As organizations scale Agile, Scrum, and project management practices, recruiters must identify Jira professionals who can configure, manage, and optimize workflows that keep teams aligned and productive. With expertise in boards, issue types, automation, reporting, and integrations, Jira specialists ensure seamless collaboration across engineering, product, and business teams.
This resource, "100+ Jira Interview Questions and Answers," is tailored for recruiters to simplify the evaluation process. It covers a wide range of topics—from Jira fundamentals to advanced administration, including custom workflows, permission schemes, dashboards, and project configurations.
Whether you're hiring Jira Admins, Project Managers, Scrum Masters, or Agile Delivery Specialists, this guide enables you to assess a candidate’s:
For a streamlined assessment process, consider platforms like WeCP, which allow you to:
Save time, enhance your hiring process, and confidently hire Jira professionals who can streamline processes, improve transparency, and support scalable project execution from day one.
1. What is Jira?
2. What are the main products in the Jira suite?
3. What is a Jira project?
4. What is an issue in Jira?
5. What are common issue types?
6. What is a workflow in Jira?
7. What is a status in Jira?
8. What are transitions?
9. What are custom fields?
10. What is an Epic?
11. What is a Story?
12. What is a Sub-task?
13. What is a Bug?
14. What is a Sprint in Jira?
15. What is the Backlog?
16. What is a Kanban board?
17. What is a Scrum board?
18. What are components in Jira?
19. What are labels in Jira?
20. How do you create an issue?
21. How do you clone an issue?
22. What is the purpose of watchers?
23. What is an assignee?
24. What are Jira permissions?
25. What is a project role?
26. What is the difference between a group and a role?
27. What is a filter in Jira?
28. What is JQL?
29. How do you share a filter?
30. What is a dashboard?
31. What are gadgets in Jira?
32. What is the people section of a project?
33. How do you upload attachments?
34. What is a resolution in Jira?
35. What is priority in Jira?
36. What is severity?
37. How do you link issues?
38. What does "Done" mean in Jira?
39. What are issue history and activity?
40. Why do teams use Jira?
1. What is the difference between a company-managed and team-managed project?
2. How do you configure workflows?
3. How do you add conditions to transitions?
4. What are validators in Jira workflows?
5. What are post functions?
6. What is a workflow scheme?
7. What is an issue type scheme?
8. What is a field configuration?
9. What is a field configuration scheme?
10. How do you create custom fields?
11. What are automation rules in Jira?
12. What is a global automation rule?
13. What is an SLA in Jira Service Management?
14. How do you set issue security?
15. What is a permission scheme?
16. What is a notification scheme?
17. How do you migrate issues between projects?
18. Explain JQL functions vs operators.
19. How do you set up swimlanes?
20. What is estimation in Jira (Story points vs Time)?
21. How do you configure boards in Jira?
22. What is the difference between sprint planning and backlog grooming?
23. What is velocity in Jira?
24. What is a burndown chart?
25. What is a burnup chart?
26. What is cumulative flow diagram?
27. How do you copy a project?
28. What is a shared filter?
29. What is an advanced roadmap (Portfolio)?
30. How do you manage releases / versions in Jira?
31. Explain workflow statuses vs categories.
32. What is a board filter query?
33. How do you bulk edit issues?
34. What is an issue collector?
35. What is Jira Marketplace?
36. What is Tempo Timesheets?
37. Explain how to restrict project access.
38. What is a transition screen?
39. How do you audit Jira changes?
40. How do you troubleshoot permission denied issues?
1. Explain Jira architecture (Cloud vs DC).
2. How does the indexing system work in Jira?
3. What are best practices for designing enterprise workflows?
4. Explain the performance impact of too many custom fields.
5. How do you optimize JQL performance?
6. What is ScriptRunner? Give examples of usage.
7. How do you write ScriptRunner Groovy scripts?
8. What is Jira REST API? Explain authentication methods.
9. How do you create issues using REST API?
10. How do you integrate Jira with CI/CD tools (Jenkins, GitLab, Azure DevOps)?
11. What is webhook integration?
12. How do you create custom workflow conditions using code?
13. Explain advanced permission troubleshooting using Permission Helper.
14. How do you manage large-scale migrations in Jira?
15. How do you merge two Jira instances?
16. What is the strategy for Jira backup & restore?
17. How do you configure SSO in Jira (SAML, Azure AD)?
18. Explain data retention & cleanup strategies.
19. How to manage SLA reporting at scale?
