What tools are you using for release management alongside Jira?

[Steve Gilliard]

I’m interested in learning how different teams manage their release process using Jira, whether it’s a straightforward scheduled release or a fully automated CI/CD pipeline.

I’d love to hear about your workflow and the tools you rely on.

Some questions that come to mind:

• Do you use Jira Releases/Fix Versions alone, or do you use another Marketplace app?
• What release management tool(s) do you use alongside Jira?
• How do you coordinate releases across multiple Jira projects or teams?
• How do you handle release approvals and change management?
• How do you know when a release is truly ready for production?
• How are your deployments triggered? (GitHub Actions, Jenkins, GitLab CI, Azure DevOps, Bitbucket Pipelines, or something else?)
• How do you track deployment status back into Jira?
• Do you integrate testing tools such as Xray or Zephyr into your release process?
• What information do you wish Jira showed you that it doesn’t today?

Most importantly…

What’s the biggest pain point in your current release management process?

I’m asking because I’m the developer of Release Scheduler for Jira, a Marketplace app focused on release planning and coordination. I’m trying to better understand how organizations of different sizes actually manage releases so I can prioritize features that solve real problems rather than making assumptions.

Whether you’re a small team with a simple release calendar or an enterprise coordinating dozens of deployments every week, I’d really appreciate hearing:

• What works well today?
• What doesn’t?
• If you could add one capability to Jira to make release management easier, what would it be?

Looking forward to hearing how everyone approaches release management.

Steve