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Consultant at a pharma/biotech company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
An easy-to-understand defect tracking tool with good capabilities and integrations
Pros and Cons
  • "It is a good defect tracking tool. It has a lot of capabilities and functionalities. There are a lot of graphs and a lot of tracking. It can be sprint-driven if you want."
  • "It also works well with all the integrated tools that you buy."
  • "If they want Jira to be the one-stop shop of the view of all of your deliverables, not just from a defect tracking perspective, but also from a requirement perspective, a code perspective, and a testing perspective, it needs to pull out more data and work better as an integration tool."
  • "One thing that I don't like about Jira is that when you do an export, it only allows a thousand issues. So the export feature needs to be better."

What is our primary use case?

I'm overseeing the developments done in Jira. 

What is most valuable?

The thing that I do like about Jira is that it is relatively easy to understand. In some respects, you don't have to read a lot of ticket information, and you can start pulling down. Everybody is using it, and it works for a lot of people who are just doing enterprise development, cloud-based development, and things like that. It is built for the general audience. 

It is a good defect tracking tool. It has a lot of capabilities and functionalities. There are a lot of graphs and a lot of tracking. It can be sprint-driven if you want. There is a lot of data that you can pull out for estimations. It has got a lot of out-of-the-box functionalities that are kind of like the Jazz platform for out-of-the-box scrum and other such things. 

It also works well with all the integrated tools that you buy.

What needs improvement?

One thing that I don't like about Jira is that when you do an export, it only allows a thousand issues. So the export feature needs to be better. 

Another thing that I don't like about it is related to epics. There are times when you simultaneously want to have a story tied to two epics, one driving the content change and one driving the format of that evolution. It is not truly a parent-child relationship. It is a single-parent relationship to the stories. It would be nice if you had the capability to tie in multiple epics to a particular story. It is a rare case, but we have that. 

Setting up and executing a triage board should be simpler in the sense of how you do the admin. I come from a regulated space, and there should be easier control of who approves and reviews a system board to oversee all the defects. It should have easier out-of-the-box solutions to allow us to set up a triage board at the system level, the software board level that reports to the system board, or the test level that reports to the software board at the system level. There should be out-of-the-box solutions to migrate that and say that who are the three people on the triage board and if they have these admin privileges. Software review board and test review board would be another thing.

We have also had a problem with the integration with Bitbucket Pull Request data. It is an add-on to the tool, but it is not fully integrated. It is not easy from my perspective. Jira, Bitbucket, and Xray should be smoothly integrated. Xray is pretty good, but Bitbucket is standalone. So, when you pull out the data from a comma-separated value and want to move it into a new database, you have to reenter the data. You somehow lose that Pull Request capability. Pull Request through Bitbucket and the review of the code should be easier to manage. You could use a software package called Crucible to go ahead and mark how you did the review, who reviewed it, and who is the independent reviewer or subject matter expert, but that also should be easier to set up. If they want Jira to be the one-stop shop of the view of all of your deliverables, not just from a defect tracking perspective, but also from a requirement perspective, a code perspective, and a testing perspective, it needs to pull out more data and work better as an integration tool. 

I'm using Jira for the requirement repository. When I do requirements, it would be nice if I had the capability to say that for your requirement, I'm going to give you traceability to support a traceability report from Xray. I'm also going to give a requirement ID number in the ticket. You could use Jama and things like that, but it would be nice if Jira supported that.

We had on-prem and cloud deployments. We had to go to on-prem because of the security measures that were deployed. On-cloud didn't have the same capability. If you have one database on the cloud and the other one is on-prem, they don't talk to each other. It would be nice if you pulled it in and you could switch and say that I want to go on-prem because I got greater security risk.

When we go into the regulated space, I require a lot more integration and capability for tools. It is very hard to get tools to perform at that level because they're built for the general audience. In the regulated space, whether you're in medical devices, avionics, or any other regulated environment, tools have to be validated. I've worked with some companies in the past that had the capability to facilitate that validation. With one of the solutions, you could go ahead and buy a validated suite or a requirement package that will validate the tool for your use, but it is such a small market for Jira around the world that nobody really cares about that.