20. What is Insight Asset Management?
21. How do you use Jira for ITSM / ITIL practices?
22. Explain multi-project automation.
23. What are cross-project releases?
24. How do you manage thousands of users efficiently?
25. Explain project archiving strategies.
26. What is an enterprise permission model?
27. How do you troubleshoot indexing errors?
28. What is Jira clustering?
29. How do you diagnose performance bottlenecks?
30. What is custom event configuration?
31. How do you customize email templates in Jira?
32. What is the best practice for workflow versioning?
33. How do you perform audit log analysis?
34. How do you handle compliance (SOX, GDPR) in Jira?
35. What is an automation rule loop and how to prevent it?
36. How do you integrate Jira with Confluence at scale?
37. Explain the use of Jira for Portfolio Management.
38. How do you secure sensitive Jira projects?
39. What is the best practice for managing Marketplace apps?
40. How do you design a high-availability Jira system?
Jira is a powerful work management and issue-tracking platform developed by Atlassian. Originally created for bug tracking in software development, Jira has evolved into a flexible and scalable tool used across industries for project management, task tracking, agile development, workflow automation, reporting, and collaboration.
Jira supports multiple work methodologies—Scrum, Kanban, and hybrid approaches—making it suitable for software teams, IT teams, HR, marketing, operations, and enterprise-level organizations. It allows users to create tasks, assign them, track progress, visualize work on boards, connect requirements to delivery, and generate insightful reports.
Its strong integration ecosystem (Confluence, Bitbucket, GitHub, Slack, CI/CD tools) and extensive customization capabilities make Jira one of the most widely used project and issue management tools globally.
The Jira suite consists of several specialized products, each designed for a specific use case:
Used primarily by software development and DevOps teams.
Features include Scrum boards, Kanban boards, backlogs, sprints, burndown charts, roadmaps, and development integrations.
A complete IT service management (ITSM) platform used by IT, support, and operations teams.
Supports ticketing, incident management, change management, SLAs, queues, and knowledge base integration.
Designed for non-technical business teams such as HR, finance, marketing, sales, and operations.
Includes ready-made templates, forms, timelines, calendars, and simple workflow management.
An enterprise solution for large organizations following Agile at scale (SAFe, LeSS, etc.).
Helps align team-level work with executive strategy and business goals.
Together, these products address end-to-end organizational needs—from planning to development, operations, and support.
A Jira project is a structured collection of issues, configurations, and workflows designed to organize and manage work for a team or business process. Every project represents a specific initiative or area of work—such as software development, customer support, marketing campaigns, HR onboarding, or operations.
Each Jira project includes:
Projects help teams work independently with their own setup while still being part of the larger Jira environment. Projects can be company-managed (admin-controlled) or team-managed (team-controlled), offering different levels of customization.
An issue in Jira is the fundamental unit of work. It represents any type of task, request, bug, activity, or piece of work that a team wants to track and manage. Issues store all details related to the work item, such as:
Depending on the context, an issue may represent a story for development, a service ticket for IT support, a task for HR, or a bug report for QA. Jira’s flexibility allows teams to define issue types suitable for their work processes.
Jira provides several default issue types, but organizations can create custom ones. Common issue types include:
Represents a user requirement or feature.
A general work item that needs to be completed.
A problem or defect found in software.
A large body of work broken into multiple stories or tasks.
A smaller piece of work that is part of a Story, Task, or Bug.
Requests coming from customers or employees.
These issue types help teams categorize work, apply appropriate workflows, and manage work efficiently.
A workflow is a defined sequence of steps that an issue follows from start to completion. It represents the lifecycle of an issue and ensures consistent process management. A workflow consists of:
Workflows can be simple (To Do → In Progress → Done) or complex (with approvals, escalations, QA checks, and more). Jira’s workflow engine is one of its most powerful features, enabling full customization to match any team’s processes.
