What is Jira and how do we use it?
27 January 2026
Jira
Jira Software is part of a large family of products designed to help teams of all types manage work. Originally, Jira was designed as a bug and issue tracker which we still use. But today, Jira has evolved into a powerful work management tool for all kinds of use cases, from requirements and test case management to agile software development. Here at CAD are developing more iteratively, and Jira Software is the central hub for the coding, collaboration, and release stages. For test management, Jira with a variety of add-ons so the QA’s testing is integrated seamlessly into the software development cycle. Teams can test effectively and iteratively at assigned times. QA teams use Jira issues, customised screens, fields, and workflows to manage manual and automated tests.
For teams who practice agile methodologies which at CAD we do, Jira Software provides scrum and kanban boards which the team can use. Boards are task management hubs, where tasks are made into customisable workflows. Boards provide transparency across all the team's work. Everyone knows exactly what everyone else is doing during the project. Time tracking capabilities and real-time performance reports (burn-up/down charts, sprint reports, velocity charts) enable teams to closely monitor their productivity over time. Which are conveniently turned into graphs for team presentations.
Jira Software also provides planning and roadmap tools so teams can manage stakeholders, budgets, and feature requirements from the very start of the project to the end. Jira integrates with a variety of CI/CD tools so the team has to compete for transparency throughout the software development life cycle and the project. The system also allows developers to create tasks for themselves and members of your team to work on, complete with its details, due dates, and reminders. Utilise subtasks to break down larger items of work. Allow others to watch the task to track its progress and be notified when it’s completed. Create sub-tasks within the parent task to break down the unit of work into digestible pieces for various members of the team. View all tasks on the board to easily visualise each’s status.
Bugs are just another name for the to-do list for developers from problems within the software the team is building. Teams need to view all the tasks and bugs in the backlog so they can prioritise goals. Jira’s powerful workflow engine ensures that bugs are automatically assigned and prioritised once they are captured. Teams can then track a bug through to completion.
Learn more about JIRA.
If you have any questions about the development process- get in touch today and give us a shout on 02920 713 855 and [email protected]!
