Jira Work Management for Software Development?

Question

Hello,

I know there is a lot of material on it online, including the post by Atlassian. However, I am looking at JWM and I see a board view and a list view, calendars etc.

We are a relatively small company choosing our SDLC tool, blogs claim that JWM is not meant for Software Development work but it is not entirely clear what I wont be able to do in JWM.

I think it is managing sprints but I wanted to confirm with the community.
What missing other features may dissuade me from using JWM for SDLC?

Kamal Deep Pareek · Answer

Jira Work Management (JWM) is designed for business teams and lacks several key features essential for software development. Most notably, it doesn’t support agile-specific tools like backlog management, sprint planning, burndown charts, or developer-focused integrations (e.g., code repositories, CI/CD). While JWM offers boards, calendars, and list views, it’s not optimized for iterative development or engineering workflows. For full SDLC support, Jira Software is better suited—it includes scrum/kanban boards, epics, and advanced reporting. If your team follows agile practices or needs integration with dev tools, JWM will feel limited. Use JWM for non-dev projects; choose Jira Software for engineering teams.

John Funk · Answer

Hey Mark - Why wouldn't you just use a Jira Software project? I am not aware of any beta right now.

Also, if you go to Project Settings for the JWM project, you should see Development Tools on the left hand menu that you can select and connect.

Mark Taylor_4j9pvj · Answer

Hey @John Funk is there a beta to get on this do you know? I'm just in the process of setting up JWM with our teams and be keen to try it out and do it once