Jira is a commercial issue ticketing and project management software based around the agile software development methodology. As such, Jira was introduced as a product for software companies, but use cases have since expanded to include a wide range of industries and departments.
Today, more than 65,000 companies around the world use Jira as a project management tool. Software developers and DevOps professionals comprise the largest segment of Jira users. Top industries using the Jira Software Cloud deployment include:
- Software
- Professional services
- Media and communication
- Education
- Healthcare
In this definition...
History of Jira
Jira was launched in 2002 as the first flagship product under the Atlassian umbrella. Australian co-founders Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar created Jira to meet their in-house needs for bug tracking and project management. They wanted a tool that could log issues and track progress all in one place, so they could streamline their software development work.
Eventually they came to the realization that the tool they had built would be beneficial for other software developers and decided to release it as a commercial product. When deciding on the name, Cannon-Brookes, Farquhar, and their team of developers used inspiration from the code name they had been using in-house, Bugzilla. The Japanese word for Godzilla is Gojira, so they decided to drop the “Go” and simply use the name Jira.
Jira features
Jira is specifically geared toward the agile software development methodology. It combines the features of project management software with those of bug tracking software to create an end-to-end solution for software developers. These include:
- Scrum boards, which promote transparency, iterative development, and collaboration through sprint planning and reviews
- Kanban boards, which provide progress-oriented project visualization and seek to reduce the time it takes to complete a project
- Roadmaps, which create a data-driven, high-level view of the project forecast
- Agile reporting, which helps improve delivery and performance by identifying patterns and opportunities for improvement
Jira integrates with countless developer tools that assist with end-to-end traceability. Automation is another core Jira feature. Users create rules that trigger specific actions, like creating an issue, assigning it to a specific user, or transitioning it to a different workflow stage.
Jira pricing
There are four different editions of Jira:
- Free: $0 for up to 10 users
- Standard: $7/user/month
- Premium: $14/user/month
- Enterprise: Contact sales team