On their website, they show a bunch of tools that work with Jira, but it would be nice if they gave you examples and said that if you're a regulated medical device or regulated, here's a solution that could work for you. Here is Jira. Here is Crucible, and here is Xray, and here is what it'll do for you. They could also ask how do you do the requirement management? Do you use Jama that ties to Jira? It would be awesome if they had some use cases that showed people how to use Jira as the building block and how to add something on the front end for requirement management, and something on the backend for testing, such as Crucible for the peer reviews and Xray for the test management. People would see it and say that I want to do that.

It would also be nice if it could provide some lock-out capabilities based on your development and environment preferences. For example, you can specify that no one can close a defect until it has been tested, or until a particular task is complete, you can't go to the next phase. It would be cool if you could have something like this set up versus someone configuring it in the background.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

They have got 10,000 licenses of Jira, and they have teams around the world deploying it across multiple geographies. All of that works fine.

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November 2024
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How are customer service and support?

I haven't used them because this company has its own tech support. So, I've been reaching out to them.

What was our ROI?

Most people who turn to Jira say that the return on investment is much better. 

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

Jira and its solution off the shelf are cheap. It is cheap for startups.

What other advice do I have?

It depends on what you want to use Jira for, and what's the problem you're trying to solve. If you're going to do defect tracking and management of an artifact and you have got requirements, code, and tests, and they all got to summarize, you have to then go ahead and take Jira. You can then buy Crucible for the peer reviews and Xray for the test management and get them to work seamlessly with each other. 

I would rate Jira an eight out of ten. It is fairly cheap. For a nine or ten, it would be like DOORS and Jazz platform, but the problem with that is that it would become really expensive.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
reviewer1479087 - PeerSpot reviewer
Test Manager /Architect @ Testing Practice at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
A user-friendly solution, but it'll help if they had their own test execution feature
Pros and Cons
  • "Jira is very user friendly, easy to install, and easy to access."
  • "Although it covers the overall requirements and measurements, it'll help if they had their own test execution feature."

What is our primary use case?

We use Jira for the overall issue management in development projects. We use it to maintain a high level during each sprint, which is a requirement. We also use Jira for issue management during testing. We create a test plan and manage it all with Jira.

What is most valuable?

Jira is very user friendly, easy to install, and easy to access. The most valuable feature in Jira is release management. You can also manage a consolidated dashboard that can be accessed globally by all the team members. We can do all this with Jira while engaging in development. 

One of the key benefits is that it's a single repository for all your SDLC. Based on the user ID and password, anyone can access it, and they also have a single sign-on. It's not that very complicated to do issue management with Jira. We can also pull Jira data and generate quality metrics that can be used for the overall optimization of the test execution. 

What needs improvement?

Although it covers the overall requirements and measurements, it'll help if they had their own test execution feature. Because right now, we're using third-party tools to test executions.

If there are multiple projects, it could be a good thing if they had a reporting method where you have a portfolio view with predictions and so on. If there were a way to manage all the SLAs, that would be helpful too. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Jira is stable and meets our requirements. You don't have to use it out of the box as you can customize it to your requirements.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability isn't a problem because we have used it with over 200 users. You don't have to stick to any out of the box features as you can customize them.

How are customer service and technical support?

Almost everything is covered in their documentation. As payment is required for support, we mostly follow the documentation.

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

We used Microsoft DSP before. We were looking during a licensing phase for something where the non-licensing cost wouldn't be more, and the system requirement would be minimum. That's what qualified Jira, and we went with the data.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is very good. I wouldn't say that it's very complicated. They have customization options for things like issue management. You can customize it based on your terminology and project.

For a simple set up, it may take around four hours. If it's a 20 member project, it's quite easy to set up Jira. But if it's to be made available enterprise-wide, it takes longer. I had complex projects where it took anywhere from three to four days or a week to set up. You should also note that it may take new users a week to understand it properly.

