When you download project management software like JIRA, you expect to become more organized and efficient. However, did you know that there are more JIRA tips and tricks that could further increase your productivity?
Productivity is a key factor in project management. Whether you work remotely or in a traditional office, project management tool can help you to boost productivity, increase efficiency and gain collaboration with all your team members. To coordinate cross-functional team members and increase productivity, there are many software tools that can help you manage the project life cycle and make sure everyone is working together effectively. The right project management tool can help your team stay on top of every task.
About JIRA
JIRA comes from “Gojira,” the Japanese word for “Godzilla.” It is a productivity application and project management tool developed by the Australian company Atlassian. It functions as a tracking tool that helps you monitor issues and bugs in your software. At the same time, it enforces Scrum management for your projects.
Overall, JIRA helps organizations plan, manage, report, and carry out tasks effectively. There are three different versions of it. The application of each version varies depending on the users and their needs.
JIRA Core is for general project tracking, task management, and progress monitoring. Businesses, teams, and organizations generally use it.
JIRA Software functions best for software development planning and issues assignment using virtual Scrum and Kanban boards. The Software is mainly preferable for software developers, testing teams, and Scrum masters.
JIRA Service Desk manages services and help-desks for customers who use self-help features. It is also useful for end-user employees and help-desk agents.
Advantages of using JIRA
- It is customizable to suit any team or organization’s needs. JIRA can accommodate issue resolution and project management from the simplest to the most complex.
- It is affordable compared to its competition.
- Support and maintenance are readily accessible, so sustaining the software is practical and more cost-efficient in the long term.
- It has a simple and intuitive interface that makes it easy for end-users to adapt to.
- The program is light and adapts to most major commercial databases and browsers.
JIRA tips and tricks
JIRA intends to make life easier for businesses, organizations, teams, and groups. Here are a few best practices or JIRA tips and tricks that can help you make things even more accessible.
Create a personal dashboard
JIRA is known for its customizability. Some would even argue that it is too customizable. However, you should take time to customize a personal dashboard, something for you and you alone.
Your team may have several boards for several projects. However, it helps a ton if you can easily find all of the items or issues specifically for you on one separate board. You can keep track of everything that is assigned to you and not miss any ticket.
Make use of keyboard shortcuts.
It’s a pain in the neck to navigate through so many things when managing multiple projects. Luckily, one of the best JIRA tips and tricks uses keyboard and relevant shortcuts to increase your efficiency by ten. Here are some of our favorite shortcuts:
- ‘J’ and ‘K’ to jump between selected issues
- ‘I’ to assign an issue to yourself
- ‘A’ to assign an issue to someone else
- ‘S+T’ and ‘S+B’ to send issues to the backlog or the bottom of the backlog
- Right-click to send issues to the current print or the backlog (top or bottom)
- CMD+click to select multiple issues
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Clean up your backlog
Things can clog up your backlog to the point that it seems like an endless pit that you wouldn’t want to stick your hand into. One of the wisest JIRA tips and tricks is to sift through the oldest items in your backlog and declutter it.
Decide whether the backlog item is salvageable or not. If it is, place it on high priority, and if not close it. Either way, you get rid of the issue, and your backlog is cleaner.
Log as you go
Some JIRA users like to compound all their progress and then log everything at the end of the day. This defeats the Agile Scrum principle of development. The best way is to record each transition and their time as you work on them.
This way of doing it allows you to consciously monitor your progress as it is ongoing. Treat it as sort of like a real-time update of your project. This is much more favorable than waiting for the end of the day or the day after to see how far you’ve come.
Tracking real-time progress is not only more efficient for managing multi-step projects such as software development. It is also deeply gratifying. It’s like every step that you take is appreciated and treated as the positive development that it is.
You can create a JIRA browser in your search engine.
It is undoubtedly more efficient and more comfortable if you can just jump to a specific page, task, or issue without having to click through a lot of things. The software has a search engine browser feature that lets you do this. Maximize it and minimize your navigation time efficiently.
In Chrome, you can do this by clicking ‘settings’ > ‘ manage search engines’ > ‘ add search engine.’ This is a neat trick that you can use with other apps and websites like Twitter and Dictionary.com.
These are five of the best hacks you can use in JIRA. However, there are many more JIRA tips and tricks you can use to make project management a breeze.
If you’re new to JIRA and you’d like to learn more about it take the Understanding JIRA For Users, Managers And Admins or Setting Up A Real-World Project In JIRA online course from Skill Success.
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