How to Use Jenkins and Jira for Smooth Software Development

[Mark Rekveld - Marvelution]

Software development can be a slog. Ideally, as a project manager, you should be able to balance your team and developers’ needs without creating too much heavy administrative work. 

Here are four tips to ensure a smooth and successful software development project. 

1. Balance order and agile.

Agile software development calls for adaptive planning and a lot of flexibility. But it doesn’t mean you should get rid of processes entirely. In fact, you want to introduce just enough order for your team to complete their tasks smoothly and efficiently.

Plan ahead and set your procedures before the work begins. This will help developers keep their eye on the goal and help you stay ahead of the work. Make sure your strategy is flexible enough to navigate any problems that might arise along the way.

2. Link build projects on Jenkins to issues in Jira. 

As a project manager, you need to track who is working on what task and what they’ve done on Jira. 

Here are two ways to link work done in Jenkins to Jira:

• Manually create individual issues on Jira and link them to the project. However, you’ll need to update these regularly, which means lots of regular reminders for team members to update their Jira issues and move them across the pipeline. 

• Use an integration app that syncs jobs on Jenkins to Jira. Some apps like Jenkins Integration for Jira take this a step further and can automatically update issues linked to a build during development, saving you and your team even more time and hassle.

Set rules with Jenkins Integration for Jira to transition issues that are being worked on from “To Do” to “In Progress”.

3. Set up warnings for failed or unstable builds.

Software failures happen. What’s important is for the team to notice the failed build on time and work quickly to resolve it.

You’ll need alerts for both Jenkins and Jira in the event of build failure. Here are two ways you can do this: 

• Configure Jenkins to send out an alert via email if something goes wrong or if there is a change in the build state from failure to success (or vice versa). However, you may need a Mailer plugin for this. 

• Use an app that will alert you if something fails by creating a new issue for failed builds. This will allow you to identify issues and tag team members to act. 

Set rules so that any failed builds automatically generate new issues as an alert for the team with Jenkins Integration for Jira.

4. Trigger builds on Jira.

Jira focuses on project management and collaboration; it doesn’t have the built-in capacity for defining and executing build pipelines. So if you want to check on a build or trigger it, you must go through Jenkins. 

Here are two ways you can configure Jira to trigger builds: 

• Use a webhook to connect Jenkins and Jira. Apps like Webhook to Jenkins for Bitbucket will allow you to send a git push to Bitbucket to automatically trigger a Jenkins build. However, these still must be managed from within Jenkins. 

• Use an integration app. These apps adapt Jenkins to receive input from Jira, allowing you to trigger builds manually from a dialog box in Jira, or automatically should certain parameters be met.

No need to switch to Jenkins, the Jenkins Integration for Jira app allows you to trigger a build just using Jira.

Streamline build management with Jenkins-Jira integration

Ensuring a successful build takes significant time and effort. It requires coordination between development and operations, and useful tools to help project managers stay on top of everything going on. If you’re interested in an app that can help you make this process easier, check out our Marketplace listing.

For more helpful tips, check out our blog. 

How do you ensure a smooth software development process? Tell us in the comments below!