. Although the examples provided are IT-focused, the setup instructions are applicable to various industries.

Jira offers various project creation templates, including Scrum, Kanban, Work Management, and others. Each template is designed to support different types of workflows, whether agile, traditional, or other project management methodologies.

Go with Scrum if you want to manage tasks in short, iterative cycles and need regular feedback to improve continuously.
Choose Kanban if your team prefers a continuous workflow without fixed sprints and values visual task management.
Select Work Management if your team needs to manage non-agile projects with more traditional planning and tracking, such as marketing campaigns, HR processes, or event planning.

Once you’ve picked the appropriate template, the next step is to create a team-managed or company-managed project.

Go with a team-managed project if your team is small, typically less than ten members, and needs flexibility and control over configurations without requiring administrative permissions.
Choose a company-managed project if your team is large, generally more than ten members, and requires standardized workflows and configurations set by the organization.

To create your project in Jira, follow these steps:

From the Jira home screen, select “Projects” in the navigation bar.
Click “Create project.”
Choose a template from the available categories. Templates are grouped into a library based on use-case categories or by Jira Cloud products. Select a category or product and click “Use template.”
Select either a company-managed or team-managed project type.
Enter a project name and, if needed, change the template.
Click “Create” to finalize the project setup.

***Note: Creating a project requires admin permissions, though any user can create a team-managed project if allowed by global permissions.

With your project set up, you can customize your Jira board and columns to better suit your team’s workflow and improve task management.

Customizing Jira board and columns

You can customize your board and columns in Jira to better suit your specific project needs. This customization can improve the visibility of work progress, help identify bottlenecks, and enhance overall project management.

To access your board settings in Jira, open your project, click the three dots in the top right corner, and select “Configure Board” from the dropdown menu. This will take you to the settings page, where you can customize various aspects of your board.

General: Here, you can change your board’s name, assign administrators, specify in which project the board is located, and define filters that determine which issues appear on your board.

For instance, you might filter to display only high-priority issues or tasks assigned to a specific team.
Columns: In this section, you can manage your workflow stages by adding, renaming, or deleting columns. While the board represents your workflow, it doesn’t have to match it exactly. You can configure columns to combine multiple workflow statuses.

For example, workflow statuses like “Canceled” and “Done” can both be represented in a single column called “Closed.” Additionally, you can limit the number of tasks in each column to avoid bottlenecks and ensure efficient task management.
Swimlanes: This section lets you organize tasks by categories, assignees, or other criteria, helping you visualize work based on different priorities or team members.
Quick Filters: Create custom filters to view specific issues by defining JQL queries tailored to your team’s needs. The section below explains Jira Query Language (JQL) and how it enables precise issue searches.
Card Layout: Add fields such as priority, due date, or assignee to customize the information displayed on task cards for better task management.
Timeline: Configure whether and how you want to see your tasks planned over time to help manage project schedules and deadlines effectively.

After setting up your workflow to match your team’s processes and configuring your board settings, the next crucial step is to effectively set up and manage your backlog.

Setting up a backlog

In Scrum projects, the backlog is used to plan sprints. It is a dynamic list where tasks are continuously added and prioritized. During sprint planning, teams select items from the backlog to include in the sprint, allowing for focused, incremental progress.

For example, a software development team working on implementing push notifications for an app would use Scrum to manage this feature’s development. They would plan the work in two-week sprints, breaking it into tasks such as designing the notification system, developing the server-side logic, integrating with third-party push notification services, etc. Regular sprint reviews would enable the team to gather user feedback and make necessary adjustments, ensuring the feature works properly.

In Kanban projects, while there are no sprints, the backlog remains crucial for managing incoming tasks. It helps organize and prioritize tasks to maintain a continuous and manageable workflow. Tasks are pulled from the backlog into the work-in-progress (WIP) column as the team has capacity, ensuring a steady workflow without overloading the team.

For instance, a technical support team handling infrastructure maintenance tasks would find Kanban most suitable. They can continuously prioritize and manage tasks such as server updates, performance monitoring, troubleshooting issues, etc. By using Kanban, the team can visualize the entire workflow, ensuring critical tasks are addressed promptly while balancing ongoing maintenance activities.

Whether you are using Scrum or Kanban, setting up a backlog in Jira follows similar basic steps:

Navigate to your Jira home screen, select the project you want to manage, and access the backlog view by clicking “Backlog” in the sidebar.

***Note: in some cases, you may need to enable the backlog feature in your project settings before it appears in the sidebar.
Create issues by clicking the “Create” button, selecting the issue type (Task, Bug, Story), filling in the necessary details, and then clicking “Create” to add them to the backlog.
Prioritize the backlog by dragging and dropping tasks to reorder them based on priority or time estimates for better planning.

