Our story begins with Brandon who works as a Marketing Executive for a technology company. His team utilizes Smartsheet to manage their Marketing Campaigns and Promotional Activities. Smartsheet saves them time, facilitates rapid team collaboration, and allows them to set up automated notifications for upcoming tasks. But unfortunately, because the company’s Product Managers utilize the Jira platform to plan and manage their work, the Product Promotional Campaigns demand a lot of back-and-forth communication between Brandon and the Product Managers.
Disengaged communication makes work difficult for Brandon and his team, as well as for Product Managers and Software Developers. Brandon is seeking a one-stop solution that will keep his team on track while still allowing them to use their favorite Smartsheet features. This will be our goal: to assist Brandon in configuring Smartsheet Jira Integration so that cross-team communication becomes simple and accurate.
Let’s examine how Brandon can use Smartsheet Connector for Jira to set up Smartsheet Jira Integration in his Smartsheet Dashboard for being able to refer to Jira for project management to align and strategize with new product releases and changes.
Table of Contents
What is Smartsheet?
Image Source: GeekWire
Smartsheet takes on a completely different game when it comes to Project Management and Work Collaboration. Smartsheet is just like your ordinary spreadsheets, Google Sheets, or Microsoft Excel but with features that include a bit of everything- Spreadsheet, Project Plan, Web Form Survey, Integrated Report, Task List, Dashboard/Portal, etc.
Smartsheet is quite powerful with respect to its contemporaries and packs endless customization, powerful analytics and reporting, robust automation tools, and tons of third-party apps and cloud tools for business use. Smartsheet easily scales as your business grows and comes with a flexible, no-code platform that empowers anyone to create the solution they need. Smartsheet can scale from a single project to an end-to-end work management solution. Smartsheet’s core capabilities include everything that your team needs to plan, capture, manage, automate, and report on work- which makes it easy for them to move faster and achieve more.
Smartsheet also comes with integrations to third-party apps and business cloud tools like Salesforce, DocuSign, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Adobe Creative Cloud, G Suite, Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Smartsheet Jira Integration- one such essential data integration which we’ll explore in this article.
Key Features and Benefits of Using Smartsheet
Enable Teams to Work Quickly and Effectively
Business Teams require tools that can function fluidly and flexibly to adapt to a wide range of project needs, regardless of the project size. With Smartsheet, businesses can manage multiple events and data points that help them keep track of all their clients. Smartsheet comes along with an Excel lite interface with very user-friendly software and a wealth of 2/3 minute training videos on every function within the tool.
Image Source: Smartsheet
Administrative Visibility and Enterprise-grade Security
Smartsheet comes as an enterprise-grade solution with top-of-the-line data protection standards to keep your team, your data, and your business secure. It offers dozens of security features, including Two-factor Authentication, Single Sign-On (SSO), granular User Access Controls, secure Data Centres, AES 256-bit at-rest Encryption, and more to prevent unauthorized access. Smartsheet is also HIPAA, GDPR, ISO, SOC, ITAR, and FERPA compliant, so you can relax knowing you’re in safe hands when it comes to privacy and security.
Entrusted by 90% of Fortune 100 Companies
Over 90% of Fortune 100 Companies, including Brandon’s, use Smartsheet to turn work into dynamic work, combining Collaboration, Processes, and Content Management on a single flexible and secure platform. Teams can create strategies, tweak them, and launch those ideas in order to participate as a dynamic workforce that empowers and inspires everyone for growth.
Templates to Make Project Planning Easy
Smartsheet offers templates organized by different categories like Project Planning & Execution, Project Budgeting, Agile Project Management, Construction, Marketing, Product Roadmap, Technology Roadmap, and many more. These templates are designed to make your project up and running within seconds.
Image Source: Self
Smartsheet templates can be also enhanced in functionality through the use of supplementary WorkApps like Smartsheet Dynamic View and Smartsheet Calendar App Smartsheet Datamesh and Smartsheet Pivot App.
