How can I capture discussions?

[jimerman]

I am totally new to Jira.  I want to get my project off to a start by having some kind of discussion forum type of thing, where a topic can be started, people can respond - and we can use that to capture the ideation and discussion of issues.  Is there a way to do this in Jira?   What I see when I log in are:

• Roadmap
• Board
• Code
• Deployments
• Project Pages (this looks more like a wiki, I don't know if that may be a good place to start, but it doesn't date-and-name tag entries like a discussion forum would)

Thanks for your help

[G subramanyam]

Hi @jimerman welcome to Atlassian community.

For your requirement, I would suggest Jira with Slack and confluence tools.

Here's the links for Confluence cloud and Slack for your information. 

Stay safe and stay healthy.

[jimerman]

Thanks for your reply!  Slack is just a messaging app, isn't it?  That isn't really want I wanted, not DM, but a "public" forum for the team to post and respond to.  I will check out Confluence.

[jimerman]

So, Confluence seems to be for Document review & release, as in public-facing brochures or informational documents, or project documentation?  I am looking for a discussion tool, but if I got it wrong, please correct me.  Thank you.

[Capi [resolution]]

Confluence is a great place to start. You have two types of elements to discuss:

- Inline comments. These are anchored to specific pieces of information and can generated threaded discussions.

- Page comments. These refer to the entire page and can also generate threads of discussions. 

I don't recommend using Jira as a discussion tool. 

You can also include quite a lot of artifacts in Confluence and discuss around them if you for example embed a Miro brainstorming board.

[jimerman]

@Capi [resolution]  and @G subramanyam , thanks so much for responding so quickly.  Most of us already use MS Teams, I think we are going to expand use of it to this project as well.  I was hoping I could just use one tool, but it looks like I will use Jira for managing the software development and issue resolution.

[Danno]

If I am not mistaken you should already have the standard Confluence tool since you mentioned the project pages link. You certainly can plan and discuss items within Confluence and then create action items that are tasks in Jira directly from those documents. You can also connect Jira to Teams so that you can have the task you want to discuss attached to a Team or Meeting Chat or create a task directly from the chat.

[G subramanyam]

Thank you @jimerman and @Capi [resolution] for accepting my post.

Hi @jimerman here's the link to Microsoft teams for Jira as per your liking and decision.

Happy weekend, stay safe and stay healthy.

[jimerman]

Integration with Jira?  That is fantastic!  I am guessing I can add a Jira tab to the Team?  I will have to play with it.

[Jon Watts]

Hi @jimerman 

The discussions you want to capture on ideation and feedback, are these internal within your organisation/team, externally or both?

[jimerman]

Initially, internal, but eventually with contractors working on our projects.

[Jon Watts]

Hi @jimerman 

I'd certainly recommend looking into the Confluence Templates that are available (and free) for Product Management and Project Planning as a starting point

https://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence/templates/categories/product-management 

https://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence/templates/categories/project-planning

Best regards
Jon

[Erica Moss]

@jimerman Welcome to the Community! Sounds like you're already getting some great advice.