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reviewer1618317 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Manager (TCoE) - ALM Platforms & PO &T IT at a pharma/biotech company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
An agile solution which allows for planning and visibility, but lacks scalability and governance
Pros and Cons
  • "The product is good, stable and very cost-effective for small teams."
  • "As the solution is highly configurable, it has very poor governance."

What is our primary use case?

We are using the recent version.

We use it for story and sprint planning, as well as for reporting. 

How has it helped my organization?

The solution benefits our organization with its agility, planning and visibility in respect of large teams spanning different geo locations.

What is most valuable?

The tool is well known and popular to use. 

The sprint planning is pretty good, as are the reporting piece, retrospective reporting and the planning board. 

It is a great tool from the planning perspective, such as that of capacity and sprint planning. 

What needs improvement?

As the solution is highly configurable, it has very poor governance. There is nothing which comes out of Jira to go into the product. It is free for all and anyone can create with it. This means that the responsibility lies with the user community to create some form of governance. 

Moreover, the solution is geared to small teams. It lacks scalability. 

The tool is not good at the enterprise level. This means that, depending on how the person installed the software, the issue of performance may increase commensurate with the number of projects. While plugin for x-ray exists, it is not that mature in test management. Although it's a good tool for many of the smaller clients, once a person goes deeper into it, it's not there, even though it will get the work done. 

It is a less desirable solution in controlled environments, such as science, banking and finance, in which there is a need for certain compliance supports.

The solution is not that great for audit histories. It's a great tool when much integration is involved. With cold products, things can always be achieved through other means. 

When the teams collaborate, they need multiple metrics to be tracked. With this comes the issue of direct impacts, such as the appearance of one's UI and its usability aspects. The screens have changed greatly in appearance over the last ten years. This is an issue which every software dealt with in line with the growth of usage and complexity. 

Buyer's Guide
Jira
February 2025
Learn what your peers think about Jira. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: February 2025.
837,501 professionals have used our research since 2012.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Jira for nearly ten years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is good for small teams. It lacks scalability. It does not work well when it must be used across multiple domains and multiple teams which need to collaborate. 

The Atlassian strategy is that the solution be open to all to encourage collaboration. But, this raises the issue of how to control the data input and the tool and all that it comprises in respect of the reporting that is generated. This means that poor data quality in the geo projects will equate with poor reporting on it. 

As such, supplementation by the teams or organizations using it is required. They must come up with their own rules of governance about who can do what. 

The product is not being extensively used at the moment. It is a niche product. I have not seen usage behind it. It involves ID users for certain teams. 

We do not have plans to increase usage. This will depend on the feedback we receive. 

How are customer service and support?

I have not made use of technical support. 

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We did not switch to Jira. It is simply one of the products that we also use in addition to an in-house micro focus ALM. 

How was the initial setup?

While I was not involved in the initial setup, my understanding is that it is simple. Atlassian puts out many different products and I cannot say for certain how I would have handled ones which are on-premises, compared to those which are cloud-based or server products. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I am not in a position to comment on the licensing. 

What other advice do I have?

We make use of the solution on Jira Cloud. 

While I cannot say with certainty, I would estimate the number of users in our organization at a thousand-plus. 

This figure contemplates different departments, such as that involving support. 

My advice is that someone in a large enterprise first give consideration to the issue of governance before implementing the solution. For a small team it is ready to use straight out of the box. One need just try and stay with the default workflows. There is no need to overengineer the product. 

The product is good, stable and very cost-effective for small teams. These are some of its advantages. 

I rate Jira as a seven out of ten. 

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1575774 - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Lead at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Good reporting and visualizations, sprint tracking is helpful, simple and quick to set up
Pros and Cons
  • "The sprint tracking is really helpful and very convenient."
  • "Having more seamless integration with Confluence would really help us track our product management activity and other product details in one place."

What is our primary use case?

We use Jira every day for tasks like tracking product deployments, mapping it to the tools that we use, and sprint tracking. We also used it for audit purposes, where everybody goes back to that for details about each user story.

Each sprint tracking is done in there, as well as the other product-related activities

All aspects of Jira administration help with respect to QA development and deployment.

How has it helped my organization?

