Mastering JIRA 7 - Second Edition

Table of Contents

Mastering JIRA 7 - Second Edition

Credits

About the Author

Acknowledgements

About the Reviewer

www.PacktPub.com

Why subscribe?

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Downloading the example code

Downloading the color images of this book

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. Planning Your JIRA Installation

What is new in JIRA 7?

JIRA Core

JIRA Software

JIRA Service Desk

Planning your JIRA installation

Installation of JIRA on Windows

Installation of JIRA on Linux

Installation of JIRA as a service

Installation of JIRA from an archive file

System requirements

Procedure to install the JDK

Steps to install the JDK on Linux

Setting up the MySQL database

The JIRA setup wizard

JIRA directory structure, startup/shutdown scripts, and log files

The JIRA installation directory

The JIRA home directory

Subdirectories under the JIRA home directory

Planning your upgrade

Upgrading your JIRA instance

The fallback method for mission-critical applications

The rapid method using the installer

Manual upgrade method for Solaris

Updating JIRA add-ons

The JIRA add-ons compatibility matrix

Applications, uses, and examples

JIRA core concepts

Summary

2. Searching in JIRA

The Issue Navigator window

Searching the issues

Search using text

Filters and subscriptions

Subscriptions

Sharing your filters

Introduction to JQL

The basic JQL syntax

Use of operators in JQL

Advanced search using functions

Browser shortcuts

Exporting issues in Excel, RSS, XML, and JSON

Enabling JSON export in JIRA

Bulk editing

Summary

3. Reporting – Using Charts to Visualize the Data

Project reports

Issues

Reports

The Average Age Report

Report interpretation

The Created vs. Resolved Issues Report

Report interpretation

The Pie Chart Report

Report interpretation

The Recently Created Issues Report

Report interpretation

The Resolution Time Report

Report interpretation

The Single Level Group By Report

Report interpretation

The Time Since Issues Report

Report interpretation

The Time Tracking Report

Report interpretation

The User Workload Report

Report interpretation

The Version Workload Report

Report interpretation

Configuring and sharing dashboards

Gadgets for reporting purposes

Activity Stream

Created vs. Resolved Chart

Pie Chart

Issue Statistics

Two Dimensional Filter Statistics

Using add-on charts to visualize data

Barcharts for JIRA

Building advanced reports using eazyBI

Summary

4. Customizing JIRA for Test Management

What is test management?

Creating issue types for test campaigns and test cases

Creating new issue type schemes

Customizing the workflow for changes in transitions

Workflow for a test campaign

New states

Removing unwanted transitions

Adding new steps

Adding the missing transitions

Conditions

Post Function

Creating a new workflow scheme

Adding a custom event in JIRA

Customizing a notification scheme

Workflow for a test case

New states

Condition

Post function

Capturing additional data from users on state transitions

Learning how to make certain fields mandatory only for a test campaign

Limiting the project visibility to certain groups and individuals

Learn how to hide a specific issue from the user within a project

Versions and components

Summary

5. Understanding Zephyr and its Features

Installing the Zephyr plugin

Zephyr terminology

Starting to use Zephyr

Summary

6. Sample Implementation of Use Cases

Gathering requirements

Preparing the JIRA configuration document

What kind of issue tracking needs to be done?

Issue types required

Best practices

What data needs to be captured?

