JIRA Essentials - Third Edition

Table of Contents

JIRA Essentials Third Edition

Credits

About the Author

About the Reviewers

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Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Downloading the color images of this book

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. Getting Started with JIRA

The JIRA architecture

High-level architecture

Web browsers

Application services

Data storage

The JIRA installation directory

The JIRA home directory

System requirements

Hardware requirements

Software requirements

Operating systems

Java platforms

Databases

Application servers

Installation options

Installing and configuring JIRA

Installing Java

Installing MySQL

Preparing MySQL for JIRA

Installing JIRA

Obtaining and installing JIRA

Installing MySQL driver

The JIRA setup wizard

Starting and stopping JIRA

Post-installation configurations

Increasing JIRA's memory

Changing JIRA's port number and context path

Configuring HTTPS

Summary

2. Project Management

The JIRA hierarchy

Project category

Project

Issue

Field

Project permissions

Creating projects

Changing the project key format

Importing data into JIRA

Importing data through CSV

Project user interfaces

Project Browser

The Summary tab

The Issues tab

The Road Map tab

The Change Log tab

The Versions and Components tab

The Source and Reviews tab

Project Administration

The Summary tab

The Components tab

Creating components

Managing components

Component lead and default assignee

The Versions tab

Creating versions

Managing versions

Other tabs

The Help Desk project

Creating a new project category

Creating a new project

Assigning a project to a category

Creating new components

Putting it together

Summary

3. Issue Management

Understanding issues

JIRA issue summary

Working with issues

Creating an issue

Editing an issue

Deleting an issue

Moving an issue between projects

Casting a vote on an issue

Receiving notifications on an issue

Assigning issues to users

Sharing issues with other users

Issue linking

Enabling issue linking

Creating link types

Linking issues with other issues

Linking issues with remote contents

Issue cloning

Time tracking

Configuring time tracking

Specifying original estimates

Logging work

Issues and comments

Adding comments

Managing your comments

Permalinking a comment

Attachments

Enabling attachments in JIRA

Attaching files

Attaching screenshots

Issue types and subtasks

Creating issue types

Deleting issue types

Subtasks

Enabling subtasks

Creating subtasks

Issue type schemes

Creating issue type schemes

Issue priorities

The help desk project

Adding new issue types

Creating an issue type scheme

Putting it together

Summary

4. Field Management

Built-in fields

Custom fields

Custom field types

Standard fields

Advanced fields

Searchers

Custom field context

Managing custom fields

Adding a custom field

Editing/deleting a custom field

Configuring a custom field

Adding custom field contexts

Configuring select options

Setting default values

Field configuration

Adding a field configuration

Editing/deleting a field configuration

Copying a field configuration

Managing field configurations

Field description

Field requirement

Field visibility

Field rendering

Screens

Field configuration scheme

Managing field configuration schemes

Adding a field configuration scheme

Editing/deleting a field configuration scheme

Copying a field configuration scheme

Configuring a field configuration scheme

Associating a field configuration scheme with a project

The Help Desk project

Setting up a custom field

Setting up the field configuration

Setting up a field configuration scheme

Putting it together

Summary

5. Screen Management

JIRA and screens

Working with screens

Adding a new screen

Editing/deleting a screen

Copying a screen

Configuring screens

Adding a field to a screen

Deleting a field from a screen

Using screen tabs

Adding a tab to a screen

Editing/deleting a tab

Working with screen schemes

Adding a screen scheme

Editing/deleting a screen scheme

Copying a screen scheme

Configuring a screen scheme

Associating screens to issue operations

Editing/deleting an association

Issue type screen scheme

Adding an issue type screen scheme

Editing/deleting an issue type screen scheme

Copying an issue type screen scheme

Configuring an issue type screen scheme

Associating issue types to screen schemes

Editing/deleting an association

Associating an issue type screen scheme with a project

The Help Desk project

Setting up screens

Setting up screen schemes

Setting up issue type screen schemes

Putting it together

Summary

6. Workflows and Business Processes

Mapping business processes

Understanding workflows

Managing workflows

Issue statuses

Transitions

Triggers

Conditions

Validators

Post functions

Using the workflow designer

Authoring a workflow

Adding a trigger to a transition

Adding a condition to a transition

Adding a validator to a transition

Adding a post function to a transition

Updating an existing workflow

Workflow schemes

Creating a workflow scheme

Configuring a workflow scheme

Assigning an issue type to a workflow