This solution allows us to use customized workloads for different projects.

What is most valuable?

The sprint tracking is really helpful and very convenient.

Scrum boards are very easy to follow and we use them every day.

The roadmap, to understand what our team is going, is quite helpful when it comes to understanding things in a visual format. It provides good visuals such as the Burnup Chart.

Requirement traceability is easier to do with this product.

It integrates well with other tools.

What needs improvement?

We have been working on integrating Jira with Confluence for the past months but it is not yet working. Having more seamless integration with Confluence would really help us track our product management activity and other product details in one place.

Integration with BitBucket would allow us to have a better deployment process.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Jira for between four and five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This product is very much stable, and we have every tracking option being used.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It scales well, from what we have seen. We have more than 350 users that are in groups, and perhaps another 150 in addition to that. We are onboarding a lot of teams.

How are customer service and technical support?

When I need support, I contact our in-house technical team. I have not spoken with anybody from outside the organization or anybody from Atlassian.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We were using the on-premises version until a year or two ago when we migrated to the cloud version.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was simple and it didn't take much time to complete.

What about the implementation team?

We have an in-house team to deploy and manage our IT solutions. There may have been some outside help initially but everything is now done in-house.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We have an enterprise license that includes cloud service and support.

What other advice do I have?

Overall, this is a very good product and I think that it is the best project management tool. It is used company-wide and I recommend it.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Jira
February 2025
Learn what your peers think about Jira. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: February 2025.
837,501 professionals have used our research since 2012.
IT Planning and Control Manager at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Provides flexibility to create different flows, responds to our needs in terms of scalability, and has good stability
Pros and Cons
  • "The flexibility to create different flows is most valuable."
  • "It can have a more high-level view of portfolios. It has quite detailed views, but I would like a high-level view of portfolios. We want to integrate Jira with Microsoft Active Directory, and I don't know how easy or hard it is going to be. I don't know if Jira supports this. We are starting that integration in the last quarter of this year. I hope to find all the required tools for this integration."

What is our primary use case?

We are basically using it to register all the requirements and issues so that we can track them and control the flow and different states. We also use it for reporting and configuring dashboards for portfolio management.

It is a SaaS solution, and we are using its latest version.

What is most valuable?

The flexibility to create different flows is most valuable.

What needs improvement?

It can have a more high-level view of portfolios. It has quite detailed views, but I would like a high-level view of portfolios.

We want to integrate Jira with Microsoft Active Directory, and I don't know how easy or hard it is going to be. I don't know if Jira supports this. We are starting that integration in the last quarter of this year. I hope to find all the required tools for this integration.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Its stability is very good. I have no complaints.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is scalable because it is a SaaS solution. It is the best choice for us because it responds to our needs all the time.

We have around 100 people in our organization who use this solution. They are developers, QAs, and managers.

How are customer service and technical support?

Their support was very good for some of our questions. We didn't have too many issues.

We also have a partner who helps us with all the contracts, payments, and other things. If there is an issue, we contact them, and they provide support.

How was the initial setup?

It was easy because the person who helped with portfolio management had previous experience with Jira. So, it was easy for us. It took about three weeks.

What other advice do I have?

The most important thing is to precisely decide your flows and different stages and cycles. If all these are very clear, you won't have a problem setting up Jira.

I would rate Jira a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Other
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user1090899 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director Software R&D at Fluid Data Services
Real User
Full integration between tasks has decreased development time up to 30% for small projects
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature is the full integration between Work management, Source code management, and Test Automation."
  • "The hierarchy for Jira tickets is too flat."

What is our primary use case?

Our primary use case is ALM, which is very well supported by Atlassian.

How has it helped my organization?

We have realized an improvement of 30% in terms of the duration of our small projects (six months with three to four people).

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is the full integration between Work management, Source code management, and Test Automation.

This integration allows a full traceability during the development processes, which is mandatory for some industries like automotive, or security

What needs improvement?

The hierarchy for Jira tickets is too flat.

For how long have I used the solution?

Ten years.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Service Owner at Mecklenburg County
Real User
Our SDLC has improved through additional transparency and communication
Pros and Cons
  • "The features that we find most valuable are the Workflow, Scrum workflow, and Dashboards."
  • "It would be very useful to have drag and drop time tracking."