A status represents the current state of an issue within its workflow. It shows where the issue is in the process. Examples include:
Statuses help teams understand real-time progress, track bottlenecks, and maintain transparency across the project.
A transition is the action that moves an issue from one status to another within a workflow. For example:
Transitions can include:
Transitions enforce process rules and ensure issues move correctly through the workflow.
Custom fields are user-defined fields used to store additional information beyond Jira’s default fields. They allow teams to capture specific data relevant to their work. Examples include:
Custom fields can be:
They make Jira adaptable for different industries, teams, and processes.
An Epic is a large, high-level body of work that can be broken down into multiple smaller tasks such as Stories, Bugs, or Tasks. It represents a major feature, requirement, or goal that cannot be completed in a single sprint or work cycle.
Examples:
Epics help teams:
On Agile boards, Epics often appear as colored labels or swimlanes, helping visualize how work contributes to larger objectives.
A Story in Jira represents a specific user requirement or feature that delivers value to the end user. In Agile methodology, a Story is written from the user’s perspective and describes what they need and why they need it. Stories help break down large requirements (Epics) into smaller, manageable units of work that can be completed within a sprint.
A story typically includes:
Example Story Format:
“As a user, I want to reset my password so that I can recover my account.”
Stories are essential to Agile planning, sprint management, estimation, and ensuring that teams deliver incremental value.
A Sub-task is a smaller, more granular piece of work that is part of a parent issue such as a Story, Bug, or Task. Sub-tasks help break down complex issues into actionable steps that can be assigned to different team members.
For example, a Story like “Implement login functionality” may include sub-tasks such as:
Sub-tasks allow teams to:
They are always tied to a parent issue and cannot exist independently.
A Bug is an issue type representing a defect, error, or malfunction discovered in software. Bugs occur when the actual behavior of the application does not align with the expected behavior. They can be reported during development, testing, or even after deployment.
A bug typically includes:
Example:
“Login button does not respond when clicked on mobile devices.”
Bugs follow specific workflows so teams can triage, fix, test, and close defects before releasing products.
A Sprint is a fixed, time-boxed iteration (usually 1–4 weeks) in which Scrum teams commit to completing a set of planned work items. It is a core part of Agile Scrum methodology, helping teams deliver incremental value regularly.
A sprint includes:
In Jira, sprints are created on a Scrum board, and issues move across statuses during the sprint. Jira provides metrics like velocity charts and burndown charts to track sprint progress and forecast future capacity.
The Backlog is a prioritized list of uncompleted work items such as Stories, Tasks, Bugs, and Epics. It acts as the central planning area where product owners manage and groom upcoming work.
Key characteristics:
Backlogs help teams stay focused on important work and maintain a clear roadmap of what needs to be delivered next.
A Kanban board in Jira is a visualization tool used to manage continuous flow of work without fixed iterations. It is ideal for support teams, operations, DevOps, or any team with steady incoming tasks.
A Kanban board typically includes columns like:
Key features of Kanban boards:
Kanban emphasizes optimizing flow and reducing bottlenecks.
A Scrum board in Jira is used by Agile teams practicing Scrum to track work during a sprint. It visualizes the sprint backlog and helps teams manage progress from sprint planning to review.
Key features include:
Scrum boards help teams execute time-boxed development cycles and improve predictability and planning accuracy.
Components are sub-sections or categories within a Jira project that help organize issues into logical areas. They allow teams to group related work and assign responsibility more easily.
Examples of components:
Components help:
They provide a middle layer of categorization between issues and the overall project.
Labels are flexible, user-defined tags that help categorize, filter, and find issues more easily. They are less formal than components and can be applied freely to any issue type.
Examples of labels:
Labels help with:
They support agile processes by helping teams mark issues with meaningful keywords without strict constraints.
To create an issue in Jira, follow these steps:
The issue enters the project’s workflow and can be tracked through statuses until completion.
Cloning an issue in Jira means creating an exact copy of an existing issue. This is useful when you want to duplicate the work, create similar tasks, or use an issue as a template.
