For most teams, Jira Software fulfills 90 percent of the fundamentals needed to manage your tasks, while its versatility allows you to customize for 100 percent functionality.
This is where the Atlassian Marketplace can maximize your Jira instance. There are numerous third-party companies that have developed apps for Jira Software to add functionality to the product. The apps vary from small features to full standalone products, and even integrations that connect Jira to other crucial software your teams use every day. It can be somewhat daunting to know where to start looking when you are faced with thousands of apps and integrations. To simplify this, we’ve narrowed it down into five types of Jira apps we see clients using to customize their Jira instances.
Time Tracking Apps
There are lots of ways a team might profit from a time tracking app in Jira. This function is most commonly used for:
- Precise time tracking through multiple time logging options, planning using a calendar, etc.
- Tracking billable hours for invoicing customers
- Work time tracking including vacations, leaves and many more.
- Creating powerful and customizable reports with the ability to filter and group reports.
By tracking employees’ time, you will determine how long it may take to complete a certain project and get a sense of individual productivity. Customers can save hundreds of thousands by implementing time-tracking and conserving valuable employee time. One our of favourite apps for this is Tempo Timesheets.
Integrations
The most common place to start using the Atlassian Marketplace is by connecting Jira to integrations with tools you use regularly, like Gmail, Box, Zoom, Slack, and Adobe. On average, the typical Small-to-Medium-size business pays for more than 20 different SaaS products a month, and larger companies may have many more. Integrating your tools allows your data to update seamlessly with bi-directional syncing, so whatever change you make in one product is repeated in the other. These automatic updates can save you time by reducing context switching and giving clarity of all your information in one place. Plus, most Jira integrations are free!
Test management Apps
Errors are inevitable when developing software, however, in the enterprise world, some mistakes are more costly than others. For example, 85 percent of bugs are made during development but fixing them later is 40 times more expensive. Integrating a test management tool to your software development process can support your teams to create and execute test plans so your code works the first time around.
Never second-guessing again on whether a release provides added customer value. You can also see the real-time situation of your QA process by running manual and automated tests. Choose from a range of test-management options for Jira to see what will work best for you. One of our personal favourites in this space is Xray Test Management for Jira.
Automation Apps
Automation is omnipresent these days, from the self-service checkout to your smart home. Alexa and Siri have even taken over some of your household jobs!
Automation should also play a big role in your work life. Adding automation to Jira can decrease the number of manual tasks you complete each day, which in turn translates into tangible cost savings for your organization. Even saving an employee two hours a week by automating tasks can translate to just over two weeks of time per year.
For larger enterprises with thousands of employees, that can add up to hundreds of thousands of hours (and money) saved. These rules can be simple in nature, implemented at their most basic level by using triggers, conditions, and actions, and don’t require complex scripting. There are several apps available in the Atlassian Marketplace to help you get started with fundamental automation and experiment with advanced rules. Once you’re more accustomed to automation rules, go crazy! The possibilities are unlimited.
Analytical Apps
We are a data-driven world, analytics are King, Queen, and Emperor. They are key to understanding trends and opportunities to enhance performance. They can help you and your teams stay fully informed, improve planning, and reduce estimation errors for overall better productivity.
Even more importantly, automating vitally important reports can save your team valuable time and money. Adding advanced analytics and interactive reports can allow you to fully explore data and deep-dive into details down to the Jira issue level. Explore, experiment, and build countless custom reports, charts, and dashboards with just a few simple clicks.
These five types of Jira apps are just an entry point to the world of possibilities available to you with Jira. If there is something in particular you’re looking to explore in Jira, try browsing the Atlassian Marketplace. All apps are free to try for 30 days, and integrations are free. If you’re looking for an expert to discuss maximising your Jira instance, why not contact one of Valiantys Consultants for more information
If you have specific needs and want feedback on the best app in its category to meet your own requirements, our Atlassian experts are available to advise you on your Jira customization project. Many customers ask us for advice before integrating a Jira app, as on Confluence for example – Amadeus. Contact our Valiantys consultants.
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