Editing/deleting an association

Activating a workflow scheme

Extending workflow with workflow add-ons

JIRA Suite Utilities

JIRA Workflow Toolbox

JIRA Misc Workflow Extensions

Workflow Enhancer for JIRA

Script Runner

The Help Desk project

Setting up workflows

Setting up workflow schemes

Putting it together

Summary

7. E-mails and Notifications

JIRA and e-mail

Mail servers

Working with outgoing mails

Adding an outgoing mail server

Disabling outgoing mail

Enabling SMTP over SSL

Sending a test e-mail

Mail queues

Viewing the mail queue

Flushing the mail queue

Manually sending e-mails

Events

Adding a mail template

Adding a custom event

Firing a custom event

Notifications

The notification scheme

Adding a notification scheme

Editing a notification scheme

Deleting a notification scheme

Copying a notification scheme

Managing a notification scheme

Adding a notification

Deleting a notification

Assigning a notification scheme

Troubleshooting notifications

Incoming e-mails

Adding an incoming mail server

Mail handlers

Creating a new issue or adding a comment to an existing issue

Adding a comment with the entire e-mail body

Adding a comment from the non-quoted e-mail body

Creating a new issue from each e-mail message

Adding a comment before a specified marker or separator in the e-mail body

Adding a mail handler

Editing and deleting a mail handler

The Help Desk project

Setting up mail servers

Setting up custom events

Setting up a notification scheme

Setting up notifications

Putting it together

Summary

8. Securing JIRA

User directories

Managing user directories

Connecting to LDAP

Users

User Browser

Adding a user

Enabling public signup

Enabling CAPTCHA

Groups

Group Browser

Adding a group

Editing group memberships

Deleting a group

Project roles

Project Role Browser

Adding a project role

Editing a project role

Deleting a project role

Managing default members

Assigning project role members

JIRA permissions hierarchy

Global permissions

JIRA system administrator versus JIRA administrator

Configuring global permissions

Granting global permissions

Revoking global permissions

Project permissions

Permission schemes

Adding a permission scheme

Editing a permission scheme

Deleting a permission scheme

Copying a permission scheme

Configuring a permission scheme

Granting a permission

Revoking a permission

Applying a permission scheme

Issue security

Issue security scheme

Adding an issue security scheme

Configuring an issue security scheme

Adding a security level

Assigning users to a security level

Setting a default security level

Deleting a security level

Applying an issue security scheme

Troubleshooting permissions

Workflow security

The Help Desk project

Setting up groups

Setting up user group association

Setting up permission schemes

Setting up permissions

Putting it together

Summary

9. Searching, Reporting, and Analysis

Search interface and options in JIRA

Issue navigator

Basic search

Advanced search with JQL

Quick search

Working with search results

Switching result views

Exporting search results

Customizing the column layout

Sharing search results

Filters

Creating a filter

Managing filters

Editing and sharing a filter

Subscribing to a filter

Deleting a filter

Changing the ownership of a filter

Reports

Generating a report

Dashboard

Managing dashboards

Creating a dashboard

Editing and sharing a dashboard

Deleting a dashboard

Configuring a dashboard

Setting a layout for the dashboard

Gadgets

Placing a gadget on the dashboard

Moving a gadget

Editing a gadget

Deleting a gadget

The Help Desk project

Setting up filters

Setting up dashboards

Setting up gadgets

Putting it together

Summary

10. JIRA Service Desk

Introducing JIRA Service Desk

Installing JIRA Service Desk

Getting started with JIRA Service Desk

Creating a new service desk

Branding your customer portal

Service desk users

Adding an agent to service desk

Adding a customer to service desk

Adding a collaborator to service desk

Request types

Setting up request types

Organizing request types into groups

Setting up fields

Setting up workflow

Service-level agreement

Setting up an SLA

Setting up custom calendars

Queues

Creating a new queue

Creating knowledge base articles

Summary

11. Advanced Features

JIRA Agile

Getting JIRA Agile

Starting with JIRA Agile

Working with boards

Creating a new board

Working with Scrum boards

Working with epics

Working with sprints

Working with Kanban boards

Setting up column constraints

Releasing a version

Setting JIRA Agile as the home page

Issue collector

Setting up an issue collector

Embedding the issue collector

Summary

Index

JIRA Essentials Third Edition

JIRA Essentials Third Edition

Copyright © 2015 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: May 2011

Second published: April 2013

Third edition: April 2015

Production reference: 1220415

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place

35 Livery Street

Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-78439-812-5

www.packtpub.com

Credits

Author

Patrick Li

Reviewers

Mizan Ali Sayed

Miroslav Králik

Heiko Lübbe

Sabina Şerbu

Commissioning Editor