What is our primary use case?

Our primary use case is executing the SDLC.

How has it helped my organization?

This solution has improved our organization by enforcing transparency and communication. Individual roles and responsibility are defined and followed.

What is most valuable?

The features that we find most valuable are the Workflow, Scrum workflow, and Dashboards.

What needs improvement?

We have found that improvement is needed in their customer support (communication, which is ironic).

It would be very useful to have drag and drop time tracking.

For how long have I used the solution?

Six years.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user208314 - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager and Platform Owner at a insurance company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
TAM helps us with understanding the limitations of tools, suggested sizing and approach for operation teams.

What is most valuable?

The features of the Technical Account Management (TAM) which have been most valuable for us are understanding the limitations of tools, suggested sizing and approach for operation teams, and suggested approaches for onboarding and educations.

How has it helped my organization?

The TAM provided good insight as to how we can more effectively perform troubleshooting, and scale down operational costs.

What needs improvement?

Co-location. Working out times with someone on the West Coast is painful. Also more ROI material. Big blue can spin out ridiculous documents that executives love as to why spending millions of dollars on IBM will somehow make us richer.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

The TAM was able to assist us with issues we had involving deployment.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It was a struggle with TAM vs. Premier but eventually we were able to address some stability issues. We had an app crashing every other day for several weeks before it got the attention we thought this contract would bring.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

In terms of the TAM and scalability the only issue was just an upsell to datacenter really. But the TAM is helping look at forecasting triggers etc to understand the need for more instances. It is really difficult to get any sizing recommendations for horsepower though. The feedback is “well every customer is unique, so it’s difficult to say” and push to Premier Support for that.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

A few mismatched tools. The Atlassian ecosystem has tools that do one function very well, but pull together nicely as a platform. Would like more consistent navigation and provisioning integration though like what is seen in On demand/cloud offering.

How was the initial setup?

We had setup well before the TAM agreement. Pretty straightforward other then lack of sizing recommendations across the board.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Yes, TeamCollab, Home grown tools, Redmine, Jenkins, XLDeploy, Jazz/BuildForge and RTC. RTC and XLDeploy/Jenkins combo is still widely used and seen as an internal competitor.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend buying premier support for half the price and training your folks internally. It’s really not at all what we felt was advertised.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
it_user150291 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Executive, IT Developer at a insurance company with 51-200 employees
Vendor
Our development team and it's functional staff have gained a better overview of the issues that are being worked on

What is most valuable?

<ul> <li>Ability to search old issues.</li> <li>Ability to create your own tags and fields, ie customization.</li> <li>Easy of use. I have trained several non-it people in its usage and they all say it's really easy software to use.</li> </ul>

How has it helped my organization?

Our development team and it's functional staff have gained a better overview of the issues that are being worked on and what issued are getting delivered in a patch.

What needs improvement?

Perhaps a built in "Jira-Capture"

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used it at 3-4 different companies over the last 8 years.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

None

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

None

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Current company, only a small userbase of about 25 users. Previous company perhaps 150-200 users - no issues whatsoever. (We're in Norway, not many people here.)

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Previous solutions ... did not work - to put it mildly.

How was the initial setup?

Straightforward setup.

What about the implementation team?

In House

What was our ROI?

Previous product cost us about 100.000 NOK/yearly (USD 15,000/year). JIRA costs us perhaps around 25.000NOK (USD 3,800) on time setup cost with all the plugins we've purchased.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Time spent setting things up. Perhaps one or two hours a week on average for one developer.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

No, did not evaluate other options, as JIRA fulfilled our need.

What other advice do I have?

Go for it!
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Lead, Tools implementation &amp; Project Management at a financial services firm with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Empowers us to automate our workflows, and offers integrated Scrum tracking capabilities
Pros and Cons
  • "I feel the strongest feature of Jira is its workflow engine. It helps us automate our workflows within our organization. It's the one characteristic of Jira which I think can help any organization, be it in any domain."
  • "In the way it is deployed, I think Jira is too dependent on the third-party applications that are available in its marketplace. If we could get some of the basic functionalities which are offered by these third-party applications, that would be ideal because each time we need a new functionality, we have to purchase a new plugin as an add-on."

