Making Project Management Easy with Eight Features of Jira

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To the project manager (PM), Jira is undoubtedly a blessing. It sits comfortably among the most widely-used project management software for good reasons after all! 

With its humble roots in issue tracking and resolving bugs, it has gone a long way to becoming the all-encompassing tool it is today. 

Whether you’re already using Jira or are testing the waters, here are eight ways Jira can support PMs.

Feature 1: Project Planning

From start to finish, Jira can be used every step of the way. With Jira, PMs can detail a project's scope (e.g., deliverables), create issues according to a defined hierarchy, and assign tasks to team members.

Deadlines and dependencies can also be created to add a further layer of understanding for everyone involved.

Feature 2: Workflow Customization

Workflows map out the inner workings of projects by laying out how tasks transition from "To-Do" to "Complete."

 With Jira, PMs can even customize their workflows to reflect their team's internal processes. To do this, simply create a unique workflow for certain issue types or get yourself a suitable workflow from the Atlassian Marketplace!

Feature 3: Define Project Milestones

Milestones, like signposts, serve to guide a team towards the completion of any project.

While Jira doesn't come equipped with a milestone feature per se, you can still create issue hierarchies that achieve the same thing. All you need to do is group together related tasks under a single epic!

Feature 4: Big-Picture Visualization with Agile Roadmap

Creating and assigning Jira issues is one thing. Knowing how they are laid out over long periods is another.

Jira's Roadmap feature helps add clarity to this by visualizing epics and tasks on a neat timeline. This is fantastic as it provides visibility for PMs, which helps with planning and allocating work.

Feature 5: Dependency Management

Jira's Roadmap helps PMs manage their dependencies by illustrating how epics relate to each other.

This is done with an orange line that connects relevant epics with each other. It may not sound like much, but when dealing with complex projects, you’ll find this feature to be incredibly useful.

Feature 6: Project Monitoring with a Kanban Board

Project monitoring, thanks to Jira, is made painless.  

With the Kanban Board, you can visually track everyone's progress and identify any areas of concern immediately such as blockers. Further, this also adds a dimension of accountability to team members for their own tasks.

Feature 7: Project Permission Control

You might be surprised to learn that Jira can even aid projects that deal with sensitive data like medical information.

Jira allows PMs to configure permissions to ensure only certain users can access certain things. Just make sure you double-check who you give access to!

Feature 8: Project Reporting

Last but not least, Jira can also give PMs key insights in the form of project reports.

From measuring productivity with Velocity and Sprint Burndown reports to checking the quality of deliverables with the Net Promoter Score, there are countless reports for PMs to utilize for every occasion.

What should my next steps be if I want to use Jira for my projects?

Though Jira is an excellent, versatile tool, it still will take some time to master. Additionally, it doesn’t always come equipped with everything a PM may need, such as Gantt Charts.

This may seem like a shame at first especially considering how useful Gantt Charts are for Agile teams, but don’t fret.

With the help of apps such as WBS Gantt-Chart for Jira, this hurdle is easily resolved!

*I am happy to share that we’re offering WBS Gantt-Chart for Jira for FREE for up to 10 users. 30-day FREE trial is available for everyone too. Try it and see for yourself how it helps your team!