Jira 8 Essentials - Fifth Edition

Book description

Publisher's note: A new sixth edition, updated with enhanced Jira 8.21 and Data Center features has now been published.

Key Features

  • Work on agile projects in Jira from both the administrator and end user's perspective
  • Explore the improved Scrum and Kanban board and backlog
  • Work through exercises at the end of each chapter to reinforce your skills

Book Description

Atlassian Jira enables effective bug tracking for your software and mobile applications and provides tools to track and manage tasks for your projects. Jira Essentials is a comprehensive guide, now updated to Jira 8 to include enhanced features such as updates to Scrum and Kanban UI, additional search capabilities, and changes to Jira Service Desk.

The book starts by explaining how to plan and set up a new Jira 8 instance from scratch before getting you acquainted with key features such as emails, workflows, business processes, and much more. You'll then understand Jira's data hierarchy and how to design and work with projects.

Since Jira is used for issue management, this book delves into the different issues that can arise in your projects. You’ll explore fields, including custom fields, and learn to use them for more effective data collection. You’ll create new screens from scratch and customize them to suit your requirements. The book also covers workflows and business processes, and guides you in setting up incoming and outgoing mail servers. Toward the end, you’ll study Jira's security model and Jira Service Desk, which allows you to run Jira as a support portal.

By the end of this Jira book, you will be able to implement Jira 8 in your projects with ease.

What you will learn

  • Understand Jira's data hierarchy and how to design and work with projects in Jira
  • Use Jira for agile software projects, business process management, customer service support, and more
  • Understand issues and work with them
  • Design both system and custom fields to behave differently under different contexts
  • Create and design your own screens and apply them to different project and issue types
  • Gain an understanding of the workflow and its various components
  • Set up both incoming and outgoing mail servers to work with e-mails

Who this book is for

This book will be especially useful for project managers but it's also intended for other Jira users, including developers, and any other industry besides software development, who would like to leverage Jira's powerful task management and workflow features to better manage their business processes.