To clone an issue:
The cloned issue becomes a new, separate item with its own issue key. It inherits all data from the original except comments and some system fields.
Cloning helps teams save time when creating repetitive tasks or similar issues.
Watchers in Jira are users who want to receive notifications about the progress or updates on a specific issue, even if they are not assigned to it.
Purpose of watchers:
Example use cases:
Watchers improve collaboration by ensuring the right people stay updated.
An assignee is the person responsible for working on and completing the issue. The assignee owns the task and is accountable for progressing it through the workflow.
Key points:
Role of an assignee depends on the issue type:
Assigning issues ensures clarity and accountability.
Jira permissions control who can perform specific actions within Jira. They govern access at project level, issue level, and system level.
There are three main types:
Apply across the entire Jira instance.
Examples:
Control actions within a specific project.
Examples:
Define visibility of individual issues.
Permissions ensure:
Permissions are managed through permission schemes, allowing consistent rules across multiple projects.
A project role is a flexible way to group users within a specific project to give them responsibilities or permissions. Roles are used in permission schemes to determine what users can do inside a project.
Common project roles:
Roles are dynamic and context-specific. The same user may be:
Project roles make permission management easier and more scalable.
Groups and roles both organize users, but they serve different purposes:
GroupRoleGlobal collection of users.Project-specific collection of users.Managed by Jira admin.Managed by project admin.Same across all projects.Different for each project.Used for global permissions.Used for project permissions.Example: “jira-users”, “jira-admins”.Example: “Developer”, “Viewer”, “Project Lead”.
In simple terms:
Roles are more flexible because they allow different users to have different responsibilities in each project.
A filter in Jira is a saved search query that returns a set of issues based on criteria you define. Filters help you quickly access important issue lists without rewriting queries.
You can filter by fields like:
Filters can be created using:
Filters are used for:
Filters improve productivity by giving teams quick access to frequently viewed issue sets.
JQL (Jira Query Language) is a powerful, SQL-like language used to search for issues in Jira with precision and flexibility. It allows users to create complex queries that cannot be achieved with basic search.
Example JQL queries:
assignee = currentUser()status = "In Progress" AND priority = Highproject = CRM AND labels = regressionupdated >= -7dfixVersion = "Release 1.0"JQL supports:
Use cases of JQL:
JQL is one of Jira's most powerful features for managing large, complex datasets.
Sharing a filter allows others in your team or organization to use it. By default, filters are private, meaning only the creator can see them.
To share a filter:
After sharing, others can:
Sharing filters promotes collaboration and consistent reporting across teams.
A dashboard in Jira is a customizable visual interface that displays information using gadgets. It gives users a real-time overview of work, progress, and project health.
Dashboards can include:
Dashboards are useful for:
Dashboards can be:
They help teams make data-driven decisions and stay aligned.
Gadgets in Jira are small, interactive components used to display specific data or insights on a dashboard. They help users visualize project progress, team workload, issue breakdowns, and performance metrics. Jira dashboards are built entirely using gadgets, making them the primary building blocks of reporting in Jira.
Common Jira gadgets include:
Gadgets help teams monitor work efficiently, support data-driven decisions, and provide real-time visibility into team performance and project health.
The People section of a Jira project displays all users and roles associated with that project. It shows who has access, their responsibilities, and the roles they fulfill.
In the People section, you can:
Project administrators use this section to:
The People section helps maintain security, accountability, and proper team structure within a project.
Uploading attachments in Jira allows users to share files such as screenshots, documents, logs, test cases, or design assets that support the issue.
To upload an attachment:
You can attach:
Attachments help teams provide context, reproduce bugs, review designs, and improve collaboration.
Notes:
A resolution describes the final state or outcome of an issue—how it was addressed or why it was closed. When an issue transitions to a “Done” or “Closed” status, Jira often requires a resolution value.
Common resolution values:
Resolutions are important because:
resolution = Unresolved)Resolutions ensure clear documentation of how every issue was concluded.
Priority indicates the importance or urgency of an issue. It helps teams decide what to work on first and ensures critical issues receive immediate attention.
