When it comes to managing a team, efficient communication and collaboration are key. Two tools that go well together for this are Slack and Jira. Slack is a communication tool that allows team members to communicate in real time. Jira is a project management tool that helps engineering teams track their tasks.
Slack offers many benefits for teams, including real-time messaging, file sharing, and video/voice calls. Teams can create channels for specific projects, departments, or even casual conversations. Slack also offers many integrations with other tools, allowing teams to customize their workflow.
Jira is a powerful project management tool used for tracking tasks, issues, and bugs. Jira also offers many useful features, such as time tracking, agile reporting, and customized dashboards. Being able to track tasks, issues, and bugs in one place can help teams stay organized and focused.
In this blog post, we'll take a look at the benefits of using Slack and Jira together and provide a step-by-step guide on how to set up a Jira—Slack integration.
Benefits of Using Slack and Jira Together
Both these tools are incredibly powerful on their own, but when integrated, they offer a lot of benefits. Here are a few ways that integrating Slack and Jira can help your team:
1. Better Communication: Teams around the world use Slack's impressive communication features. Integrating Jira with Slack means that team members can receive real-time alerts about updates to tasks. This means everyone is always on the same page.
2. Streamlined Workflow: With Jira, teams can track their projects and tasks in one place. This integration allows team members to share Jira updates inside Slack and streamlines the workflow.
3. Improved Efficiency: When team members have all the information they need at their fingertips, they can work better. Team members can access updates to tasks without having to switch between different tools.
How to set up a Jira—Slack integration
Now that we've covered the benefits of integrating Jira with Slack, let's take a look at how to do it. Integrating Jira with Slack is a simple process that involves a few steps.
In this section of the blog, we will provide a guide with two methods to help you set up a Slack and Jira integration:
Method 1: Use Slack's built-in Jira Cloud App
Integrating Jira with Slack is a simple process that can take only a few minutes. Here are the steps to follow:
First, open the Slack application and navigate to the “Apps” page. From there, search for the Jira Cloud App and click on “Add.”
Next, select the Slack channel in which you want to receive Jira updates. Allow access to your Jira account by providing the necessary details.
Customize your notification settings to make sure you receive updates for the right Jira events. Type “/jira connect” in the channel and follow the prompts to connect to your Jira account. You can now use Jira commands in the Slack channel to create, view, and manage Jira issues.
After connecting Slack and Jira, users can set up personalized notifications. These include project updates, comments on specific issues, and more.
It’s important to note that there are some limitations to this method.
The Slack view of your Jira ticket is not comprehensive, and some fields may not be visible. So, you may need to open the issue in the Jira web UI to access more information.
Additionally, Slack does not show the discussions related to tickets created using the /jira create command. Jira limits communication about these tickets, which makes it difficult to follow discussions on Slack.
If you're looking to solve these issues, method 2 below is an easier alternative.
Method 2: Use Plus to connect Jira and Slack
What if you want to select a specific view of a Jira ticket or board inside your Slack channel? Plus is a simple solution for the above. Our Chrome extension transforms data from any app into a live Snapshot.
Here’s what you need to get started.
Before we begin, make sure to set up your Plus account & install the extension.
To use Plus, install the Chrome extension by clicking here. After installation, head over to your Jira board and click on the Plus icon in the top-right corner of your browser.
Step 1: Take a Snapshot with Plus
In this example, I’d like to share a particular view from my Jira Kanban board to a Slack channel. I intend to focus on the 'in review' tickets rather than the entire board. Here are the steps to achieve this:
Click on the Plus browser extension. This feature enables you to capture any part of your screen quickly and easily. To begin, click on the “Take Snapshot” button.
Capturing Snapshots is an effortless task. Draw a box around the desired area that you'd like to capture. In this instance, I will select a single card header from my Jira board and capture its details.
After a successful Snapshot, an on-screen prompt will notify you. Click on the button labeled “copy the link to the clipboard.”
Taking a Plus Snapshot is like taking regular screenshots, with the big exception that Plus Snapshots are live and updated in real-time.
For a visual guide, refer to the accompanying GIF.
Step 2: Copy the URL of your Snapshot and paste it into a Slack channel.
After capturing a live Snapshot of your personalized Jira tickets, paste the URL into your Slack channel. Your Snapshot will then be visible in real-time within Slack, providing a live view of Jira.
Step 3 (optional): Set up a Slack subscription to automatically send up-to-date Snapshots.
This is a great way for you or your team to stay updated on regular progress in Jira, directly in Slack.
Conclusion
If you haven’t already integrated Jira with Slack, now is the time to do so! With this integration, teams can streamline their workflow and improve productivity.
Setting up the integration is a simple process that gets done in a few steps. What method you choose to go for will depend on your needs.
We might have a bias here, but give Plus a try. Teams use Plus to create custom views for Jira, so they can see their top-priority tickets at a glance in Slack.
Customized live snapshots keep things simple, so your entire Jira board does not overwhelm your team. Plus makes it easy to showcase the most important information to your team.
Create the perfect dashboard for your data with Plus. No need for complex integrations—sign up today and start using custom views of Jira in Slack.
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