Unlocking the Hidden Power of Jira: Features You Might Be Overlooking

[Evan Fishman - Rally for Jira]

As Jira teams, we live and breathe agile.

But are we truly harnessing its full power?

After years of working with teams across industries, I've noticed some game-changing features often slip under the radar.

A few of them are;

🔍 JQL for Custom Dashboards: Use JQL to make focused dashboards.
Try this: project = "YourProject" AND status changed TO "In Progress" DURING (-1w, now())
This shows tasks moved to "In Progress" in the previous week. It gives you a quick work progress view.

🔗 Issue Links: Don't just use "relates to"
Try "blocks" or "is blocked by."
These links help you see which tasks are most important and how they affect each other.

📊 Board Setup: Add swimlanes and WIP limits to your boards.
Swimlanes group tasks by who does them or how important they are.
WIP limits show where work gets stuck.

🏷️ Smart Version Names: Name versions like "YYYY.MM.DD."
JIRA sorts these automatically. It makes tracking releases over time easier.

🔔 Better Alerts: Make custom filters for important issues.
This reduces noise and helps you focus on what truly matters.

And my personal favorite … Automation.

I'm always learning - what's your favourite JIRA feature?