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Managing Development Tools
Is Jira A Project Management Tool?

Project managers who are starting off in software or part of a software team and getting familiar with the standard tools often ask if Jira is a project management tool.

Yes. Jira, a tool developed by Atlassian, began as a software development tool, but it’s now used for bug tracking, issue management, and as a project management software

Is Jira a project management tool screenshot

An issue in Jira, a software development, and project management tool.

Jira is designed for use in agile software development and offers tools for PM like Scrum boards, Kanban boards, roadmaps, workflow management tools, and project reporting features. These features sit alongside its software development offering that includes knowledge management (such as transferring product requirement management from Confluence—another Atlassian product—to Jira), workflow automations with BitBucket (another Atlassian tool), and continuous integration and deployment pipelines. All of these features are wrapped together and marketed as a tool that helps agile software teams “ship early and often”.

Some teams use Jira as their main tool, taking advantage of its project and task tracking features. Others use the software as a stand-alone issue tracking tool, integrating it with their project management tools or bug tracking software.

Other tools similar to Jira include agile project management tools such as:

  1. 1. monday.com — Best agile planning tool
  2. 2. Wrike — Best for scaling organizations
  3. 3. Height — Best agile pm software with cross-functional collaboration features
  4. 4. Zoho Sprints — Best for backlog prioritization & release management.
  5. 5. Miro — Best for a highly flexible whiteboard platform
  6. 6. ClickUp — Best visual aids to support your sprints and make important items easy to distinguish
  7. 7. Forecast — Best agile tool for scrum methodologies
  8. 8. MeisterTask — Best agile tool with Kanban boards
  9. 9. Trello — Best for card-based task lists
  10. 10. Taiga.io — Best agile tool for user experience and interface

You can read more about these agile tools in this overview and comparison of agile project management tools.

You can find useful information on using Jira as a project management tool in our AMA session with project manager Andy McCormick.

He talks about using Jira with small teams or for multiple project types, how to use Jira for both your daily tasks and your big picture planning, how to help your team start using it, and why people hate and love Jira.

Related Read: How To Do Resource Planning In Jira: My Workaround & Tips

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By Ben Aston

I’m Ben Aston, a digital project manager and founder of thedpm.com. I've been in the industry for more than 20 years working in the UK at London’s top digital agencies including Dare, Wunderman, Lowe and DDB. I’ve delivered everything from film to CMS', games to advertising and eCRM to eCommerce sites. I’ve been fortunate enough to work across a wide range of great clients; automotive brands including Land Rover, Volkswagen and Honda; Utility brands including BT, British Gas and Exxon, FMCG brands such as Unilever, and consumer electronics brands including Sony. Ben's a Certified Scrum Master, PRINCE2 Practitioner and productivity nut.

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