What is Jira?
Image Source: Logos World
Originally developed as a bug and issue tracker, Jira has now evolved into a popular Project Management Application to help teams of all types manage work. Jira is an agile tool created to assist Project Frameworks such as Scrum or Kanban. Its intuitive and easy-to-use dashboard allows users to maximize productivity, lay roadmaps for projects (by using drag and drop features), create reports and delegate tasks and so much more.
Jira provides a Complete Bug Tracking Suite that spans the whole Software Development Lifecycle. This makes Jira one of the best tools for planning, managing, and tracking Software Projects. Software Teams involved with App or Product Development often use Jira’s technology to simplify the development process from concept to execution.
Furthermore, Jira’s straightforward design enables users to effortlessly interact with one another while optimizing all of their work processes. Custom and advanced search options from JQL (Jira Query Language) may be utilized which allows developers to easily create queries and manipulate data within a short time.
Image Source- Atlassian
Not only is Jira confined to Software Teams, but Marketing Teams and HR Professionals can also use Jira to manage complex projects like Events, Product Launches, or Hiring and Onboarding processes. Jira is highly configurable and flexible for wide usage. Jira’s visual, data-driven reporting provides your teams with crucial and actionable insights, so you can create and optimize your Project Workflow for better results.
Jira can integrate with over 3,000 SaaS applications, which are available in the Atlassian Marketplace. With such a wide variety, you sure do get improved functionality and are able to deliver better value to your customers.
Jira’s Software is available both as Cloud-hosted SaaS, called Jira Cloud, and as a Self-Managed Solution, called Jira Server. Jira Cloud is optimized for operating speed and user experience, whereas Jira Server provides for greater autonomy and more configuration capabilities.
Gain more insights on Jira Dashboards with options to customize using gadgets and layouts in our in-depth article here- Setting up Jira Dashboards: 5 Easy Steps
Hevo Data is a No-code Data Pipeline that offers a fully managed solution to set up data replication from Jira and 150+ Data Sources (Including 40+ Free Sources) to a Data Warehouse like Redshift, Google BigQuery, Snowflake, and Firebolt of your choice. It will automate your data flow in minutes without writing any line of code. Its fault-tolerant architecture makes sure that your data is secure and consistent. Hevo provides you with a truly efficient and fully automated solution to manage data in real-time, making sure you always have analysis-ready data.
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Have a look at some of the salient features of Hevo:
- Real-Time Data Transfer: Hevo with its strong integration with 100+ Sources (including 40+ Free Sources), allows you to transfer data quickly & efficiently. This ensures efficient utilization of bandwidth on both ends.
- Data Transformation: It provides a simple interface to perfect, modify, and enrich the data you want to transfer.
- Secure: Hevo has a fault-tolerant architecture that ensures that the data is handled in a secure, consistent manner with zero data loss.
- Tremendous Connector Availability: Hevo houses a large variety of connectors and lets you bring in data from numerous Marketing & SaaS applications, databases, etc. such as Asana, Jira, Marketo, MongoDB, Oracle, Salesforce, etc. in an integrated and analysis-ready form.
- Simplicity: Using Hevo is easy and intuitive, ensuring that your data is exported in just a few clicks.
- Completely Managed Platform: Hevo is fully managed. You need not invest time and effort to maintain or monitor the infrastructure involved in executing codes.
- Live Support: The Hevo team is available round the clock to extend exceptional support to its customers through chat, email, and support calls.
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Key Features and Benefits of Using Jira
Agile Project Management
Jira enables the seamless use of all the capabilities of Scrum Boards and Kanban Boards. As a result, it may be utilized for Scrum, Kanban, and hybrid methods such as Scrumban. Jira also offers multifarious reporting tools like Burn-down/up Charts, Sprint Reports, Velocity Charts, allowing teams to check their real-time performance. With Jira’s agile roadmaps you can efficiently plan long-term project initiatives, check bottlenecks, and optimize your Project Workflow.