Common priority levels:
Priority helps teams:
Priority can be set manually or automatically through automation rules.
Severity describes the impact of an issue, especially in the context of bugs or defects. It indicates how badly the issue affects the system or user experience.
Common severity levels:
Severity is typically used by QA and testers to classify bugs, while priority is usually set by product owners or project leads.
In simple terms:
Severity helps QA teams evaluate bug seriousness and guide triage discussions.
Linking issues creates relationships between two or more issues. This helps teams track dependencies, duplicates, related work, or parent-child relationships.
To link issues:
Linked issues help teams:
Issue linking is essential for large or multi-team projects.
“Done” in Jira signifies that the issue has been fully completed according to the team’s Definition of Done (DoD). It indicates that all required work is finished and no further action is needed.
Done typically means:
Each team may have its own DoD, but “Done” always represents the final stage of an issue’s lifecycle.
In reports like burndown charts, only issues in “Done” (with a resolution) are considered completed.
Issue History and Activity show the chronological record of all changes made to an issue. They provide transparency and help track who did what and when.
The Activity section includes:
Examples of activity tracked:
This helps teams maintain accountability, understand decisions, and audit changes.
Teams use Jira because it is a powerful, flexible, and customizable tool for managing work across different teams and industries. Its robust features support Agile methodologies, collaboration, planning, tracking, and reporting.
Key reasons teams use Jira:
Jira supports sprints, backlogs, boards, and Agile reports out-of-the-box.
Teams can customize workflows, fields, issue types, and permissions to match any process.
Comments, attachments, watchers, and notifications keep everyone aligned.
Dashboards, gadgets, and JQL filters allow deep insights into progress and bottlenecks.
Works seamlessly with Confluence, Bitbucket, GitHub, Slack, CI/CD tools, and more.
Used by small teams, enterprises, and even global organizations.
Development, IT support, HR, marketing, operations, finance, and more.
Strong access controls, permissions, and compliance make it enterprise-ready.
In short, teams use Jira because it helps them stay organized, track work efficiently, improve productivity, and deliver better outcomes.
Jira offers two types of projects—Company-managed and Team-managed—each designed for different levels of customization, governance, and team autonomy.
These are centrally managed by Jira administrators and suitable for large-scale, enterprise-level setups.
Key features:
Ideal for:
Enterprises, cross-functional collaboration, regulated environments.
These are designed for small teams who need flexibility and the ability to configure their own tools without admin involvement.
Key features:
Ideal for:
Small teams, simple workflows, teams wanting autonomy.
FeatureCompany-ManagedTeam-ManagedAdmin ControlJira adminsProject teamCustomization LevelHighMediumShared SchemesYesNoWorkflow ComplexityAdvancedSimpleUse CaseEnterpriseSmall teams
Configuring workflows allows you to define how issues move from creation to completion. Only Jira project admins or system administrators can configure workflows in Company-managed projects.
Workflow customization is essential for enforcing standardized processes across teams.
A condition determines whether a transition can be executed. It controls who can perform a transition or when it’s allowed.
Conditions ensure proper controls and governance in workflows.
Validators ensure that certain rules are met before a transition can be completed. While conditions control who can transition, validators ensure the data is valid during transition.
Validators improve data quality and enforce process requirements.
Post functions are automated actions that Jira performs after a transition is completed. While conditions and validators control the transition, post functions execute after the transition is successful.
Post functions help automate repetitive tasks and maintain process consistency.
A workflow scheme determines which workflow is applied to which issue type within a project. It acts as a mapping between issue types and workflows.
Issue TypeWorkflowBugBug WorkflowStoryDevelopment WorkflowTaskSimple Task Workflow
Workflow schemes allow multiple projects to share standardized workflows and help maintain consistency across teams.
An issue type scheme determines which issue types are available in a project. It lets you control the set of issue types users can create.
Each project has one issue type scheme assigned to it.
Issue type schemes help ensure projects have the appropriate set of work items.
A field configuration defines the behavior and properties of fields within issues. It allows administrators to control how fields appear to users.
You can also add instructions or descriptions for each field.