We tried to do a total uniform deployment, but it's not always possible because every project has some customization. A single user can deploy Jira. I have deployed and managed 20 to 22 users in a Jira instance. Basically, the Jira administrator creates the template. But if the project requires customization to write queries and run tests, that will require some additional skill.  

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

As a company, we get a subsidized price, and it's lower than what's quoted on their website.

What other advice do I have?

To a certain extent, maybe 70% to 80%, Jira will meet your project development budget. It has integrations with other platforms, so if you want to put it in your DevOps continuous integration flow, it can be done.

If you're engaging in software development, there should be a single repository where you store everything. Then you can start managing it with Jira based on the business requirements and the user stories.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give Jira a seven.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Jira
November 2024
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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_user809571 - PeerSpot reviewer
Java Development Team Leader at Honeywell
Real User
Makes the work process transparent, enables communication among various teams
Pros and Cons
  • "JQL, JIRA Query Language enables me to filter all the issues, display the items as I want."
  • "It's very flexible. I can define workflows and custom fields and dependencies between issues and projects. And every project can have a custom configuration with my fields, my names for fields, my validations, and my workflows. It's very customizable."

    What is our primary use case?

    The primary use case is task management within the team and the company, as well as version management and bug management.

    How has it helped my organization?

    It makes the work process transparent, visible to everyone who needs to know about the current state of the versions, and all that happens. It helps to communicate among different teams, like support, R&D, and QA. Everything is in one place and everything is communicated in the same form.

    What is most valuable?

    JQL, which is JIRA Query Language. I can filter all the issues, display the items as I want.

    It's very flexible. I can define workflows and custom fields and dependencies between issues and projects. And every project can have a custom configuration with my fields, my names for fields, my validations, and my workflows. It's very customizable.

    What needs improvement?

    I'm using the old version. I haven't upgraded to the new one, so maybe a feature I would be looking for is already there. I don't know. Something I had been looking for was pasting screenshots into issue details, but this was already implemented in the new version. 

    Better user management features could help.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    I have no problem with stability.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    I don't have problems with the scalability. I know companies that are much larger than just projects or teams, that are much larger than my current team, and they work with JIRA and it works well.

    How is customer service and technical support?

    I used the support from JIRA several times and it was good. I had questions about licensing, I had questions about upgrading from an old version to a newer version.

    What other advice do I have?

    When I am evaluating a product or vendor, I have some intuition about it. I see how the thing is built and works, and I go by my own impression. For me, that is important. And, of course, price and maturity of the product, along with flexibility, are important criteria.

    I would rate this solution a 10 out of 10. It's an excellent product. It has already improved. It has good support. From the beginning, it was very smart and customizable and built well, works well. There are almost no bugs that I have discovered. It's a good product.

    I just saw an advertisement on the street for a product called Monday.com. I read a few lines, a few words about it. I hadn't heard of it before that, but I understand it does something similar to JIRA. Obviously, I can recommend using JIRA but if you are searching for something else, the first impression I got from reading the home page of Monday.com was good, so maybe it's worth evaluating.

    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    it_user204951 - PeerSpot reviewer
    Systems Architect at a tech company with 10,001+ employees
    Real User
    Allowed us to not waste time with dead ends, better focus, and get to root cause much faster.

    What is most valuable?

    JIRA: Product is well liked but we have had performance issues. Premier Support: Knowledge is very good and they are willing to bring in other people when they need to. The Premier Support team was very thorough and very responsive.

    How has it helped my organization?

    I think that if you look at how we troubleshoot, Premier Support has allowed us to not waste our time with dead ends, to have better focus, and get to root case much faster. Even though we still have monitoring in place, for root cause analysis we rely heavily on Premier Support and don’t waste as much time.

    What needs improvement?

    For our Premier Support, We would like to have on the call interaction all the time. The session we’ve had recently has been valuable, but we would like to see more live sessions/interactions.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    Purchased Sept. 27th 2014.