Image Source: Atlassian
Workflow Customization
Jira may be modified to meet any need, whether it’s a Project Management Software, an Issue Tracking Tool, or a Task Management Tool. Workflows, Reports, Scrum Boards, and other features may also be customized. To do so, you can either link Unique Workflow Schemes in Jira settings or get custom workflows directly from the Atlassian Marketplace.
Easy Integrations
Jira software’s integration features make software development simpler and easier when used with other tools, such as Confluence. The Atlassian Marketplace provides flexible Representational State Transfer (REST) APIs, Java APIs, as well as 3,000+ Add-ons and Plugins. Jira can integrate with tons of popular third-party software like Slack, Toggl, Tempo, GitHub, Service Desk, Zendesk, Salesforce, EazyBI, etc.
Image Source: Atlassian Marketplace
Security to Enforce Organization-Wide Data Protection
Jira Software and other Atlassian Cloud Products come with Bank-grade Security and Centralized Administration. Admins are provided with the tools they need to develop a flexible governance strategy, like API Token Management, SAML SSO (Single Sign-On), User Provisioning, and Enforced 2FA.
Unlock Improved Visibility with Smartsheet Jira Integration
Smartsheet Jira Integration through the Smartsheet Jira Connector serves as an ideal for:
- Software Development companies need to gain visibility across their instances, teams, and projects so they can manage multiple sprints or backlogs simultaneously.
- IT Departments which can use Smartsheet Jira Integration to intake triage tickets using Smartsheet Forms and report to teams working separately in Jira and
- Other teams including Marketing, Operations or Management seeking improved visibility and collaboration.
Smartsheet Jira Integration streamlines collaboration and automates workflows to reduce redundant steps, eliminate manual processes and enable teams to better manage projects, sprints, tickets, and more with seamless & real-time data synchronization between Jira and Smartsheet.
Smartsheet Jira Integration: Step by Step Guide
While Smartsheet and Jira are popular tools, the extended functionality of Smartsheet Jira Integration helps businesses run in the best possible ways that make project organization from start to finish smooth while still having the benefits of both applications. As in our case portrayed earlier, we would advise Brandon to follow through with these steps so as to link Smartsheet and Jira.
But first, before getting started, there are some requirements that Brandon will need to have configuration or access for:
Requirements Before Configuring Smartsheet Jira Integration
To configure data synchronization between Smartsheet and Jira, the user would be required to purchase and configure the Smartsheet for Jira Connector. Also, the user needs to be a paid member of Smartsheet to be able to transfer data and avail of its benefits. Additional system or admin-level permissions would also be required with one of the following roles:
- A System Admin in Smartsheet.
- A Connector Admin.
To ensure a successful Smartsheet Jira Integration setup, here’s what the user will need:
- The URL (path) to the Jira host that the user intends to utilize.
- The Consumer Key and Public Key are provided by Smartsheet for Jira Connector.
- Jira Cloud, or a Jira version that has not reached End of Life status.
- Support for Sprint fields. Note that Sprint fields are not supported in versions prior to 6.7.7. (If your Jira version is not able to support the Sprint fields, then the Sprint fields will not appear in the Connector.)
- Two administrator-level accounts:
- Smartsheet System Admin: To access admin features for the Connector, and
- Jira Admin: To access and configure Jira
Setting Up Connection Between Smartsheet and Jira
Having administrator-level access for both Smartsheet and Jira, Brandon can then set up Smartsheet Jira Connector with the following steps:
Step 1: Navigate to the Smartsheet for Jira Connector login page and sign in with your Smartsheet credentials.
Step 2: In the upper right corner, pick Account Admin from the Menu dropdown.
Image Source: Smartsheet Help
Step 3: Select Register a New Jira Server and enter the URL of the Jira host that you wish to use.
Step 4: If required, rename the connection and click Continue.
