Can Jira Software Cloud be used by a solo developer?

[rajn2020]

Can it be done where a solo developer uses Jira for managing his or her personal software development projects or even for solo freelancing software developers? If so, how should Jira Software Cloud be used in this situation? Thanks.

[Inactive Stephen · Accepted solution]

Hi @rajn2020

There is nothing stopping you using Jira as a To Do list or for your own, personal Kanban.

It's up to you how you structure your work - use Jira how you work as a developer. An example of how you could do this as a To Do List:

• Project: One project to house your "To Do" list 
• Epics: For large tasks which require further breakdown into smaller pieces (stories) - or use this as categories of work
• Stories / Tasks: For the tasks themselves
• Components: To categorise your work into the types of work you're doing - eg. personal, sprint, skill uplift, etc.
• Priorities: If you're using a board this could be the backlog - or you could use priority to show expedited tasks you need to complete!

And an example of how you could do it as a Freelancer:

• Project: One or multiple projects to visualise each product you're working on. If you wanted clients to have access to see work for their product, multiple projects means you could allow them to only see their work!
• Epics: The big deliverables for this project - chunks of value you can build into the final product.
• Stories / Tasks / Bugs: The small, valuable building blocks you need to deliver to show progress to the client. You might demo these - or the Epics.
• Components: To categorise your work - eg. prototype, MVP, etc.
• Labels: To categorise your work across all projects - eg. website, back-end, etc. You might use this to help with efficiency - if two products have a similar piece of work to complete.
• Priorities: You could use a Kanban Board with a Backlog to show importance of work to do? Or a Scrum Board to timebox work to be completed? Or just use the priorities field to show urgent, expedited tasks to do.

This is to just get you thinking of how you could present the data based on your needs, outside of the basics (Summary, Description). You'll find as you begin to work other fields might become more relevant - think about what makes sense to visualise or perhaps what you or a client might use from a progress reporting stand-point to help evolve how you use the system.

Ste

[rajn2020]

Thanks for the reply. 

[Chris_Lloyd]

I know this was effectively closed months ago but I have a follow up question.

If I want to do 2 week sprints but have many clients what is the best way to manage the work across all of my clients? If I have multiple projects (one for each client) then I have to load multiple sprints which sounds like I might be doubling up the work needed. 

Many of my clients will be signing up for single projects that last from 1-2 months and then they are done with no recurring work while other clients are on retainer and we do monthly updates (again broken down into 2 week sprints so I can manage my time).

Any feedback is appreciated!

[Ste Wright]

Hi @Chris_Lloyd

I'd view this as just one sprint.

You might have work which comes from multiple sources (i.e project clients) - but you still only have one two week iteration - there are not multiples of you, you're just splitting your time between various clients.

To do this:

• Create one Scrum Board
• Edit the filter to include issues from each relevant project
• Create a sprint and populate it with issues you intend to work on in the next two weeks. Order the rest of the work into future sprints / the backlog
• You could also add quick filters to the board - per client (if you needed to show them progress) or perhaps per due date - if you wanted to ensure you're not missing tasks which need to be completed per a contractual date

What else would you like to achieve here? Happy to make other suggestions if needed :)

Ste