The right tools make all the difference! Jira is a project management tool and Slack is a communication platform. Jira Slack Integration connects your products, simplifies the development process by enabling engineers, product managers, and QA teams to work together easily. The Jira Slack Integration is easy to set up and gives you rich notifications in your Slack channel. This Jira Slack Integration provides you with key information required for act and slash commands to connect. This also helps you in subscribing to Jira events, managing your Jira connections and subscriptions, or getting information about a specific issue. You can create a Jira ticket from Slack seamlessly.
In this blog, you will be introduced to Jira and Slack along with their key features. The steps in Jira Slack Integration will be elaborated. You will also understand the reason for Jira Slack Integration and its benefits. The challenges faced in Jira Slack Integration are also discussed along with strategies to overcome them.
Table of Contents
What is Jira?
Image Source: jirastrategy.com
Jira is a popular Project Management tool for tracking bugs, issues, and the progress of multiple tasks associated with Software Development in an organization. It offers a powerful and feature-rich dashboard that makes regular monitoring of various bug and issue-related tasks a breeze. Some of the packages offered by Jira include Jira Core, Jira Software, and Jira Service Desk. All of these packages are aimed at making Generic and Agile Project Management responsibilities easier.
Furthermore, Jira can integrate with more than 3,000 SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) applications available on the Atlassian Marketplace. With such a great variety, you can improve your functionality and provide more value to your clients. Jira currently has around 180,000 users in 190 countries and is rapidly growing in popularity.
Key Features of Jira
Jira is a well-known Project Management and Collaboration platform that helps teams work towards a common goal. Let’s explore some of the key features of Jira:
- Workflow Customization: Jira can be tailored to fulfill any requirement, such as Project Management, Issue Tracking, and Task Management. Moreover, Workflow, Reports, Scrum Boards, and other components can all be customized easily.
- Robust Integration Support: Developers have access to a variety of REST (Representational State Transfer) and Java APIs (Application Programming Interface), as well as the Atlassian Marketplace, making it simple to extend Jira’s functionality and customize it to your company’s needs.
- Rich Toolkit: Developers may quickly design filters and alter items using the Jira Query Language (JQL). Additionally, new processes can be developed to manage the various ways in which users build, test, and deploy their apps.
- Enterprise-Grade Security Control: Jira Software and other Atlassian Cloud products use Bank-Grade Security and centralized administration to protect data and files. Admins can also create a flexible governance strategy that allows them to use the tools and processes they need without restricting access or collaboration.
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What is Slack?
Image Source: slack.com
Slack is a Communication Platform that provides a messaging app to connect people to the information they require. It does this by providing a venue to bring people together in the workplace to work as a team, enhancing the way information is shared across the board, and ultimately improving communication.
In Slack, your organization is known as a Workspace and can be divided into smaller units known as Channels. The channels are separate group chats with their members and topics where messages, images, Internet links & videos are shared, making communication between employees easy and seamless. It also has features for private direct messaging with one or several people without anyone else being able to join.
Slack can be synced with external apps such as Google Drive, Calendar, etc., and provides mobile apps for iOS and Android in addition to their web browser client and desktop clients for macOS, Windows, and Linux versions.
Key Features of Slack
- Messaging: This is Slack’s main powerful feature, its messaging tool. Messages can be sent and received in real-time via an attractive chat display and you can chat directly with others or on channels and threads.
- File-Sharing: Projects can be shared easily on Slack by using the file-sharing feature. Documents and files can be shared, uploaded on Slack by using the paperclip icon on the text box, and files up to 1GB can be shared.
- Voice and Video Calls: Voice and video calls can be done on Slack so you communicate with others. The free plan on Slack does not allow video calls and you can only call one person at a time using voice calls, unlike the other plans where conference calls are possible.
- Integrations: Slack has more than 1500 integration tools that can be synced with it for your benefit. However, using the free plan will mean you can only integrate 10 tools at a time, and adding more will mean you’ve to delete a previous one when you reach 10.
Why Jira Slack Integration is preferred?
Jira Slack Integration makes it really easy to access the necessary information from public groups and private chats. The invitation system that comes from Jira Slack Integration allows your company to control the level of access to different channels. With Jira Slack Integration, you can prioritize a few important channels to appear above other channels. In the left sidebar, you can start the important channels and messages.
Steps in Jira Slack Integration
Integrating two of the best platforms Jira and Slack to promote teamwork for building a software tool. Here are the steps in Jira Slack Integration:
Jira Slack Integration: Prerequisites
Here are the prerequisites for Jira Slack Integration:
- You need administrator access to Slack
- You need administrator access to the Jira workspace
Jira Slack Integration: Jira Cloud Installation in Slack
Step 1: Search for Slack App Directory and click on the Essential Apps sub-option from the list displayed.
Image Source: nira.com
Step 2: In Slack App Directory, in the Search App Directory search bar type Jira Cloud and click on Jira Cloud.
Step 3: Then, select the Add to Slack button. Follow all the prompts to allow Jira Cloud to access your Slack workspace.
Jira Slack Integration: Configuration of Slack Add-On in Jira
Step 1: After downloading Jira Cloud, Navigate to Jira Settings and select Apps. In the Jira Management Portal, select the Manage Apps from the menu.