What is JQL

JQL, or Jira Query Language, is a tool for searching data within Jira. Users can specify criteria like issue type, status, project, assignee, and custom fields to filter and sort issues, create custom reports, and automate processes.

Similar to SQL but specific to Jira, JQL helps both technical and non-technical users find, analyze, and report on data within the platform.

The basic structure of a JQL query consists of four components:

Field: Specifies the data element you want to search for (e.g., issue type, status, project, assignee).
Operator: Defines how you want to compare the field to the value (e.g., =, !=, IN, NOT IN, ~).
Value: The criteria you are searching for (e.g., Bug, In Progress, Project Alpha, Jane Doe).
Keyword: Additional keywords can enhance your query (e.g., AND, OR, ORDER BY).

For example, a JQL query to find bugs in “Project Alpha” that are “In Progress” and assigned to “Jane Doe” would look like this:

project = "Project Alpha" AND status = "In Progress" AND issuetype = Bug AND assignee = "Jane Doe"

Creating an issue in Jira

An issue in Jira is basically a single task that needs to be completed. For instance, within an application, an issue could be something like “Design login page,” which would be a smaller task within the “Implement User Authentication” epic.

Jira supports various issue types, each serving a specific purpose:

Task: A piece of work to be completed. Use tasks for general work items that don’t fit other specific categories. For example, “Update user documentation.”
Bug: A problem that needs to be fixed. Use bugs to track defects in the product. For instance, “Fix login page error when incorrect password is entered.”
Story: A user-focused feature or requirement. Use stories to describe features from the end user’s perspective. For example, “As a user, I want to be able to log in with my email address and password.”
Sub-task: A smaller piece of a task or story. Use sub-tasks to break down larger tasks or stories into manageable parts. For instance, “Create frontend design for login page” could be a sub-task under “Design login page.”
Epic: A large body of work broken down into smaller issues. Epics are used to group related tasks and stories that contribute to a significant feature or goal. For example, “Implement User Authentication” could be an epic that contains stories like “Design login page” and “Set up user database.”

To create an issue in Jira, click the “Create” button in the navigation bar. A window will pop up with several default fields that help to define and track the issue:

Summary: This is a brief title or description of the issue.
Description: A detailed explanation of the issue.
Assignee: The team member responsible for the issue.
Priority: The issue’s importance, which can be set to Low, Medium, High, or Critical.
Labels: Tags that help categorize the issue.
Attachments: Files related to the issue.

In addition to the default fields, Jira allows you to create custom fields tailored to your project’s needs, capturing any information critical to your team.

For a more detailed guide on managing projects in Jira, check out the “Jira Guides” category on our blog, where you can find more comprehensive articles.

Advanced features in Jira

Jira’s basic features are great for various project management needs, making it a solid choice for different teams. However, the tool can be significantly improved by utilizing some of its advanced functionalities, such as workflow customization and automation.

Workflow customization allows teams to customize Jira to fit their specific processes. For instance, engineers can customize their workflows to include stages like “Code Review” and “QA Testing,” ensuring thorough checks before code completion.

Automation in Jira reduces “manual work” by automating repetitive tasks. For instance, a marketing team can establish rules to automatically notify team members when a task is moved to the “Review” stage, ensuring faster task turnaround times.

Beyond its built-in features, Jira’s functionality can be further extended through Atlassian Marketplace, which offers a wide range of add-ons. These add-ons can provide additional tools and integrations to meet specific needs.

One example of such add-ons are those offered by TitanApps – a set of productivity Smart Tools crafted specifically for Jira.

Smart Tools includes apps such as:

Smart Checklist for Jira allows teams to create detailed ToDo lists within Jira issues, making tracking progress easier and ensuring that all necessary steps are completed. Features like mandatory items, text formatting, and custom statuses help teams organize their work efficiently.
Smart Templates for Jira automate repetitive processes by saving and reusing issue templates. This tool is particularly useful for teams that handle recurring tasks, such as product launches or recruitment processes. With Smart Templates, teams can save any issue type, pre-fill issue fields, and even create hierarchies of issues to ensure consistency and save time.
Smart Productivity & Team Performance Dashboard for Jira provides insights into team productivity by comparing performance across projects, sprints, epics, and issue types. It allows you to organize employees into teams based on their roles, review statistics, and track what teams are working on.
Smart AI Release Notes for Jira automates the creation of release notes by summarizing Jira tickets. It generates issue summaries using AI. The tool also helps share well-structured and formatted updates, keeping development teams, customers, and stakeholders up-to-date.

Try Smart Tools

Keep in mind that although Jira may seem daunting at first, it follows a logical pattern for completing tasks. Embrace the learning process, make use of the numerous high-quality Jira tutorials available, stay calm, and be confident that you can handle any project challenges that come your way!