I’m pretty new to JIRA and honestly feeling overwhelmed by all the plugin options available.
Since JIRA can be customized so much with different add-ons, I’m not sure which ones are actually worth installing. There are tons of free and premium plugins in the marketplace, but I don’t want to just install random stuff.
What are your go-to JIRA plugins that you can’t work without? Looking for recommendations on both free and paid options that really make a difference in day-to-day project management. Would love to hear what the community considers must-have extensions!
honestly, zephyr has been a game changer for test management. don’t sleep on automation for jira either - the free version does a lot and saves tons of manual work. bigpicture’s pricey but worth it if you need gantt charts.
Vanilla JIRA was a nightmare for years until I found Advanced Roadmaps (used to be called Portfolio). Complete game-changer for multi-project planning. The dependency tracking alone pays for itself. For reporting, eazyBI actually creates charts that stakeholders can understand - I’m done explaining why our burn-downs look like garbage. There’s also this free gem called JIRA Misc Workflow Extensions that adds workflow validators JIRA should’ve included from day one. Pro tip: figure out what’s driving you crazy first, then fix that. Don’t go plugin-crazy or you’ll tank your instance performance.
Having worked with JIRA extensively, I can suggest focusing on a few key add-ons to enhance your experience. Tempo Timesheets is invaluable for effective time tracking and is essential for resource planning and billing. If you’re managing larger teams, consider implementing Structure; it provides the ability to create custom hierarchies, which can be crucial for maintaining complex project roadmaps. As you get accustomed to JIRA, Scriptrunner can be beneficial for automating tasks and notifications, despite its initial complexity. Start with a couple of plugins that address your most significant challenges and gradually explore others as you become more familiar with the platform.