What is our primary use case?

For the past two years I have been administrating Jira for our enterprise organization, in which there are about 300 end users. Apart from an administrator, I'm also a hands-on Jira user now.

Our main uses for Jira include asset management, project management, Scrum project tracking, Kanban projects tracking, and cost tracking, as well as productivity measurement.

What is most valuable?

I feel the strongest feature of Jira is its workflow engine. It empowers us to automate our workflows within our organization. It's the one characteristic of Jira which I think can help any organization, be it in any domain. Also, its Scrum tracking capabilities are a great help, and these come out-of-the-box with Jira.

What needs improvement?

In the way it is deployed, I think Jira is too dependent on the third-party applications that are available in its marketplace. If we could get some of the basic functionalities which are offered by these third-party applications, that would be ideal because each time we need a new functionality, we have to purchase a new plugin as an add-on.

Then, on top of that, we have to keep paying the maintenance charge for those third-party applications along with Jira's maintenance cost. The functionalities of some of these plugins are pretty basic, which a user would expect out-of-the-box, instead of having to pay repeatedly for it.

Also, on the security front, if Jira could have a default, inbuilt encryption mechanism for all the data it stores, it would help organizations which handle sensitive data like healthcare or financial sectors.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using Jira since 2020.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's pretty stable and I haven't had major issues with it.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The current deployment is not that scalable. But when we go for an alternative deployment model such as the data center model, it's scalable.

We were on the server model for Jira, which is being discontinued in 2024. The data center model is pretty scalable. I think that shouldn't have any issues, but it is limited. I think the data center is limited to only two instances of Jira running in parallel. That should be sufficient, and I think with data center being the only on-premises deployment model, I think it's all right to have that.

How are customer service and support?

Overall, I'd rate the support an eight out of ten. I don't see any glaring shortcomings but I do see certain things which could be addressed better in their support rather than just providing documentation and saying, "Please follow this documentation."

If they could provide on-call support for some of the issues and give us a path to follow, that would be sufficient. They don't need to sit down and resolve the issue for us. But if they could point us in the right direction, I would be satisfied with that.

That said, we do get that kind of support, sometimes. There is personalized support and we have a dedicated Jira expert who helps us with our tickets. But if we are stuck, and we are not able to find a solution for our problem, then we should have a second level of support, which could be an on-call support. That would help us better.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

It was straightforward to set up Jira, even though it was on-prem. But to set up the supporting modules for Jira, like the web component (e.g. Apache) or the database component, requires a little bit more effort. The Jira application does provide support on that front, but the support is pretty limited, because they do not vouch for the other modules that aren't built in to Jira.

Apache is a web server that interacts with Jira and I think they should better support the deployment of Jira with web servers at any enterprise or cloud-level. That should be provided as part of the deployment journey itself. As it is currently, their support that helps us integrate Jira with Apache comes off a little short.

What about the implementation team?

We have our own compliance team who applies security patches and those patches are available from Jira directly. The maintenance is pretty easy and we pay a maintenance fee for Jira software. If there is any issue with downtime or service is completely stopped and we are not able to handle it, Atlassian provides us their support. Maintenance is not much of an issue with Jira.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The license model which we were on was a perpetual license model, which is the server edition of Jira, but that is being discontinued by Atlassian, which I can understand from their standpoint (in order to better compete). The server model means that we buy the license and we do not pay anything for the licensing part year-on-year. It means it's a lifetime license, but we do pay 50% of the license fee for the maintenance with the server. That is the recurring cost for us.

When we go into the data center model, which is the only on-premises model that we have, and the cloud offering from Jira, Jira Cloud, then you can see that both of them are subscription-based models. Data center is a yearly license, and as for the cloud, you can either pay monthly or yearly, depending on your requirements.

But this kind of licensing structure is actually a little heavy on the organization when it comes to the budget, I would say. The licensing which we had was a perpetual license with a year-on-year maintenance charge which we had to pay, which was half of the licensing fee.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate Jira an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Jira Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: February 2025
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Jira Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.