What is the Jira Tool for Managing Projects? Everything You Need to Know: Full Jira Overview, Features, Costs & More

Diligently managed projects are the ones that end up the most successful. It’s not easy keeping multiple moving parts coordinated, on track, and on budget and software like the Jira project management tool is designed to keep all those parts under control.

Project management apps are responsible for 77% of successful projects. They streamline the workflow process, save time by automating task management, and give managers an overview of their project progress and timeline.

The Jira task management tool is the #1 software development application used by Agile teams. Agile is a project management methodology for software development and delivery focusing on a collaborative process.

Jira Project Management Review

Jira Software Reviews | What is Jira Tool?

But you don’t have to be a software developer to be using Jira for project management in other industries. Our Jira review found that many different types of companies swear by the product to keep projects and tasks organized and their team connected towards a shared goal.

Some of the most common questions that arise when looking at the Jira Agile project management application are:

  • What is Jira used for?
  • What’s the difference between Jira Core vs Jira Software?
  • How much does the Jira license cost?
  • What Jira features can help me the most?
  • What is the Jira tool capable of when it comes to collaboration?

In our Jira project management software review, we’ll go through the answers to all of the above, plus get into some of the other areas of the Jira tool capabilities.

You’ll see in Jira reviews that the software has many facets to it beyond just project management and we’ll cover these in our Jira overview, including a Jira service desk review along with our Jira project management software review.

If you’ve ever asked, “What is Jira used for?” after seeing it listed among the top project management tools, you’ll want to read on for everything you need to know about this award-winning software.

See Also: Trello Review | What You Need to Know About Trello Project Management

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Jira Review | Jira Overview

If you’re looking over the Jira tool website, you’ll notice that the developer, Atlassian, also makes another popular project management app, Trello. So, why do they have two? What is Jira used for that’s different?

Where Trello is designed to provide “out of the box” basic project management for all types of users, the Jira task management app is more like the “Cadillac” of project management, with many more capabilities and functions.

The first thing to understand is that the Jira project management tool has different modules, each designed to perform in different areas of your workflow. We’ll get into Jira reviews of Jira Core vs Jira Software shortly, but first let’s look at the answer to “What is Jira used for?”

Jira is designed to provide a visual representation of how tasks progress through a project timeline and give users an overall roadmap of their projects from start to finish.

Using Jira for project management helps connect all members of a team and allows them to see how their work connects with others. They can do this in a number of ways:

  • Using Scrum boards
  • Using Kanban boards
  • Jira Agile project management reporting
  • Roadmap views that show the big picture of a project timeline
  • Commenting back and forth in real-time

Kanban and Scrum boards are used widely in project management apps and allow you to create cards that can contain task information, such as the assignee, due date, comments, and file attachments.

Jira Project Management Tool Terminology

Knowing the terminology used with the Jira tool will help you use Jira for project management more successfully. You’ll also gain insights into project management best practices. The Jira terminology includes:

  • Issues: An “issue” can be a task that needs to be performed, a request for a product feature, or a customer service ticket.
  • Projects: This is just as it sounds, a collection of issues that are designed to complete a specific end goal, or project, such as launching a new marketing campaign.
  • Workflows: The path that issues take from point A to Z is called the workflow, and it can include something like: Assigned, In-progress, Completed.
  • Agile: While the Agile methodology was first used in the software development industry, it’s since been adopted by many others and it emphasizes delivery that occurs incrementally and continuously, informed by customer feedback.

What is Jira Tool Used For?

Ultimately, it’s to design workflows that can organize and keep issues (i.e. tasks) moving forward fluidly for successful project completion with as few missteps and miscommunications as possible.

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Jira Review | Jira Core vs Jira Software

When you’re first looking over Jira software reviews and the Jira license cost for their various products, it can be confusing because there is more than one Jira task management tool to choose from.

What’s the difference between Jira Core vs Jira Software?

Jira Core is a first-level application and Jira Software is the Jira Core tool, plus other additional features.

When looking at Jira Core vs Jira Software, you’ll want to decide how much functionality you need and whether you want Jira Agile project management or just the basics.

Jira Core

This version of the Jira project management tool allows teams to manage task-oriented projects, collaborate across multiple devices, and keep projects organized. It also includes a 7-step workflow that allows for time-saving task automation.

Jira Software

On top of Jira Core, Jira Software adds Agile functionality, including the ability to work from project backlog to sprint. If you want your Jira task management app to have fully customizable Kanban and Scrum boards, then you’ll need to choose Jira Software.

When looking at Jira Core vs Jira Software, you also get better reporting features with Jira Software, including burndown charts and velocity measurements.

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Jira Reviews | Jira Overview of Features

Now that you know the difference between Jira Software and Jira Core, let’s take a look at some of the key features that you get with this project manager.

Roadmaps

In our Jira software reviews, we found that the roadmap feature was particularly helpful. It lets you see the big picture on one screen as to how your tasks are progressing and how that’s impacting overall project timing.

You can use the project roadmap to communicate your project status with stakeholders and ensure everyone is up to date on your progress.

Jira Overview

Jira Project Management Software Review

Agile Reporting

A useful feature of Jira Agile project management software is the access to dozens of reports that can let you see in real-time things like:

  • Total work remaining on a project (Velocity chart)
  • Work completed and work backlogged (Sprint report)
  • Understand the impact of scope change (Burnup chart)
  • Whether you have scope creep (Version report)

3000+ Integrations

When using Jira for project management, you can also connect your data and workflows to multiple other applications. This offers you the ability to further streamline your process by sharing data, triggers, and commands with multiple other programs, such as Excel, Tempo Timesheets, and GitHub.