Table of contents

  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright and Credits
    1. Jira 8 Essentials Fifth Edition
  3. About Packt
    1. Why subscribe?
    2. Packt.com
  4. Contributors
    1. About the author
    2. About the reviewer
    3. Packt is searching for authors like you
  5. Preface
    1. Who this book is for
    2. What this book covers
    3. To get the most out of this book
      1. Download the example code files
      2. Download the color images
      3. Conventions used
    4. Get in touch
      1. Reviews
  6. Section 1: Introduction to Jira 8
  7. Getting Started with Jira
    1. Jira Core, Jira Software, and Jira Service Desk
    2. The Jira architecture
      1. High-level architecture
        1. Web browsers
        2. Application services
        3. Data storage
      2. The Jira installation directory
      3. The Jira home directory
    3. System requirements
      1. Hardware requirements
      2. Software requirements
        1. Operating systems
        2. Java platforms
        3. Databases
        4. Application servers
    4. Installation options
    5. Installing and configuring Jira
      1. Installing Java
      2. Installing MySQL
      3. Preparing MySQL for Jira
      4. Installing Jira
        1. Obtaining and installing Jira
        2. Installing MySQL driver
        3. The Jira setup wizard
          1. Step one
          2. Step two
          3. Step three
          4. Step four
          5. Step five
          6. Step six
        4. Starting and stopping Jira
    6. Post-installation configurations
      1. Increasing Jira's memory
      2. Changing Jira's port number and context path
      3. Configuring HTTPS
    7. Summary
  8. Using Jira for Business Projects
    1. Understanding project types
      1. Business projects
    2. Jira permissions
    3. Creating projects
      1. Changing the project key format
    4. Project user interfaces
    5. Project browser
      1. The Summary tab
      2. The Issues tab
      3. The Versions and Components tabs
    6. The Project Administration interface
      1. The project details tab
      2. The Components tab
        1. Creating components
        2. The component lead and default assignee
      3. The Versions tab
        1. Creating versions
        2. Managing versions
      4. Other tabs
    7. Importing data into Jira
      1. Importing data through CSV
    8. The HR project
      1. Creating a new project
      2. Creating new components
      3. Putting it together
    9. Summary
  9. Using Jira for Agile Projects
    1. Scrum and Kanban
      1. Scrum
      2. Kanban
    2. Running a project with Scrum
      1. Creating a Scrum project
      2. Working with the backlog
        1. Prioritizing and estimating work
      3. Creating a new sprint
      4. Running through a sprint
    3. Running a project with Kanban
      1. Creating a Kanban project
      2. Using the Kanban board
      3. Enabling the backlog for the Kanban board
    4. Configuring agile boards
      1. Configuration columns
      2. Setting up column constraints
      3. Configuring swimlanes
      4. Defining quick filters
    5. Grooming your backlog
    6. Creating a new agile board for your project
    7. Including multiple projects on a board
    8. Summary
  10. Section 2: Jira 8 in Action
  11. Issue Management
    1. Understanding issues
    2. Jira issue summary
    3. Working with issues
      1. Creating an issue
      2. Editing an issue
      3. Deleting an issue
      4. Moving an issue between projects
      5. Casting a vote on an issue
      6. Receiving notifications on an issue
      7. Assigning issues to users
      8. Sharing issues with other users
    4. Issue linking
      1. Linking issues with other issues
      2. Linking issues with remote contents
    5. Issue cloning
    6. Time tracking
      1. Specifying original estimates
      2. Logging work
    7. Issues and comments
      1. Adding comments
      2. Permalinking a comment
    8. Attachments
      1. Attaching files
    9. Issue types and subtasks
      1. Creating issue types
      2. Deleting issue types
    10. Subtasks
      1. Creating subtasks
    11. Issue type schemes
      1. Adding issue types to an issue type scheme
    12. Issue priorities
      1. Creating a priority scheme
    13. The HR project
      1. Adding new issue types
      2. Updating the issue type scheme
      3. Putting it all together
    14. Summary
  12. Field Management
    1. Understanding system fields
    2. Understanding custom fields
      1. Standard fields
      2. Advanced fields
    3. Understanding field searchers
    4. Custom field context
    5. Managing custom fields
      1. Adding a custom field
      2. Editing/deleting a custom field
      3. Configuring a custom field
      4. Adding custom field contexts
      5. Configuring select options
      6. Setting default values
    6. Field configuration
      1. Adding a field configuration
      2. Managing field configurations
      3. Field description
      4. Field requirement
      5. Field visibility
      6. Field rendering
    7. Screens
    8. Field configuration scheme
      1. Managing field configuration schemes
      2. Adding a field configuration scheme
      3. Configuring a field configuration scheme
      4. Associating a field configuration scheme with a project
    9. The HR project
      1. Setting up a custom field
      2. Setting up the field configuration
      3. Setting up a field configuration scheme
      4. Putting it together
    10. Summary
  13. Screen Management
    1. Jira and screens
    2. Working with screens
      1. Adding a new screen
      2. Editing/deleting a screen
      3. Copying a screen
      4. Configuring screens
        1. Adding a field to a screen
        2. Deleting a field from a screen
      5. Using screen tabs
        1. Adding a tab to a screen
        2. Editing/deleting a tab
    3. Working with screen schemes
      1. Adding a screen scheme
      2. Editing/deleting a screen scheme
      3. Copying a screen scheme
      4. Configuring a screen scheme
      5. Associating screens to issue operations
      6. Editing/deleting an association
    4. Issue type screen scheme
      1. Adding an issue type screen scheme
      2. Editing/deleting an issue type screen scheme
      3. Copying an issue type screen scheme
      4. Configuring an issue type screen scheme
      5. Associating issue types to screen schemes
      6. Editing/deleting an association
    5. Associating an issue type screen scheme with a project
    6. Delegating screen management
