Contents
Overview
Betterworks allows you to link your JIRA issues with your milestones for better tracking and progress monitoring. This article outlines the two ways that you can add issues to your milestones using JIRA integration, also covers the benefits of integrating JIRA with Betterworks, tips for using this integration, seeing the integration in action, and FAQS.
Benefits of integrating with JIRA
Integrating JIRA with Betterworks offers several benefits such as streamlined workflows, improved visibility, increased accountability, and data-driven decision-making.
This integration allows for seamless communication between teams and departments, provides a consolidated view of all project-related information, and ensures that team members are held accountable for their work. Additionally, the integration provides valuable data and insights that can be used to make informed decisions and improve processes.
Add Issues
You can add issues using one of two methods:
- Manual — Using the basic or advanced search field to search for terms
- JQL — Setting up a JQL query in the advanced search field to capture all issues that match a string
Manual
An administrator within your organization needs to configure the JIRA integration before it can be used.
If you know which issues you'd like to add, simply go to:
Goals → Create a goal → Integrations → JIRA
This will trigger a pop-up modal where you can perform a basic search to locate issues that match the search terms. Alternatively, you can perform an advanced search:
JQL
Often when you set up your goals and milestones, not all of the issues in JIRA have been established (i.e. "Fix all bugs related to 'x' feature by the end of the quarter"). To account for this, you can set up a JQL query in the advanced search field. Be sure to select "Automatically connect all issues matching the query to the milestone":
If you're well-versed in JQL, that's great! Feel free to search directly in Betterworks as you would in JIRA using JQL. If you could use a bit more practice on JQL, no worries. Any basic search in JIRA can be converted to a JQL by clicking "Advanced Search" within JIRA. You can then copy this string and paste it into our search bar as a JQL query.
We've also included a sample JQL query for linking an epic in JIRA that you can leverage when creating your milestones:
project = "Projectname" AND type = "Epic" AND updated >= "YYYY-MM-DD" AND updated <= "YYYY-MM-DD" AND assignee = "name"
For a more in-depth review of JQL, see JIRA's website.
Syncing
- Automatic sync — The Betterworks JIRA integration captures data from JIRA and automatically updates the progress of your milestones in Betterworks every hour.
- Manual sync — You can also choose to manually sync the progress on your milestones by going to "My Goals", choosing the relevant goal, clicking on its corresponding milestone, and opening the right-side panel. From there, click the three horizontal dots and select "Sync" to update the progress manually.
Real-time Usage
Set your goals and milestones and connect your JIRA issues directly within Betterworks to track automatic updating and progress!
After your issues are linked to the desired milestone, you can view their automated progress from the Goals module.
By clicking on the three horizontal dots, you can perform various actions on linked issues such as sync, quick edit, clone, assess, and delete.
Troubleshooting
If you encounter any issues while setting up or using the Betterworks JIRA integration, here are some troubleshooting steps you can take:
- Check if the associated milestone due date already passed. JIRA-integrated milestones don't update after the due date. You will need to manually sync the milestone by clicking additional actions and then sync.
- Check that your JIRA issue still exists.
- Check that your JQL query is complete and correct.
- Check if progress locking is on. Progress locking is a sub-set of goal locking and extends to milestones connected to third-party applications through our various integrations. If your milestone is connected to JIRA, any progress made in JIRA will not impact the milestone when progress locking is on.
FAQs
Can I update a JIRA ticket from Betterworks?
Not at this time. The JIRA integration can only pull information from JIRA. Users are not able to push data back to JIRA.
Can I use the JIRA integration for a select group of users?
Not at this time. When the JIRA integration is activated, all users will have the opportunity to link JIRA issues in Betterworks.
Can I see the full details of a JIRA ticket through Betterworks?
Not at this time. We only access three standard items via the JIRA integration: issue ID, issue title, and issue resolution (issue open/closed). Additionally, our integration is able to pull data from any custom fields you've set up in order to more accurately inform progress on the integrated milestones.
Note: Users cannot see any other ticket data (such as description) from within Betterworks.
Can I connect a milestone to sub-issues?
Yes. Write a JQL query referencing the sub-issues as opposed to the parent issue. Alternatively, you can create a separate milestone for each sub-issue.
Can SSO be used to enable the Jira Integration?
Not at this time. It's not possible to use SSO to enable the Jira integration. We recommend either using a non-SSO account or looking into an official JIRA-sanctioned way of managing this.