How to track work progress in Jira effectively?

[Suraj Pawar]

Hi Community,

I am new to Jira and working on a project.
I want to track the progress of work in a simple and clear way.

My questions are:

Which Jira features are best for tracking progress?

How do we know if a task is on time or delayed?

Are boards and reports useful for beginners?

[Sharad Dadarao Chate · Accepted solution]

@Suraj Pawar  Hi,

In Jira, you can track work progress in a simple way using these features:

Boards (Kanban or Scrum):
Boards show tasks in columns like To Do, In Progress, and Done.
By moving issues from one column to another, you can easily see the progress.

Issue Status:
Each task has a status.
If the task is still in To Do or In Progress, it means work is not finished.
If it is in Done, the task is completed.

Due Date and Assignee:
Due date helps you know if the task is on time or delayed.
Assignee shows who is responsible for the task.

Reports (for beginners):
Simple reports like Sprint Report or Burndown Chart help understand progress, but boards are enough for beginners.

For new users, starting with boards and issue status is the best and easiest way to track progress.

[Petru Simion _Simitech Ltd__]

Hi @Suraj Pawar ,

you can track progress by looking at how a single issue transitions through statuses, but that only works one issue at a time.

Where teams usually struggle is getting an overall picture.

Jira’s built-in boards and reports (Scrum/Kanban boards, burndown, control charts) are useful for beginners to understand flow at a high level, but they often hide important details, especially:

• How long work actually spends waiting in each status

• Where delays really happen

• Whether issues are “on time” or just moving forward slowly

That’s where a time-based view becomes very valuable.

Instead of checking issues one by one, tools like Time in Status Reporter for Jira , released by ourt team, let you:

• See how long issues spend in each status, not just where they are now

• Identify bottlenecks across the whole project, not just individual tickets

• Compare actual time spent vs expected flow, which helps spot delays early

• Analyze progress by assignee, status, or issue type in one place

In short:

• Issue-by-issue tracking helps with local questions

• Aggregated time-in-status views help you understand delivery health and delays across the project

For new Jira users, combining boards (for visibility) with time-in-status reporting (for clarity and accountability) gives a much more accurate picture of real progress.

Regards, 

Petru