You can make “Due Date” mandatory for Tasks but optional for Bugs.
Field configurations help enforce data standards and workflows across teams.
A field configuration scheme maps different field configurations to different issue types. This allows you to apply specific field rules to specific issue types.
Issue TypeField ConfigurationBugBug Field ConfigurationStoryStory Field ConfigurationTaskTask Field Configuration
This allows:
Field configuration schemes give granular control over field behavior.
Custom fields allow teams to collect information beyond Jira’s default fields.
Custom fields help tailor Jira to specific team needs and industry requirements.
Automation rules in Jira allow teams to automate repetitive tasks, reduce manual effort, and enforce consistent processes. Jira’s automation engine works on a Trigger → Condition → Action model, enabling powerful workflow automation without writing code.
Automation examples:
Automation rules save time, reduce errors, and streamline project workflows.
A global automation rule is an automation rule that applies across multiple projects or the entire Jira instance. Only Jira administrators can create global rules, and they are ideal for organization-wide process standardization.
Example:
“When a critical issue is created in any project, notify the security team and add a ‘critical-alert’ label.”
Global rules help maintain consistency, enforce governance, and reduce operational overhead across large teams.
An SLA (Service Level Agreement) in Jira Service Management defines the expected response and resolution times for support or service requests. SLAs help measure team performance and ensure customer commitments are met.
SLAs can be based on:
Example:
Jira shows real-time SLA countdowns and includes reports for tracking compliance and overdue items. SLAs are crucial for ITSM, customer support, and operations teams.
Issue security controls who can view specific issues within a project. This is useful when certain issues contain sensitive data.
Issue security ensures confidentiality and proper access control within Jira.
A permission scheme is a reusable set of permissions that determine what users can do within a project. Instead of configuring permissions individually per project, schemes standardize permission settings across multiple projects.
Each permission can be assigned to:
Projects share permission schemes for consistency and ease of management. Changing a scheme updates permissions for all linked projects.
A notification scheme controls who receives email notifications about specific issue events. It determines which users are informed when actions occur in a project.
Example:
“When an issue is assigned, notify the assignee and project lead.”
Notification schemes help keep relevant team members informed without overwhelming the entire organization.
Migrating issues means moving them from one project to another. This may be needed during reorganization, merging teams, or correcting project assignment mistakes.
Important:
Only users with bulk change and project permissions can perform migrations.
Migration ensures that work is organized under the correct project structure.
Operators define relationships between fields and values. They connect different parts of a JQL query.
Examples of operators:
= (equal)!= (not equal)INNOT IN~ (contains)> < >= <=AND, OR, NOTExample query:
priority = High AND status != Done
Functions are advanced JQL elements that dynamically return sets of values.
Examples of functions:
currentUser()membersOf("group-name")startOfDay()endOfWeek()issueHistory()recentlyViewed()Example:
assignee = currentUser()
FeatureOperatorsFunctionsRoleCompare valuesGenerate dynamic valuesUsageStatic comparisonsCalculate values at runtimeExamplestatus = Doneassignee = currentUser()
Operators = logical structure
Functions = dynamic inputs
Both together make JQL extremely powerful.
Swimlanes divide a board horizontally to group issues logically. They help teams categorize work visually on Scrum or Kanban boards.
priority = Criticalstatus = Blockedissuetype = BugSwimlanes improve visibility and help teams organize work effectively.
Estimation helps teams plan workloads, forecast delivery, and measure capacity.
Story points measure the complexity, effort, and uncertainty of a task. They are not tied to time; instead, they represent relative difficulty.
Benefits:
Example:
Used mainly in Scrum.
Time-based estimation predicts the number of hours or days needed to complete a task.
Examples:
Benefits:
Time tracking includes:
Story PointsTimeMeasures complexityMeasures actual durationAbstractConcreteBetter for AgileBetter for operations/supportPredicts velocityPredicts workload
Jira supports both methods, and teams can choose based on their working style.
Configuring boards in Jira allows teams to customize how work is visualized on Scrum or Kanban boards. Boards represent real-time progress of issues, and configuration ensures the view matches team processes.