Step 2: From the Action required dropdown in the Manage Apps, Select All Apps.
Step 3: Search for Slack by either scrolling or searching for the word ‘Slack’. For searching, you can use Ctrl + F (for Windows users) or Command + F (for Mac users). Then, click on Configure.
Step 4: You will see a pop-up for Slack integration. Enable the toggle bar to get started with the Slack integration plugin.
Jira Slack Integration: Displaying Jira Notifications in Slack Channel
Step 1: Now, Enter into the Slack application on your device. To invite the Jira loud bot in the Slack channel, type @jira and click Enter. By this you can ensure if your Slack Add-on configuration in Jira is successful or not.
Note: If the configuration is successful, you will see the option Connect a Project. If not, you must repeat the previous section steps again from first.
Step 2: Click on Connect a Project, and then select the Jira project for which you want the notifications to be displayed. You must also select the Slack channel for which you want to see notifications for too.
Jira Slack Integration: Slack Invitation to Agile Team
The Slack channel that displays Jira notifications will be just like other channels till this stage. You can send Slack invitations and invite your team members to join your channel. After all your Agile team members are on Slack, you can modify the notifications based on your requirements.
Jira Slack Integration: Adjusting Jira Notifications in Slack Channel
Step 1: Now you can make all the adjustments needed in your Slack Channel to receive the Jira Notifications. For customizing notifications in Slack, Open your project and select the new link towards Slack Integration. Also, Click on Slack Integrations from your Jira projects.
Step 2: You can configure your notifications according to your Agile team requirements. After you are ok with all the changes, click on Save Changes to save your new settings.
By this Jira Slack Integration is successful now!
Benefits of Jira Slack Integration
Here are some of the important benefits of Jira Slack Integration:
- Easily interact with issues from Slack – Jira Slack Integration provides options for transitioning, assigning, commenting on, and watching issues directly from Slack.
- Get personal Jira notifications in Slack – With Jira Slack Integration, you can get personal Jira notifications in Slack via a direct message with @Jira to reduce email notifications.
- Better Issue previews – This Jira Slack Integration will automatically send useful issue previews when a Jira issue link/issue key is sent in a conversation.
- Seamlessly Connect Jira projects to Slack – You can receive updates for a specific project in Slack via a DM with @Jira or in the channel of your choice on Jira Slack Integration.
- Create Jira ticket from Slack – You can create Jira ticket from slack, in the context of a conversation.
Challenges in Jira Slack Integration
The whole process of Jira Slack Integration is quite easy after knowing the process. But there are always exceptions where you may find yourself facing problems. The most commonly faced challenges are discussed here:
Challenge 1: Confusions on selecting the right Jira App for Jira Slack Integration
There are two Jira Apps available currently. And there is constant confusion on deciding between these two options. The two Jira Apps are Jira Cloud and Jira Server Alerts. Here is the solution for you to avoid this confusion. The below table explains the difference between Jira Cloud and Jira Server Alerts, And also explains when to use them.
| Jira Cloud | Jira Server Alerts |
| Better fit while using Jira Cloud version and want notifications in Slack. | Better fit when you only want to receive Jira notifications on Slack and use a self-hosted version of Jira. |
| You can use message actions and slash commands to create new issues and add existing issues in Slack, and also manage and lookup issues in Slack, respectively. | You will see notifications in Slack when a Jira alert is created or updated and then customize the issue statuses to trigger a notification. |
Challenge 2: Getting an Upstream Request Timeout Error
This Upstream request timeout error is one of the frequently faced challenges, especially in large enterprise grid Slack workspaces. Unfortunately, the team is also not able to get deep to the bottom to understand this error. There is no one rule fit all solution in this case. If you face this error, you have to contact the support team.
You can also try the following steps to resolve this Upstream Request Timeout Error:
- Uninstall the Jira Cloud for Slack application from Slack.
- Wait for about 15 to 20 minutes.
- Re-install the Jira Cloud for the Slack application.
Do not bypass the waiting steps since the Slack platform processes the install first and then sends the uninstall request. This leaves the application in a strange state and leads to 401_client_error issues.
Challenge 3: Connecting the Jira Server to Jira Site for Slack App
One of the basic requirements of Slack is that the Jira instance should be accessible through the internet with a secured HTTPS connection. You need to open your secured port and ensure to have a valid certificate. Even without this, it is possible to set up a limited connection with Slack. This can be done by creating a custom Slack App which provides Jira notifications to Slack. For this, you just need to open the secure connection correctly.
Challenge 4: Efficient use of the Jira Bot
With Jira Slack Integration, you can prefer using slash commands (/jira) to access deeper functionality. Using /jira connect, you can connect Slack to Jira Cloud instance. You can manage Jira subscriptions within Slack using /jira or /jira manage.
Conclusion
From this blog, you have learnt about Jira and Slack along with their key features. The steps in Jira Slack Integration will be clear to you now. You would have also understood the reason for Jira Slack Integration and its benefits. The challenges faced in Jira Slack Integration along with strategies to overcome them will help you avoid or resolve these issues when you face them in the future.
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