    What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

    Our Premier Support engineer was extremely helpful with deployment. I was pleasantly surprised, the engineer gave us guidance, looked for any potential issues, and was above and beyond in terms of service. They did a really fantastic job.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    From the beginning that has been the main thing we have been working on and thru Premier Support, they have done a good job working on our side, and escalating to a larger team when needed.

    How are customer service and technical support?

    Customer Service:

    The Premier Support team was very thorough and very responsive.

    Technical Support:

    The Premier Support team was very thorough and very responsive.

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

    We previously used the standard Atlassian support and then jumped from standard to premier. In terms of tracking, we had other defect tracking, but now JIRA has been a replacement – it is the tool of the future.

    How was the initial setup?

    The initial setup was straightforward.

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    Yes, we have other vendors and tools – evaluation is ongoing.

    What other advice do I have?

    I would tell people to understand your growth and usage up front – really comes down to understanding that and keeping it under control. We grew too fast and weren’t prepared for the issues that came with that; you want to make sure you have a good performance testing environment in place, datacenter etc. so you’re not scrambling afterwards.

    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
    Gabrielle-Renée TCHUENBOU - PeerSpot reviewer
    Software Engineer at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
    MSP
    Top 20
    Confusing terminology, difficult to use, but simple user interface
    Pros and Cons
    • "The design of the interface is clean and not too busy visually."
    • "I'm really new to Jira and I haven't used all of the features. However, it is quite difficult to use and manipulate. It was a little complicated for me and I don't know if it's difficult globally for others, but I had a difficult time understanding it at first. I used it for issues, epics, stories, tasks, and sub-tasks. For first-time users, Jira could be made better to help them understand."

    What is most valuable?

    The design of the interface is clean and not too busy visually.

    What needs improvement?

    I'm really new to Jira and I haven't used all of the features. However, it is quite difficult to use and manipulate. It was a little complicated for me and I don't know if it's difficult globally for others, but I had a difficult time understanding it at first. I used it for issues,  epics, stories, tasks, and sub-tasks. For first-time users, Jira could be made better to help them understand.

    When you want to create something in Jira, whether it's a story or an epic on a task, you have to create a thing called an issue, and inside the issue, you have to put what type of issue it is. Either it's an epic or a story. The fact that it's called an "issue" was a little confusing for me because I didn't know where to search when I wanted to look for tasks and stories. I didn't know that I needed to search for issues and not only tasks or topics.  

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been using Jira for approximately one month.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    Jira has been a stable solution.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    I have found Jira to be scalable.

    We have 20 people in my company using Jira.

    How was the initial setup?

    The setup of Jira was simple.

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    I did not compare Jira to other solutions.

    What other advice do I have?

    I have not had a lot of time to explore the solution. My rating might be higher if I had used it more.

    I rate Jira a three out of five.

    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
    reviewer1292544 - PeerSpot reviewer
    Head of QA Testing Services at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
    Real User
    Reliable, scalable, but installation could improve
    Pros and Cons
    • "I have found Jira to be stable."
    • "The integration could be better in Jira."

    What is our primary use case?

    We are using Jira for our test management. We're using it to record our inspecting results and to regulate the evidence in the report. 

    What needs improvement?

    The integration could be better in Jira.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been using Jira for approximately 15 years.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    I have found Jira to be stable.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    Jira has been scalable.

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

    There is an annual subscription to use Jira.

    What other advice do I have?

    I would recommend the solution to others. I have been happy with Jira.

    I rate Jira a seven 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
    reviewer1695474 - PeerSpot reviewer
    Software Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
    Real User
    Provides high visibility into the development pipeline
    Pros and Cons
    • "When we run the Jenkins pipeline, the build is already automatically connected to Jira. We've been able to integrate the ecosystem we created using this automation tool."
    • "I'd like to see better notetaking capabilities so every user can get notes when someone provides comments on a Jira ticket. So if they don't want to provide the comments on the Jira ticket, they can get the personal notes in a Jira tool for every profile."

