10 Jira Ticket Best Practices

Jira is a popular project management tool used by software development teams. Jira tickets are used to track individual pieces of work, such as bugs, features, and tasks.

While there is no one “right” way to use Jira, there are some best practices that can help teams get the most out of the tool. In this article, we’ll share 10 of our favorite Jira ticket best practices. By following these best practices, you can streamline your team’s workflow, improve communication, and make better use of Jira’s features.

1. Use Jira for all your projects

Jira is designed to give you visibility into every aspect of your project. If you’re only using it for some projects, you’re not getting the full benefit. You might be able to get away with using another system for small projects, but as soon as things start to get complicated, you’ll wish you had all your data in one place.

Not only will using Jira for all your projects give you better visibility, but it will also make it easier to track progress and identify issues. When everything is in one place, it’s much easier to see where things are going wrong and take corrective action.

2. Create a ticket template

A ticket template ensures that every ticket has the same basic information. This makes it easier to triage tickets, because you can quickly see which ones are missing essential information.

Creating a ticket template also saves time, because team members don’t have to remember to include all the necessary details. They can simply fill out the template and be confident that they haven’t forgotten anything important.

Finally, a ticket template can help improve communication between team members. By including all the relevant details in each ticket, team members can avoid going back and forth asking for clarification.

To create a ticket template, go to the ‘Issues’ tab in Jira and click on the ‘Create Issue’ button. Then, click on the ‘More’ dropdown and select ‘Templates.’ From there, you can create your own custom template or choose from one of the existing templates.

3. Write clear and concise tickets

When a ticket is unclear, it can cause confusion and frustration for both the person working on the ticket and the person requesting the work. This can lead to wasted time trying to understand what is being asked, and in some cases, the work being done may not be what was actually requested.

On the other hand, when a ticket is clear and concise, there is less room for error and misunderstanding. This leads to fewer problems and quicker turnaround times on tickets.

Some tips for writing clear and concise Jira tickets:

– Be specific about what you need to be done
– Use clear and concise language
– Include all relevant information
– Avoid using jargon
– If possible, include screenshots or videos

4. Add the right amount of detail to each ticket

If you add too much detail, it can be overwhelming for the person who is assigned to the ticket. They might not know where to start or what the most important details are.

On the other hand, if you don’t add enough detail, the person who is assigned to the ticket might have to ask for clarification, which can slow down the process.

The best way to strike a balance is to include enough detail so that the person who is assigned to the ticket can understand the problem and have enough information to solve it, without being overwhelmed by too much information.

5. Include screenshots, videos or GIFs when necessary

When you’re dealing with a complex issue, it can be difficult to explain the problem in words alone. A picture is worth a thousand words, and that’s especially true when it comes to technical issues. By including a screenshot, video or GIF, you can save yourself (and the person resolving the ticket) a lot of time and frustration.

Not only that, but visual aids can also help the person resolving the ticket understand the problem more quickly and come up with a solution more efficiently. In short, they’re just plain helpful.

So, next time you’re creating a Jira ticket, take a few minutes to include a visual aid if it will help explain the problem. It’ll be appreciated by everyone involved.

6. Link related issues together

When an issue is linked to another, it becomes much easier to trace the history of the problem and understand how it’s evolved. This is especially useful when trying to reproduce a bug or track down the root cause of an issue.

Linking also has the added benefit of making it easier to see which issues are blocking others. This can be helpful when prioritizing work or troubleshooting problems.

Finally, linking issues together makes it easier to generate reports that show the relationships between different tickets. This can be valuable for understanding trends or identifying areas that need more attention.

7. Make sure you have an issue type for every task

If you don’t have an issue type for every task, it’s easy to miss something. For example, if you only have an issue type for “bugs”, you might forget to create a ticket for a small UI change.

Creating an issue type for every task also makes it easier to track progress. For example, if you have an issue type for “research” and one for “implementation”, you can easily see how much work is left to do.

Finally, having an issue type for every task makes it easier to assign tickets to the right people. If you have a ticket for “research” and one for “implementation”, you can assign the research ticket to someone on the team who is good at research, and the implementation ticket to someone on the team who is good at implementation.

8. Don’t use sub-tasks

Sub-tasks are a great way to break down a big ticket into smaller, more manageable pieces. However, they can also lead to problems down the road.

For one, sub-tasks can make it difficult to get an overview of what’s going on with a ticket. When you have a long list of sub-tasks, it’s hard to see the forest for the trees, so to speak.

Furthermore, sub-tasks can also make it difficult to track progress on a ticket. If someone is working on a sub-task and makes some progress, but then gets pulled away to work on something else, it can be hard to tell how much progress has been made on the overall ticket.

Finally, sub-tasks can lead to duplication of effort. If two people are working on the same ticket and each create their own sub-tasks, then there’s a good chance that some of those sub-tasks will be duplicates.

All of these problems can be avoided by simply not using sub-tasks. If you need to break a ticket down into smaller pieces, use the comment function instead.

9. Estimate how long each task will take

If you don’t estimate the time each task will take, it’s difficult to track your team’s progress. If you’re not tracking progress, you can’t identify issues early on and course correct. This can lead to big problems down the line, such as scope creep, missed deadlines, and unhappy clients.

To avoid these problems, make sure to estimate the time each task will take before creating a Jira ticket. Once you have an estimate, add it to the ticket in the “Time Estimate” field. This will help you and your team keep track of progress and ensure that everyone is on the same page.

10. Set up automation rules

Jira tickets can quickly become overwhelming, especially if you’re working on a large project with many stakeholders. Automation rules help to keep things organized by automatically assigning tickets to the appropriate team member, sending notifications when a ticket is updated, and more.

Not only do automation rules save you time, but they also help to ensure that nothing falls through the cracks. By setting up these rules, you can be confident that every ticket is being handled in a timely and efficient manner.