What is Jira

Jira is a tool to help team plan, track and manage work. Managing work in Jira helps your team be more transparent, efficient, and collaborative.

Transparency means everyone on the team can see what work is getting done.

Efficiency means the team can plan ahead by knowing exactly when work will start and end.

Collaboration means working closely with your teammates, keeping discussions and comments well-organized.

In Jira, you'll update issues to show work progress or add relevant information.

• Completed a work item? Update the issue in Jira.

• Need to ask a question? Update the issue in Jira.

• Have notes from a meeting? Update the issue in Jira.

Definitions

Issue – is an individual work Item. Issues on the board are called issue cards. Issues cards move across the board based on their status of work progress.

Project – is a collection of issues. Projects can be organized by teams or large deliverables.

Board – is a visual display of work progress. Boards often have 3-4 columns to show the status of issues. Boards are helpful as a quick visual to see upcoming issues or where issues stands across the team.

A status – shows the current progress of an issue. Common statuses are To Do. In Progress, Done. It can be tailored.

Epic

An  epic  is a large initiative. Known as "parent" issues, epics contain smaller issues within them. They often represent large bodies of work that can break down into smaller tasks.

Task

A  task  is the most common issue type. They contain a more detailed description of a work item. Tasks can exist within a larger epic or exist all on their own.

Story

A story  is a feature or requirement from the user's perspective. Stories are commonly used by software development teams. They define work items in non-technical language. For example, "As a user, I need a back button on this screen." Stories are at the same hierarchical level as tasks, and some teams use the two issue types interchangeably.

Bug

A bug describes a problem or error, mostly used in software development teams. They can exist within a larger epic or exist all on their own.

Subtask

A  subtask  is a further defined issue, used to break down tasks, stories, or bugs into smaller work items. Subtasks must have a parent issue type. They cannot exist on their own.

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