Best practices for customizing JIRA

Issue workflow

Setting up JIRA for helpdesk/support tickets

Issue types

Workflow

Fields

Screen schemes

Permission schemes

Setting up JIRA for requirement management

Issue types

Workflow

Fields

Documentation

Screen schemes

Permission schemes

Setting up JIRA for bug tracking

Issue types

Workflow

Fields

Screen schemes

Permission schemes

Changes in the customizations

Summary

7. User Management, Groups, and Project Roles

User and group management

Deciding upon the creation of user accounts

Creating a new user

Password policy

Creating a new group

Working with project roles

Creating a project role

Adding users and groups in the project role

Giving permissions to your project role

Types of administrators

JIRA System Administrators

JIRA Administrator

Summary

8. Configuring JIRA User Directories to Connect with LDAP, Crowd, and JIRA User Server

Authentication mechanism in JIRA

JIRA internal directory

Configuring LDAP

Understanding Base DN

Connecting to Crowd

Implementing Atlassian Crowd

Connecting to a JIRA user server

Allowing other applications to connect to JIRA

Synchronizing user and group information

Summary

9. JIRA Add-On Development and Leveraging the REST API

Setting up the Atlassian plugin SDK

Setting up the SDK prerequisites on a Windows system

Verifying the JDK installation and the JAVA_HOME system variable

Verifying that JAVA_HOME\bin is present in the environment variable PATH

Installing the Atlassian SDK on Windows

Getting familiar with the Atlassian SDK

The atlas command

Creating the helloworld plugin

Adding organization details in pom.xml

Loading the plugin in JIRA

Setting up the Eclipse IDE

Downloading the Eclipse IDE

Configuring Eclipse to start under the JDK

Updating the installed JREs in Eclipse

Installing the Maven plugin

Configuring the Maven plugin

Adding functionality to the skeleton plugin

Importing the helloworld plugin in Eclipse

Creating a menu in JIRA's top navigation bar

JIRA Cloud add-ons with an Atlassian Connect framework

Leveraging the JIRA REST API

Examples of a few operations that can be performed via REST

Use cases of JIRA REST API

Generating business intelligence reports

Bulk operations in JIRA

Building a custom interface for clients

JIRA's REST API Browser

Fetching user details

Sample code to interact with the REST API

Creating an issue using PHP

Authenticating with JIRA

Issuing data and printing the output

Fetching issue details using PHP

Summary

10. Importing and Exporting Data in JIRA and Migrating Configuration

The backup system

Generating the backup

Backup of attachments

Generating automatic backups

Restoring the system utility

Project Import utility

External system import using CSV

A simple CSV import

Preparing the CSV file

Performing the CSV import

Creating subtasks using the CSV file

Uploading attachments using the CSV file

Updating existing issues

Migrate JIRA configurations using the Configuration Manager add-on

Generate a snapshot

Deploying a snapshot

Summary

11. Working with Agile Boards in JIRA Software

Product overview – JIRA Software

Installing the JIRA Software application

Scrum boards

Agile project setup and JIRA Agile configuration basics

Populating, ranking, and estimating a backlog using story points

Planning and creating sprints

Configuring swimlanes, card colors, edit card fields, and quick filters

Swimlanes

Card colors

Card fields

Quick filters

The Burndown chart and Velocity charts

The Burndown chart

The Velocity chart

Kanban boards

Setting up the Kanban board

Column constraints

Managing multiple teams and projects using boards

Summary

12. JIRA Administration with ScriptRunner and the CLI Add-on

Installing ScriptRunner

Built-in scripts for administration

Accessing built-in scripts

Copy project

Escalation service

Switching to a different user

Modifying the JIRA workflow with conditions, validators, and post functions

Conditions

All sub-tasks must be resolved

Allowing the transition if this query matches a JQL query

Checks the issue has been in a status previously

Simple scripted condition

Validators

Field(s) changed validator

Require a comment on transition

Simple scripted validator

Post functions

Adds the current user as a watcher

Transition parent when all subtasks are resolved

Accessing powerful JQL functions

Returning issues with number of comments

Returning issues based on comment attributes

Returning issues based on attachments

Comparing dates

Installing JIRA CLI

Fetch the list of boards

Fetch the list of comments of a particular issue

Create an issue from the command line

Summary

13. Database Access

JIRA's database schema

Accessing HSQLDB

Accessing MySQL

phpMyAdmin

The MySQL console

Accessing PostgreSQL

User table

The table structure

Finding the list of inactive JIRA users

The jiraissue table

The table structure

Finding issues of a specific project

The customfield table

The table structure

The customfieldvalue table

The table structure

Some useful SQL queries

List of shared filters

Fetching users of a specific group

List of users with count of comments

Fetching the count of issues per component

Listing projects of a specific project category

List of assignees or reporters in a particular project

Summary

14. Customizing Look, Feel, and Behavior

Adding your own CSS

Adding JavaScript to show/hide field

Creating the issue

Velocity templates

Modifying the description system field with predefined text

Modifying the footer

Displaying a custom field in e-mails

Summary

15. Implementing JIRA Service Desk

Product overview – JIRA Service Desk?

