Jira for All
A bug tracker is an indispensable for grown-ups who write software for a living, and Jira is one of the best ones available. Over the last year my workplace has expanded its use if Jira from within the development team to the whole company. Adopting a new product is never without a few problems, and our experience was no exception. Using a bug tracker is second nature to developers, but can be a difficult adjustment for non-tecnical users. Furthermore, many of these users are not normally in direct contact with IT staff, so the whole process can be disorienting for them.
The barriers to adoption are not technical and have nothing to do with Jira iteself. Entering a bug and navigating through projects can be mastered by anyone in an afternoon. Rather, the barriers stem from the impedance between the existing process for resolving problems and Jira’s way of doing things. The default workflow is geared for a typical development team and may simply not apply to other types of teams. Take the time to fully understand how tasks are executed by actual users and customize Jira to fit. Capturing a legacy workflow is an art in itself and takes time, so be prepared for many iterations before you get it right.
New users will need guidance on what makes a proper bug reports and task requests. The legacy process at my company generated blizzards of email so it is no surprise new users treated Jira as a glorified email client. For example, a number of bugs were opened with email conversations as attachments and no comments of their own.
Some users also worried about bugs being perceived as a personal criticism of the recipient. The culture that exists in other teams must be taken into account when implementing workflows. People who used to be included in email chains may feel excluded if they are not added as a watcher on a ticket, just as others may be crushed under the weight of a few tickets in their name. The expectations for how long tickets should remain open and their visibility need to be clearly defined by project owners.
Finally, setting up dashboards for users to quickly find their tickets is invaluable for aiding adoption. A common complaint about Jira is its complexity so giving users a means to cut through it and just get their work done just makes everything easier.