Customizations

While our Jira project management software review found that the application has many out-of-the-box templates for workflows, reporting, and more, it also gives you a lot of freedom to customize.

You can create custom workflows that map to any style or project management method you like. There are also custom customer filters that use Jira Query Language (JQL).

Task Details

What is Jira tool task options? You have plenty of ability to detail your tasks on each task card. Beyond the standard task name, description, and assignee, you can add task details such as:

  • Due date
  • Priority
  • Custom labels
  • Goals

Notifications

One of the problems with using email messages for task management is they can easily get lost in your inbox and you aren’t always watching for an urgent request to come in, so you may not see it right away.

The use of @name mentions in the Jira project management tool allows you to be notified right away if you have a new task assigned or if someone has a question for you.

Related: Slack Review – What You Need to Know About the Slack App


Jira Review | Jira License Cost

Another consideration when you’re comparing Jira task management software with another project management tool or considering Jira Core vs Jira software is the Jira license cost.

Our Jira software reviews found the following pricing options for each Jira tool.

Jira License Cost – Jira Core

  • $10 flat monthly fee for up to 10 users
  • $5 per user/month for the first 100 users
  • $4 per user/month for the next 150 users
  • $3 per user/month for each additional user over 250

Jira License Cost – Jira Software (Cloud)

  • $10 flat monthly fee for up to 10 users
  • Standard: Starts at $7 per user/month up to 5,000 users
  • Premium: Starts at $14 per user/month up to 5,000 users

What is Jira used for when considering Standard vs Premium? The Premium version offers a 99% uptime SLA, unlimited storage, and 24/7 premium support.

Our Jira project management software review also found that you can try Jira for free. They offer a free 7-day trial for either of the Jira task management options.

Jira Project Management Tool – On Premise

Jira Software also has an option for a 1-time purchase to host on your own server and manage yourself. The price varies per number of users. For example, 25 users would be a one-time payment of $3,500 and 250 users would be a one-time payment of $26,400.

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Jira Review | Jira Service Desk Review

An additional offering that the Jira software suite has is for businesses that manage incoming requests from customers or other team members. Jira Service Desk makes it easy to manage incoming tickets, offer solutions to customers and share feature requests with your developers.

In our Jira Service Desk review, we found that the tool also has a knowledge base that can help assist customers online and integrates machine learning so it can match answers to queries even better as it learns.

Jira Review

Jira Service Desk Review

With the Service Desk, Jira’s capabilities are extended past your own team to your customers, offering a way to keep all tickets in a single system so they can be handled by the appropriate team member.

If you want to see it in action before you try it, our Jira Service Desk review also found that they offer a weekly product demonstration with a live Q&A.


Jira Review | User Ratings & Reviews

There are several considerations to make when choosing a project management tool, such as how easy it will be for your users to adopt and whether or not the mobile app lives up to the desktop application.

We took a look through multiple Jira reviews online to find out what users say are the pros and cons of the Jira task management app. How better to get a full Jira overview of how this tool will work for you than to find out how well it’s worked for others?

First, we’ll take a look at star ratings from several Jira reviews from across the web, then we’ll look at what users had to say about it in more detail.

  • Capterra: 4.5 out of 5 stars (7,517 Jira reviews)
  • Software Advice: 4.5 out of 5 stars (7,521 Jira software reviews)
  • com: 4.1 out of 5 stars (3,321 Jira reviews)
  • Apple App Store: 4.6 out of 5 stars (4,768 Jira software reviews)
  • Google Play Store: 4.0 out of 5 stars (3,456 Jira reviews)

Jira Project Management Software Review – User Pros & Cons

Using Jira for project management was a great experience for a majority of users, but not everyone. Here’s what users have to say about Jira Agile project management software.

Pros:

  • One user said in their Jira review that onboarding new members was “a breeze.” They also said it was good at project tracking and sprint management.
  • Another Jira reviewer said that it was simple to create Agile dashboards and that bug tracking was comprehensive in the application.
  • An app user of Jira said they liked the fact that the mobile app worked “right out of the box.” They did mention that how you start a project is on the mobile app is slightly different than on the desktop app.

Cons:

  • In another Jira project management software review, the user said that the tool might be overkill for smaller teams, and that projects can easily become bloated and cumbersome.
  • The learning curve for admins is steeper than other project management tools, said one reviewer of Jira Software.
  • In a Jira review of the mobile app, one user found the search and filter features very difficult to use on the app.

Read More: Best Team and Tasks Management Software

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Conclusion – Jira Project Management Review | All You Need to Know about Jira

If you’re a company that is looking for a robust tool that will give you Agile reporting, and fully customizable Kanban and Scrum boards, then you won’t be disappointed with the Jira tool.

This software suite has everything you could want in the world of project management and offers both cloud-based and on-premise options for their Jira task management applications

The main drawback we see is that smaller teams might find Jira too complicated and it may have too many “bells & whistles” for them. If so, the manufacturer has anticipated that, which is why they also offer Trello, a simpler project management tool.

Our ultimate Jira overview found that for enterprise companies with demanding project management needs, Jira is an excellent option that offers fast onboarding of new employees and has a whole slew of integrations that allow you to take the platform as far as you want to go.


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