Installing JIRA Service Desk

Queues

Customers

Reports

Workload

SLA goals

Satisfaction

Article usage

Article effectiveness

Created vs Resolved

Time to resolution

Incidents reported by priority

SLA met vs breached

Customer channels

Customer portal

E-mail

JIRA Service Desk configurations

Request types

Request security

Portal settings

Satisfaction settings

E-mail requests

Knowledge base

SLAs

Automation

Adding users as agents

Summary

16. Integrating JIRA with Common Atlassian Applications and Other Tools

JIRA with the Subversion plugin

JIRA with Bitbucket and GitHub

JIRA with other Git repositories

JIRA with Confluence

Summary

17. JIRA Best Practices

A word of caution before modifying default schemes and configurations

The JIRA customization process

Piloting JIRA with default configurations

Gathering feedback

Documenting and finalizing the proposed configurations

Testing configurations on sandbox

Implementing on the production stage

Standardizing configurations

Setting up a CCB

Various scenarios for impact analysis

Using project context to assign different options in multiple projects

Creating too many custom fields – A factor in slow performance

Choosing a custom field type wisely

Defining permissions

JIRA's Audit Log

Adding the announcement banner

Adding an introduction

Performing regular indexing

Final tips

Summary

18. Troubleshooting JIRA

Atlassian support

Atlassian Answers

Reporting a problem

Log scanner

Support ZIP

Common configuration issues

User is not able to log in

Solution

Users don't see the project

Solution

Permission helper

User complaints about e-mails not being received

Workflow buttons are missing

Solution

The options in the select list suddenly changed

The custom field disappears from the project

Increasing memory

Integrity Checker

Summary

Mastering JIRA 7 - Second Edition

Mastering JIRA 7 - Second Edition

Copyright © 2016 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: May 2015

Second edition: October 2016

Production reference: 1051016

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

Livery Place

35 Livery Street

Birmingham 

B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-78646-686-0

www.packtpub.com

Credits

About the Author

Ravi Sagar is a JIRA trainer, consultant, and Drupal expert with several years of experience in web development and business analysis. He has done extensive work implementing and customizing big JIRA instances for project tracking, test management, support tickets, and Agile tracking.

Ravi founded Sparxsys Solutions Pvt. Ltd. (www.sparxsys.com) in 2010—a start-up company that provides consultancy and training services on Atlassian tools and Drupal. He has created accessible websites for blind people, adhering to WCAG guidelines.

Ravi's areas of interest include project management and Agile methodologies. His areas of focus in customizing JIRA include topics, such as issue schemes, workflow schemes, field configuration schemes, screen schemes, permission schemes, and notification schemes. He has also worked on Agile tracking projects, such as Scrum and Kanban. He contributed immensely towards setting up JIRA for helpdesk, test case management, bug tracking, and support ticket management. His other areas of expertise include JIRA training, Drupal training, business analysis, project management, and JIRA Agile.

Ravi has extensive experience in JIRA installation and configuration and has also worked on Linux and Windows Server. He understands clients' requirements and suggests best solutions to save cost.

Ravi has been involved in JIRA support and maintenance and training, including regular upgrades of JIRA and installed plugins, migration from legacy-defect tracking tools to JIRA, splitting and merging JIRA instances apart from bulk actions, such as uploading issues, editing, and user creation.

He has also worked on implementing JIRA Agile and its integration with other tools, such as Confluence, Crucible, and Fisheye and has hands-on experience in JIRA REST and SOAP.

You can connect with him at http://www.linkedin.com/in/ravisagar or e-mail him at ravi@sparxsys.com.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my wife, Shelly, who has always stood by me and helped me achieve my goals. This book wouldn't have been possible without her continuous encouragement. I want to dedicate this book to my little daughter Raavya, and also want to thank my parents for their endless support.

Special thanks to all the reviewers and book coordinators for their immense help on this book.

About the Reviewer

Satyendra Gangadhar Narwane is an honest, caring, intelligent, hardworking, and ambitious person with a good sense of humor. He is a postgraduate with a masters degree in computer science from one of the premier Indian universities, and he is working as a senior. Atlassian Product Expert at Dynamic Network Factory in the (US). He has conducted a seminar on behalf of Atlassian for promoting their tools in India and has developed dozens of custom add-ons based on customer needs. Satyendra provides training, administration, and add-on development on the Atlassian suite for top companies such as Oracle, Adobe, HCL, Mercedes Benz, MillenniumIT, Filpkart, ShipNet NS, and KBC Bank. He is very passionate about technology, computer science, traveling, watching movies, and enjoys great chats. He has previously worked on JIRA 7 Development Cookbook by Packt Publishing. 