    What is our primary use case?

    Currently, we're using it as a tracking tool. It helps our development department operate more efficiently while enabling the business side of the company to understand and track things better. For example, if we get a requirement from the business side, they don't tell us the status of the current cover every time. So basically what we do, if we complete development or make it to the development phase, then we can change the status in Jira. If the other departments want to see the progress, they can go to the Jira dashboard. So this reduces the amount of necessary communication between the business side and developers. Developers can mainly focus on the development instead of having to answer questions from other departments.

    What is most valuable?

    When we get a sign-off for a management request, we must catch it in our email inbox. Now we can get the sign-off through Jira, and I've automated this. For example, we can get the Jenkins pipeline results for every build we create and have that result plugged into Jira. So when we run the Jenkins pipeline, the build is already automatically connected to Jira. We've been able to integrate the ecosystem we created using this automation tool. If you open Jira, you get the development tab there, so you can find out everything a company made under this Jira or what brand is created under this Jira. As a developer, I find this feature valuable.

    What needs improvement?

    Jira could be simplified and integrated more with standard corporate communications tools. Say, for example, we have one indication of Jira in Confluence. So if we type a Jira ID into Confluence, it gives us all the information about the Jira profile. I would like to see this feature integrated with email platforms so we can just put our Jira ID or Jira link into an email and get all the details automatically. This kind of integration and automation would be helpful. 

    I'd like to see better note-taking capabilities so every user can get notes when someone provides comments on a Jira ticket. So if they don't want to provide the comments on the Jira ticket, they can get the personal notes in a Jira tool for every profile. It's not something for the business side, but developers can track what work is finished and what still needs to be done. Jira could integrate better with Jenkins, which isn't fully supported on the Jira dashboard yet. I think it would be good to monitor the build's progress directly. That way, we don't have to attach it. We can do it from the background. Some workflow customization would also be good.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    In the initial phase, I was using Jira for development and testing purposes. A story was assigned to me, and I just changed the standards and everything. But in the past six months, I have worked with configurations, adding different workflows, and all the other features.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    Jira is pretty stable most of the time. However, we have an intranet on our side, and sometimes there are too many users. My company currently has four different departments at the top level. Each of the four departments has fewer than nine Jira users. My current department has approximately seven or eight users. So there are times when Jira goes down, and we find it difficult to log in. But we are trying to increase the capability of servers. Other than that, it's working fine.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    We have migrated to GCP, and we're using the internal cloud servers, so we can easily integrate Jira into a server if we want. Scalability is a matter of cost. We just need to present our management with a valid reason for increasing capacity, and if they approve, it's an easy process for us.

    How are customer service and support?

    We had to call Jira support for help with integration. For example, when I was trying to integrate Jira with my GitHub bot, I had to provide a specific kind of access and then run some scripts to find out if I had enough available space. After that, it's a smooth process.

    How was the initial setup?

    The Jira setup is a bit complicated because we're deploying it in our internal servers. So we have to manage a lot of things ourselves. For example, when the new version of Jira comes in, we have to patch our servers and update our certificates. And then, for deployment, we have pipelines that we need to trigger. That's not too hard, but the patching and upgrading can be complex.

    If it's a smooth deployment, it just takes 30 minutes because we only have to replicate it on a different server. So currently, we have more than 20 servers. So every time we deploy, we create a replica on every server, which takes time because we have to verify that it's working. In total, it's about two hours of downtime in Jira, so we do this at night. 

    Currently, more than 10 people are involved with maintenance. For my team, I do the deployment and configurations. But if there is some fundamental change or a serious bug, a separate team handles this.

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

    I don't deal with the money side of things. I just specify the requirements and the company handles everything. We are using it for many tasks so it seems like the price is reasonable. 

    What other advice do I have?

    I rate JIRA eight out of 10. I think it's a great tool. I have been working with this tool for the past two years and I use it every day.

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    Private Cloud

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

    Google
    Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
    PeerSpot user
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    Updated: November 2024
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