Taron Pereira

Acquisition Editor

Harsha Bharwani

Content Development Editor

Arwa Manasawala

Technical Editor

Saurabh Malhotra

Copy Editor

Charlotte Carneiro

Project Coordinator

Danuta Jones

Proofreaders

Safis Editing

Lauren E. Harkins

Paul Hindle

Joanna McMahon

Indexer

Hemangini Bari

Production Coordinator

Nilesh R. Mohite

Cover Work

Nilesh R. Mohite

About the Author

Patrick Li is a cofounder and senior engineer at AppFusions. AppFusions is an expert in developing and packaging integrated solutions for many enterprise applications and platforms, including IBM Connections, Jive, Atlassian, Google Apps, Box, Dropbox, and more.

He has worked in the Atlassian ecosystem for over 8 years, developing products and solutions for the Atlassian platform and providing expert consulting services. He is one of the top contributors to the Atlassian community, providing answers and advices on forums such as Atlassian Answers and Quora.

He has extensive experience in designing and deploying Atlassian solutions from the ground up and customizing existing deployments for clients across verticals, such as healthcare, software engineering, financial services, and government agencies.

I would like to thank all the reviewers for their valuable feedback and also the publishers and coordinators for their help and support in making this happen. Lastly, I would like to thank my family, especially my wife Katherine, for encouraging me along the way.

About the Reviewers

Mizan Ali Sayed is an Atlassian expert who has extensive experience in implementing, customizing, and supporting Atlassian tools, mainly JIRA and Confluence. He also has experience in training small, medium, and large teams on JIRA and JIRA administration.

He is active within the Atlassian community and has published free add-ons on the Atlassian Marketplace. He has previously reviewed two books on JIRA administration and development by Packt publishing. Mizan has won the Star Employee Award for 3 consecutive years.

You can reach him at <mizanalisayed@gmail.com>.

First and foremost, I would like to thank my wife. She has been my inspiration and motivation for continuing to improve my knowledge and moving my career forward. I also thank my wonderful daughter, Aaminah, for always making me smile. I'd like to thank my parents for allowing me to follow my ambitions throughout my childhood.

My co-workers, especially Amrut Bhonsle, showed me the ropes in IT. Without this knowledge, I wouldn't have ventured into learning about JIRA and other Atlassian tools.

Miroslav Králik is a young professional focusing on ITIL-based ITSM, with a passion for helping clients succeed and getting them excited about making their products, services, and processes better. He is currently working at a multinational integrated digital agency, where he leads a technical team and is responsible for EMEA web applications, maintenance and support services.

He has been using, administrating, and developing custom plugins and scripts for JIRA for 3 years at many different companies.

He is also one of the cofounders of Next Kickoff, an SRO, a lean start-up company based in Prague that focuses on solving specific domain problems.

Miroslav can be found on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikralik).

I would like to thank my girlfriend, Maria, for her support and understanding when I have worked evenings and nights. I would also like to thank all my current and former colleagues that I have had the pleasure of working with, and a special thanks to my colleague and friend, Kaveh, for transferring all the knowledge while working together over the past few years.

Heiko Lübbe has been working with JIRA, on a daily basis, since 2007. He has worked in different roles, as an end user with ticket-based workflows, setting up and introducing JIRA, JIRA administration, JIRA migration, as a project manager, and a Scrum master. As a freelance consultant, Mr. Lübbe works with many different companies, from small Internet companies to big multinational companies, but always with JIRA.

He presented Using JIRA for project management at the Berlin/Brandenburg PMI Chapter meeting in 2012.

He is still working as a senior technical IT project manager on a freelance basis in Berlin, Germany.

Sabina Şerbu has a PhD in distributed systems from the University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland, and an MSc in computer science from the Politehnica University of Bucharest, Romania.

Sabina has been working in the areas of networking and document management, and she is often involved in academic projects. She has hands-on and managerial experience with JIRA and has been an active reviewer for conferences and technical documentation.

Sabina Şerbu can be found at www.sabinaserbu.ch.

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Preface

Over the years, JIRA has grown from a simple bug tracking system designed for engineers to manage their projects to an all-purpose issue tracking solution. As it has matured over time, JIRA has become more than an application, it has transformed into a platform, with a suite of other products that are built on it, enabling it to adapt and deliver value to a wide variety of use cases.