Choose how to group issues horizontally:
Enable fast filtering of work using custom JQL:
Customize card details:
Choose which fields appear when clicking a card.
Select estimation method:
Adjust workflow mapping so that statuses map correctly to board columns.
Effective board configuration ensures transparency, better planning, and efficient team collaboration.
Sprint Planning and Backlog Grooming are both important Agile ceremonies but serve different purposes.
Occurs at the start of every sprint.
Purpose:
Focus:
Participants:
Outcome:
Occurs continuously throughout the sprint (usually weekly or bi-weekly).
Purpose:
Focus:
Participants:
Outcome:
Velocity in Jira measures the amount of work completed by a team in a sprint, typically in story points. It is a key metric for forecasting, planning capacity, and improving predictability.
Sum of Story Points completed during the sprint
Example:
In Jira Software, velocity is visualized in the Velocity Chart under Reports.
A Burndown Chart shows the remaining amount of work in a sprint over time. It helps teams monitor progress and determine if they are on track to meet the sprint goal.
Burndown charts help maintain transparency and ensure timely delivery of sprint commitments.
A Burnup Chart tracks the amount of work completed over time while also showing the total work scope.
Burnup charts give a clearer view than burndown charts in dynamic environments where scope changes frequently.
A Cumulative Flow Diagram (CFD) visualizes the flow of work items across different workflow stages over time. It is widely used in Kanban and DevOps environments.
CFD helps optimize flow and improve team efficiency.
Jira does not offer a direct “copy project” feature out-of-the-box, but you can replicate a project using different approaches depending on your needs.
Template automatically copies:
This produces an identical configuration without copying issues.
Apps like Project Configurator or Configuration Manager can fully clone projects, including issues, components, versions, and settings.
To copy issues into the new project:
Copying projects is often needed for new teams, new clients, or repeatable workflows.
A shared filter is a saved JQL or basic search filter made available to other users, teams, groups, or the entire organization.
You can share with:
Shared filters help teams work with consistent datasets across boards and dashboards.
Advanced Roadmaps (formerly Portfolio for Jira) is a high-level planning tool used to visualize, forecast, and manage work across multiple teams and projects.
Advanced Roadmaps is ideal for large organizations practicing SAFe, LeSS, or multi-team Agile environments.
Releases (also called Versions) in Jira help teams plan, track, and deliver work in structured increments.
fixVersion = "Release 1.0"
Versions help maintain organized, disciplined software delivery.
Workflow statuses and status categories are related but serve different purposes in Jira.
A status represents a specific step in the workflow of an issue.
Examples:
Statuses are fully customizable. Each project can have unique statuses based on team processes.
Statuses define the exact position of an issue in its lifecycle.
Status categories are Jira-defined groups that classify statuses into three high-level categories:
Status categories are fixed and cannot be changed or deleted.
FeatureWorkflow StatusStatus CategoryCustomizableYesNoPurposeDetailed workflow stepHigh-level groupingExamplesTesting, BlockedIn ProgressImpactVisible on board columnsImpacts reports, resolution
Statuses describe the exact state; categories describe the overall stage.
A board filter query is the JQL (Jira Query Language) filter that determines which issues appear on a Scrum or Kanban board.
Every board in Jira is driven by a saved filter.
project = "CRM" AND issuetype != Sub-task ORDER BY priority DESC
The filter is editable under:
Board Settings → General → Filter Query
Boards are essentially “visual representations of JQL results,” organized into statuses and columns.
Bulk editing allows users to modify multiple issues simultaneously—such as changing status, assignee, priority, components, or fields.
Bulk editing is powerful but potentially risky, so it must be used carefully.
An Issue Collector allows you to embed a feedback form on any website, intranet, or application. Users can submit issues directly to Jira without having a Jira account.
Issue collectors make it easy to gather structured feedback from external or non-Jira users.
The Atlassian Marketplace is an online store where organizations can install apps, plugins, and integrations to extend the functionality of Jira.
The Marketplace enables Jira to evolve from a simple issue tracker to a full business platform.
Tempo Timesheets is a popular Marketplace app used for advanced time tracking, reporting, and resource management in Jira.
