3 Jira Apps to help you achieve work balance and enhance team communication

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Statistically, we spend about one third of our lives at work. For some of us this fact might be surprising, but also highlights the importance of our career, which  - whether we like it or not -   is an inherent part of our lives. So whether you’re a developer, tester or a non-tech worker - creating a harmonic workspace can improve not only your  job satisfaction,  but also overall well-being. Various professionals share their stories on achieving work balance and overcoming daily challenges with a tiny help from our Apps.

We all dread deadlines. Polishing communicational and organizational skills might help us stay cool and calm,  even when the clock is ticking. 

Find your zen at work with Worklogs

Tom, Team Leader

My work: 

I’m a Team Leader in an IT company. I cooperate with clients worldwide and coordinate  the work of a 40 person team of testers and developers, dispersed across  different projects and locations. 

Challenges: 

Tracking progress among teams, sticking to the projects’ budget often gets tricky, especially when you’re constantly juggling between projects, communicating with clients in different time zones and struggling to meet deadlines. All this used  to make me feel overwhelmed - not even by the amount of work, but because I knew I should gain a broader perspective on my Jira  projects. 

Solution: 

Worklogs - Time Tracking and Reports for Jira is a simple Jira add-on that helped me regain control over my workspace. For instance, I get an easy, one-click overview of the  time spent by team members on a particular ticket as well as the issue’s type (bug fix or feature development). Worlogs offer various filters allowing to instantly group and pull data into XLSX reports providing detailed insights which can also serve as ready-to-send reports for clients. Sometimes a quick glance on a report spreadsheet helps me make a quick (and mostly important: accurate) decision regarding the project’s profitability and helps stay on track of essential metrics such as the On Product Index. Having a tool that supports time management in projects and allows to analyse  it from different angles might be a game-changer for professionals working  in a fast-paced and data-driven environment. 

Worklogs give you a quick overview of your team’s work and allow creating flexible reports in a blink of an eye.

Make your to-do-lists doable with Multiple Checklists 

Alice, Administrative manager

My work: 

I work as an administrative manager in a software company and am responsible for hiring, training employees in accordance with the company’s administrative system and procedures. 

Challenges:

I deal with a lot of repetitive tasks which  require following the same procedures.  When faced with a familiar task such as prolonging a contract, I act automatically. This “autopilot” mode as I call it,  saves me time, but sometimes makes me act too habitually.

There is a wise saying - the devil’s in the details - and I can totally relate to it!  It’s easy to omit details when you’re relying on your memory (or a paper note on your desk). A few times I overlooked a small item which was crucial for the task completion, but it  just slipped my mind… 

Solution:

Since I started using  Multiple Checklists for Jira,  I’m much better organized and calm about my work. Before tackling a new activity,  I write down all the action items and plan the next steps directly in Jira. Checklists help me split complex tasks into smaller chunks, making them more achievable.  You can also add multiple Checklists to a single ticket or create Checklist Templates, which then can be easily applied in another project. Finally, I can focus on improving the procedures, instead of making sure they’re being followed. This  Jira add-on really took a weight off my mind  - now I can drink my morning coffee in peace, without worrying what to do next.

Swap  your paper to-do-lists for Jira!  Add multiple Checklists to a single issue and see how quickly you’re moving towards your goals.

Bring  more (E)QAlity and transparency to your testing

Mandy, Software Tester

My work:

I work as a software tester in a small  IT startup and perform automated and manual tests of software created by our developers, ensuring that it meets the end-user needs. 

Challenges:

Even though we’re a small, 15-person company, we struggled with communication between the testing and development team. Sometimes I felt that my work came unnoticed and it could bring a greater value to the projects. Testing is a crucial part of the software development process and I wanted my work to be more transparent and beneficial for the rest of the team. 

I was also coping with a lot of redundant tasks and needed a solution to automate the time-consuming test executions.

Solution:

And here came QAlity - Test Management for Jira. It’s pretty funny how a single (and free!) app can change a team’s workstream for the better. 

QAlity not only solved our communication issues but also underlined the importance of proper testing. First, we gained more clarity and transparency across the test-dev team. With QAlity you can document the whole testing process  - from creating single Test Cases to grouping them into Test Cycles. This allows all team members to acknowledge the test results and track their progress, which provides a wider context of the testing process. QAlity offers both detailed and general insights, depending on how deep you want to analyse a particular Test Case. For example,  the Simple View mode displays  only essential info on the test execution history: Test Data and Test Result,  without getting in  too much detail. 

QAlity also solved the problem of too many manual and redundant tasks in test management. A quick preview of the test execution history  helps to determine  the precise moment when a bug or issue has occurred. 

The app  also supports regression testing - when there’s a new feature release, all I need to do  is to clone previous Test Cycles. And last but not least, I really enjoy how versatile it is - you can add Test Cases to existing issues or use them independently as single tickets. 

 QAlity makes testing as easy as ABC! Organize your tests into neat test cycles and instantly share the results with your team.

Success is built by teams, not by individual players. Knowing this might be the key to creating custom workflows, that not only embrace your team’s uniqueness, but also improve overall productivity and communication.

Check out the free trial versions of our Apps and see how they work for your team!