I would like to express my gratitude to the many people who have helped me through this book. I would like to thank Packt Publishing for giving me a chance to work on this book. Above all, I want to thank my mom Sushila, wife Poonam, and the rest of my family, who supported and encouraged me in spite of all the time it took me away from them. It was a long and difficult journey for them. I would like to thank Suzanne Coutinho and Chaitanya Nair for helping me in the process of selection and reviewing. Last but not least: I beg forgiveness of all those who have been with me over the course of the years and whose names I have failed to mention.

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Preface

JIRA is a popular issue tracking tool from Atlassian and has amazing customization abilities and finely grained control over various functions. Out of the box, JIRA offers issue and bug tracking capabilities to create tasks, assign them to users, and generate useful reports. However, the real power of JIRA lies in the customizations it offers.

Experienced JIRA administrators looking to learn advanced topics and expand their knowledge will benefit from this book. This book provides a comprehensive explanation covering all components of JIRA 7, such as JIRA Software, JIRA Core, and JIRA Service Desk.

Packed with real-world examples and use cases, you will first learn how to plan the JIRA installation. Then, you will be given a brief refresher of the fundamental concepts and understand the customizations in detail, along with sample data for various use cases, and several aspects of JIRA administration, such as user management, groups, roles, and security levels, will be covered, keeping in mind the applications for enterprises. Next, this book will take you through add-on development to extend JIRA's functionality, and will give insights into building applications on top of JIRA using the REST API. Various aspects of migration from other tools using CSV files will also be discussed. This book has a separate section on implementation of the JIRA Service Desk application, which is a very popular add-on for support requests and the ticketing system.

The implementation of the Scrum and Kanban techniques along with Agile reports, will be discussed as well. We will take a look at the Groovy script, which is a great tool that empowers JIRA administrators with tremendous flexibility. Additionally, we will also take a look at some of the common database tables to fetch useful results and discuss the possibilities to add custom CSS and JavaScript in our JIRA instance. Finally, we will conclude the book by going through the best practices and troubleshooting to help you find out what went wrong and how to fix it.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Planning Your JIRA Installation, covers planning the JIRA installation to ensure the longevity of the installation so that it can accommodate more users and data in future. The installation and update process is also discussed briefly in this chapter.

Chapter 2, Searching in JIRA, gives a detailed explanation of how data can be fetched from JIRA using the Basic search feature, as well as by writing advanced queries using JQL.

Chapter 3, Reporting – Using Charts to Visualize the Data, covers various built-in project reports that come with JIRA and how to present them on the dashboards.

Chapter 4, Customizing JIRA for Test Management, explains how to modify the configurations to implement new issue types for test campaigns and test cases. The procedure to implement a new workflow with conditions, along with a new permission scheme, will be discussed in detail.

Chapter 5, Understanding Zephyr and its Features, walks through a step-by-step implementation of this popular add-on for test management in JIRA.

Chapter 6, Sample Implementation of Use Cases, gives a lot of examples of different implementations, such as the Helpdesk system and requirement management, that readers can leverage in their company.

Chapter 7, User Management, Groups, and Project Roles, explains how to manage the users in JIRA and the way to organize them in various groups.

Chapter 8, Configuring JIRA User Directories to Connect with LDAP, Crowd, and JIRA User Server, discusses how to integrate your JIRA instance with LDAP and Crowd for external user management.

Chapter 9, JIRA Add-on Development and Leveraging the REST API, explains how to start developing add-ons for JIRA to extend the functionality. The JIRA REST API which enables us to accessing JIRA functionality from external tools, is also discussed with examples.

Chapter 10, Importing and Exporting Data in JIRA and Migrating Configuration, talks about how data from external tools can be imported using the CSV import and Project Import features. The importance of taking regular backups is explained in this chapter, along with the procedure to restore JIRA from a backup file.

Chapter 11, Working with JIRA Agile Boards in JIRA Software, explains how to implement the Scrum and Kanban techniques in JIRA. The