Tempo helps teams meet compliance, track effort, and manage budgets.
Restricting project access ensures only authorized users can view or update project issues.
Example:
Only “Developers” and “Project Leads” can access Project X.
Assign specific roles like:
Then map these roles in the permission scheme.
Restrict visibility of sensitive issues (e.g., HR, legal).
Ensure only users in allowed groups have access.
Use project roles, not individual users, for scalability and cleaner admin management.
A transition screen appears when an issue is moved from one status to another, prompting the user to enter additional information.
When transitioning from In Progress → Done, a transition screen may include:
Transition screens ensure critical information is collected at the right point in the workflow.
Auditing helps track who made changes and when. Jira provides multiple ways to view audit information.
Go to:
Jira Settings → System → Audit Log
Tracks:
Audit logs can be exported for compliance.
Tracks:
Shows updates to project configuration.
Tools like ScriptRunner or Insight provide extended auditing.
Audit logs help with compliance (GDPR, SOX), troubleshooting, and governance.
Troubleshooting “permission denied” issues requires checking user permissions at multiple levels.
Found under:
Project → Permissions → Permission Helper
It shows:
Verify whether the user has permission to:
Ensure user is assigned a role (e.g., Developer, User).
Make sure the user’s group is included in permission scheme.
Issue may be restricted.
A transition condition might block the user.
User may need:
Invisible issues may appear as permission errors.
Using a structured approach ensures permission issues are resolved quickly and correctly.
Jira is offered in two major deployment architectures—Jira Cloud and Jira Data Center (DC)—each designed to meet different scalability, control, and security requirements.
Jira Cloud is a fully managed SaaS offering hosted by Atlassian.
Key architectural characteristics:
Pros:
Cons:
Jira Data Center is a self-managed, cluster-based deployment suitable for large enterprises.
Key architectural characteristics:
Pros:
Cons:
Summary:
FeatureJira CloudJira Data CenterHostingAtlassianCustomer-managedCustomizationLimitedVery highMaintenanceNoneCustomer-managedScalingAutoManual/ClusterAccess to DBNoYesApp supportForge/ConnectFull server apps
Jira uses an indexing engine (primarily Apache Lucene) to index issues for fast searching and reporting. Almost every operation in Jira triggers index updates.
Admins often repair these using "Re-index" or "Synchronize Index" options.
Enterprise workflows must balance control, scalability, clarity, and performance.
1. Keep workflows simple
2. Standardize workflows across projects
3. Use workflow transitions wisely
4. Avoid unnecessary custom statuses
5. Use transition screens for data collection
6. Use automation instead of complex workflows
7. Document workflow logic
8. Test workflows before rollout
9. Archive old workflows
Custom fields are powerful, but too many can severely degrade Jira performance.
1. Slow Issue View Page Load
Each custom field requires data fetching, rendering, and layout calculation.
2. Slow JQL Performance
Each custom field adds to the Lucene index, making searches slower.
3. Increased Index Size
Larger indexes mean slower re-indexing and degraded search capabilities.
4. Higher Memory Usage
Every custom field occupies RAM in caches and search indexes.
5. Increased DB Load
More columns and joins for custom field data tables.
6. UI clutter
Too many fields make issue screens overwhelming and harder to use.
Optimizing JQL is critical in large Jira systems with millions of issues.
1. Use indexed fields
Indexed fields include:
Avoid filtering on non-indexed fields like Description or Comments.
2. Avoid wildcard searches
Bad:
summary ~ "*login*"
Good:
summary ~ "login"
3. Minimize OR conditionsBad:
assignee = A OR assignee = B OR assignee = C
Good:
assignee IN (A, B, C)
4. Avoid negativityBad:
status != Done
Better:
status IN ("To Do", "In Progress")
5. Cache-heavy dashboards
Reduce use of expensive filters in multiple dashboards.
6. Use custom fields with "Optimized for JQL Search" enabled
Some custom fields require reindexing.
7. Limit scope with project clauses
project = APP AND status = "In Progress"
Efficient JQL improves search performance, board loading, and reporting.