Note: You can register multiple Jira Instances with the Smartsheet Jira Connector at the same time. Repeat the preceding steps for each additional Jira Instance you want to add.
The Jira Connector Smartsheet will generate Public and Consumer keys for you to utilize in Jira to build a secure connection between the two services.
Step 5: Go to your Jira account and, under Jira Settings, click Products, and then, under Integrations, click Application Links. Enter the URL of the application you want to link to here (For example Brandon’s input- https://app.smartsheet.com), then click Create new link.
Step 6: In the Link Applications dialog box, put Smartsheet in the Application Name field. Accept the default option of Generic Application for Application Type, and then click Continue.
Image Source: Smartsheet Help
You’ll get a message confirming that the Application Link was successfully generated. Next, we’ll help Brandon configure the Application Link to Jira.
Step 7: In Jira, navigate to the Configure Application Links page (Jira System Dashboard > Settings > Applications, and then pick Application Links from the menu), find the Smartsheet Application Link you created in the previous step, and then click the Edit icon.
Step 8: In the Configure popup, choose Incoming Authentication and paste the Public and Consumer keys into their respective boxes.
Step 9: If your Jira environment requires the Request Token URL, Access Token URL, or Authorize URL, use this URL to complete those fields:
https://api.smartsheet.com/2.0/token
Note: If you need a Consumer key and a Shared secret, use the Consumer key and Public key from the Configuration window in the Jira Connector.
Step 10: Hit the Save button at the bottom of the page and then click Close.
Managing User Access for Smartsheet Jira Connector
Along with configuring the Smartsheet Jira Data Sync Connection, administrators can also manage access rights for the connector. In our Smartsheet Jira Integration, the Jira System Administrator can perform the following actions to restrict access for the Smartsheet Jira Connector.
Step 1: Sign in to Smartsheet Jira Connector with your Smartsheet credentials and visit User Management under the menu icon,
Step 2: Check the checkbox next to Restrict which users can access the Smartsheet for JIRA integration.
Image Source: Smartsheet Help
Step 3: Add email addresses of employees who are to be granted access rights.
Image Source: Smartsheet Help
Note: The newly added users will be added as Jira Connector Users under default settings. Administrators can also add additional levels of privileges from the available ones.
Removing User Access Rights From Already Allocated Class
With the passage of time, it will also become obligatory to delete obsolete user accounts that no longer require access to Smartsheet Jira Connector. System Administrators can quickly delete such accounts by clicking the “X” delete button next to the person’s account details.
Note: If someone who was removed from the access list previously generated workflows, the workflows will remain active for up to 10 minutes after they were removed. They will be automatically deactivated after this time.
As an alternative to Smartsheets, if you use the Asana Work Management tool and would like to integrate your Jira Instances to Asana, we have covered another detailed piece on Asana Jira Data Integration here.
Conclusion
The idea behind integrating Smartsheet Jira Cloud/Server is to maximize visibility on team tasks, optimize team efficiency and streamline Project Collaboration. In this article, you learned about Smartsheet and Jira, their key features, and the steps you can use to seamlessly integrate Smartsheet and Jira Cloud/Server.
Setting up Smartsheet Jira Integration allows you to collaborate on the Product Development Process and save time spent on back-and-forth communication. However, as the number of projects, workers, and customers grows, so does the amount of data connected with each of them. Handling and integrating this volume of data on a regular basis would necessitate a significant portion of your technical bandwidth. A Cloud-Based ETL solution, such as Hevo Data, can help to speed up this procedure.
Hevo Data, a No-code Data Pipeline helps you transfer data from various data sources like Jira to a Data Warehouse or a destination of your choice to be effectively visualized in a BI tool. Hevo with its strong integration with 150+ sources & BI tools (Including 40+ Free Sources like Jira), allows you to not only export & load data but also transform & enrich your data & make it analysis-ready.
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In the comments section below, please share your experience learning Smartsheet Jira integration! Please let us know about any additional Jira integrations you’d want to learn about.