matt.toigo - The Big 3 JIRA Mistakes

Every software development methodology requires you to track the completion of tasks. This is the fundamental truth on which most software development project management and issue (ticket) tracking software is based. There are nearly infinite methodologies, tactics, and tools which can be combined with issue tracking software to suit the particular needs of both your organization and your project.

I’ve worked in established product companies, startups, and consulting. The development pattern I see most often is using Atlassian JIRA to run 2 weeks sprints with some version of Agile and Scrum. The concepts of Agile and Scrum and also JIRA itself can easily be criticized, but they are tools like everything else in the software industry and they can be tailored and applied very well to situations or extremely poorly.

I’ve seen organizations where JIRA was universally hated and others where it was seen as useful at all levels of product and engineering. Issue tracking software is something that teams spend hours every day looking at so it's always going to elicit very strong opinions. Like most successful adoptions of software, using JIRA effectively comes down to listening to what people need, making good decisions based on what the software can actually do, and establishing light standards and governance balanced with a process for anyone to suggest new changes.

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