    7. The HR project
      1. Setting up screens
      2. Setting up screen schemes
      3. Setting up issue type screen schemes
      4. Putting it together
    8. Summary
  14. Workflow and Business Process
    1. Mapping business processes
    2. Understanding workflows
    3. Managing workflows
      1. Issue statuses
      2. Transitions
        1. Triggers
        2. Conditions
        3. Validators
        4. Post functions
    4. Using the workflow designer
    5. Authoring a workflow
      1. Adding a trigger to transitions
      2. Adding a condition to transitions
      3. Adding a validator to transitions
      4. Adding a post function to transitions
    6. Updating an existing workflow
    7. Workflow schemes
      1. Creating a workflow scheme
      2. Configuring a workflow scheme
      3. Assigning an issue type to a workflow
      4. Editing or deleting an association
    8. Applying a workflow scheme to projects
    9. Delegated workflow management
    10. Extending a workflow with workflow add-ons
      1. Suite utilities for Jira
      2. Jira workflow toolbox
      3. Jira Misc workflow extensions
      4. Workflow enhancer for Jira
      5. ScriptRunner for Jira
    11. The HR project
      1. Setting up workflows
      2. Applying the workflow
      3. Putting it together
    12. Summary
  15. Emails and Notifications
    1. Jira and email
    2. Mail servers
    3. Working with outgoing mail
      1. Adding an outgoing mail server
      2. Disabling outgoing mail
      3. Enabling SMTP over SSL
      4. Sending a test email
    4. Mail queues
      1. Viewing the mail queue
      2. Flushing the mail queue
    5. Manually sending emails
    6. Events
      1. Adding a mail template
      2. Adding a custom event
      3. Firing a custom event
    7. Notifications
    8. The notification scheme
      1. Adding a notification scheme
      2. Deleting a notification scheme
      3. Managing a notification scheme
        1. Adding a notification
        2. Deleting a notification
      4. Assigning a notification scheme
    9. Batching email notifications
    10. Troubleshooting notifications
    11. Incoming emails
      1. Adding an incoming mail server
      2. Mail handlers
        1. Creating a new issue or adding a comment to an existing issue
        2. Adding a comment with the entire email body
        3. Adding a comment from the non-quoted email body
        4. Creating a new issue from each email message
        5. Adding a comment before a specified marker or separator in the email body
      3. Adding a mail handler
      4. Editing and deleting a mail handler
      5. Advanced mail handler
    12. The HR project
      1. Setting up mail servers
      2. Updating workflow post functions
      3. Setting up a notification scheme
      4. Setting up notifications
      5. Putting it together
    13. Summary
  16. Section 3: Advanced Jira 8
  17. Securing Jira
    1. User directories
      1. Connecting to LDAP
    2. Users
    3. User browser
      1. Adding a user
      2. Enabling public signup
      3. Enabling CAPTCHA
    4. Groups
      1. Group browser
      2. Adding a group
      3. Editing group memberships
      4. Deleting a group
    5. Project roles
      1. Project role browser
      2. Adding a project role
      3. Managing default members
      4. Assigning project role members
    6. Jira permissions hierarchy
    7. Application access
    8. Global permissions
      1. Jira System Administrator versus Jira Administrator
      2. Configuring global permissions
      3. Granting global permissions
      4. Revoking global permissions
    9. Project permissions
    10. Permission schemes
      1. Adding a permission scheme
      2. Configuring a permission scheme
        1. Granting a permissions
        2. Revoking permissions
      3. Applying a permission scheme
    11. Issue security
    12. Issue security schemes
      1. Adding an issue security scheme
      2. Configuring an issue security scheme
        1. Adding a security level
        2. Assigning users to a security level
        3. Setting a default security level
      3. Applying an issue security scheme
    13. Troubleshooting permissions
    14. Workflow security
    15. Password policy
    16. Whitelists
    17. The HR project
      1. Setting up groups
      2. Setting up user group association
      3. Setting up permission schemes
      4. Setting up permissions
      5. Putting it together
    18. Summary
  18. Searching, Reporting, and Analysis
    1. Search interface and options in Jira
    2. Issue navigator
      1. Basic search
      2. Advanced search with JQL
      3. Quick search
    3. Working with search results
      1. Switching result views
      2. Exporting search results
      3. Customizing the column layout
      4. Sharing search results
    4. Filters
      1. Creating a filter
      2. Managing filters
      3. Sharing a filter
      4. Subscribing to a filter
      5. Deleting a filter
      6. Changing the ownership of a filter
    5. Reports
      1. Generating a report
    6. Dashboards
      1. Managing dashboards
      2. Creating a dashboard
      3. Configuring a dashboard
        1. Setting a layout for the dashboard
      4. Changing the ownership of a dashboard
    7. Gadgets
      1. Placing a gadget on the dashboard
      2. Moving a gadget
      3. Editing a gadget
      4. Deleting a gadget
    8. The HR project
      1. Setting up filters
      2. Setting up dashboards
      3. Setting up gadgets
      4. Putting it together
    9. Summary
  19. Jira Service Desk
    1. Jira Service Desk
    2. Installing Jira Service Desk
    3. Getting started with Jira Service Desk
      1. Creating a new service desk
    4. Branding your customer portal
    5. Service desk user types
      1. Adding an agent to a service desk
      2. Adding a customer to a service desk
      3. Adding a collaborator to a service desk
    6. Request types
      1. Setting up request types
      2. Organizing request types into groups
    7. Setting up fields
    8. Setting up a workflow in Jira Service Desk
    9. Service level agreement
      1. Setting up an SLA
      2. Setting up custom calendars
    10. Queues
      1. Creating a new queue
    11. Creating knowledge base articles
    12. Process automation
    13. Summary
  20. Other Books You May Enjoy
    1. Leave a review - let other readers know what you think

Product information

  • Title: Jira 8 Essentials - Fifth Edition
  • Author(s): Patrick Li
  • Release date: February 2019
  • Publisher(s): Packt Publishing
  • ISBN: 9781789802818