If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. This is perhaps the quote that I have been hearing the most ever since I started my career. And for a good reason. Although it is one of those good old clichés in projects , it is of the utmost importance to track and analyze its progress. Jira reports allow you to know whether you are on the right track and properly manage time and resources.
If you are a Jira user or planning to use the platform in the future, then Jira reports are and might be your best friend.
This article is a sequel to our Jira Concepts and Key Terms article, part of VECTORS’ Jira introductory series.
In this article, we are going to first define Jira reports and why they are important. Then, we will walk through the different types of Jira reports and which ones are the right fit for your projects.
But first… What are Jira Reports?
Jira (be it Jira Software, Jira Work Management or Jira Service Management) comes with a host of built-in reports designed to help you analyze projects, track issues, manage time, allocate resources, and more. What makes Jira reports such a useful tool for project managers and team members alike, are their combination of simplicity, customization and strong integration with core Jira features.
Why are Jira Reports Important?
With this being said though, Jira reports are only as good as the questions you want to answer and ,generally, the way you use Jira on a daily basis. Lucky for Jira users, the platform is extremely well equipped to deal with a variety of use cases (software development, business, customer support) and agile methodologies such as Scrum and Kanban.
As is the case with any project, it is important to first lay down the objectives as well as the key metrics to track. This will allow you to build targeted, accurate and effective Jira reports. The metrics you can track with Jira reports vary depending on the nature of your project and, of course, the Jira product you have. They can range from productivity and scheduling metrics to quality, workflow and forecasting metrics.
Types of Jira Reports
As mentioned earlier, Jira can be tailored to the specific needs of your teams and projects. The platform can be used by a variety of teams such as software development, business, customer support, and more. This is why, Jira offers a wide variety of reports to more or less meet the needs of diverse teams.
Reports for Agile Teams
Agile Jira reports are specifically designed for Agile teams working on Scrum or Kanban. They give team leads all the resources they need to properly plan their development cycle, manage workloads, track progress, and more.
Below are some examples of Agile Jira reports. Only the ones that I frequently use are mentioned.
– Burndown Chart:
A burndown chart is a visual representation of your project progress. It shows the total amount of work remaining over time, so you can see whether your project will be completed on time.
– Burnup Chart:
A burnup chart follows the same principle as a Burndown Chart, but instead of showing work remaining, it shows work completed. This can give you a better picture of the overall progress of a project.
– Epic Report:
An epic report provides you with an overview of an epic progress, (which is a large project that can be broken down into smaller tasks). The epic report shows the progress of each task within the epic, so you can see how the epic is progressing as a whole.
– Epic Burndown:
An epic burndown is a type of burndown chart that focuses on a single epic rather than the entire project. It shows the progress of the epic over time, so you can see if the epic is on track to be completed on time.
– Velocity Chart:
A velocity chart shows the rate at which your team is completing tasks. This can help you understand your team’s productivity and identify areas where improvements can be made.
– Version Report:
A version report provides an overview of the progress of a specific version of a project. It shows the status of each task within the version, so you can see how the version is progressing as a whole.
– Cumulative Flow Diagram:
A cumulative flow diagram is a visual representation of the flow of tasks within a project. It shows the number of tasks at each stage of the project, so you can see how the project is progressing and identify bottlenecks that may be slowing down the project.
Forecast and Management Reports
Based on Jira’s native time tracking features, Jira Forecast and management reports help you with two important aspects of your projects: Time tracking and workload management. Simply put, these reports allow you to prevent any work overload and compare the actual work done with the estimates that you have already established.
Jira Issue Analysis Reports
This category of reports are specifically designed to help you gather detailed information about the state of your issues in terms of the work completed and work remaining.
- Created vs. Resolved Chart: This type of report shows the number of issues created and resolved over a specific period of time. It provides a visual representation of the balance between incoming and resolved issues, allowing you to see trends and track the effectiveness of their issue resolution process.
- Average Age Report: This report gives you the average time it takes for issues to be resolved. It can help you understand your team’s efficiency and pinpoint areas for improvement.
- Pie Chart Report: A pie chart report allows you to display various aspects of your project, such as the distribution of issues based on priority, the distribution of tasks among team members, or the distribution of time spent on tasks.
Jira reports are one of the main pillars of Jira. Their capacity to integrate with jira core features coupled with their simplicity and high flexibility, allow teams to better manage their project and track their progress. This article is more or less a general introduction to Jira reports. In upcoming articles, we will dive deeper into Jira reports and how you can effectively get started.
