Balsamiq plug-in for Jira - What are the pro's and cons

[Donna Lawrie]

Hi,

We currently use the desktop version of balsamiq, but I have been tasked with looking into the balsamiq plug-in within jira.

For those that have made the move, what would you say are the pros and cons? Do you find that you have the same functionality?  If not, what was missing?  If you have moved, has it been worth while?  Is so why?  If not, also why?

Any information from other regular users would be much appreciated!

[Brendan Saricks · Accepted solution]

Happy to help however I can here.

I'm obviously biased so I won't share my opinions :). But if you have questions, we are here to help!

[Donna Lawrie]

Thanks Brendan. Understand you may be biased but would be interested to hear your opinion regardless :) 

[Brendan Saricks]

Sure, Donna. I don't know why it hides my avatar but, in case it wasn't obvious, I work for Balsamiq (hence the bias) :).

To answer your question, the Jira and Confluence implementations of our app actually have more functionality than the desktop version. We have really slowed development on the desktop app in order to focus more on our web apps, so they are no longer feature-synced. Off the top of my head, the stuff you'll get in the jira app (over the desktop app):

- A completely redesigned UI

- Real-Time Collaboration

- Our template library built into the app

And coming soon, a refined comment experience.

I would try installing it on your Jira instance and seeing if it fits into your workflow. You can import your projects into Jira by attaching them to an issue.

And of course, if you run into questions, we are an email away at support@balsamiq.com. If you decide to install, I'd love to hear what you think. :)

[Donna Lawrie]

Hi Brendan,

Nope, it doesn't show you as working for Balsamiq!

Thanks for your response.  I like the idea of the template library.  Are we able to add our own client based templates into this?  Are we still able to export to pdf if this is needed?  Also, to download if needed?  Are you able to provide some additional information on versioning and version control and any limitations, if any of that end?  For myself, this is one of the biggest 'issues' that I have

[Brendan Saricks]

This template library is one we curate, so there isn't a way to add user-generated templates to it (I'm sorry about that!)

One thing you could do is create am empty template project (.bmpr) file. That project could have all your templates baked in, and then your users would just need to attach it to an issue before they started wireframing.

As for versioning, projects are attached to Jira issues as attachments, so they are bound to the issue. We don't have a version control system in place for that as it would require more than a simple attachment.

However, if you tell me what kind of issues you're having with version control, I'd be more than happy to write it up so that I can talk to product team about it. :)

Keep the questions coming, Donna. I'll answer them as best as I can!