Map business requirements to Jira configurations

5 min
Advanced

By the end of this lesson, you’ll be able to:

  • Discover business requirements in your organization
  • Ask stakeholders the right questions
  • Map business requirements to Jira configurations

Make sure Jira meets the needs of your users

Before you start configuring Jira, it’s important to directly involve your teams. That way, Jira will meet your users' needs and match how they complete work.
Keep these goals in mind while you’re talking to your teams and users about Jira:
Build it right the first time
Reduce future overhead
Design it well so people want to use it
Help people get their work done quickly and effectively
We recommend implementing Jira in three steps:
  1. Discover and understand business requirements.
  2. Map requirements to Jira configurations.
  3. Implement in Jira.
Illustration showing the three steps to implement Jira. The first step is Discover and understand business requirements. The second step is Map requirements to Jira configurations. The third step is to Implement in Jira.

Discover and understand business requirements

As you meet with members of your team, you’ll want to focus on two goals. First, find out what users need to complete their work. This will help you determine how to configure Jira. Second, teach them about the capabilities of Jira so they understand how to use it.
👇 Click the tabs below to learn more about each goal.
Here are a few things to discuss as you meet with your teams:
  • Determine what various users need
  • Consider long-term plans
  • Prioritize those needs
  • Get agreement on these needs across teams

Ask the right questions to discover business requirements

Managers and leaders have different needs than end users. Asking the right questions will help you discover business requirements for each group and ultimately map them to Jira.
👇 Click the boxes below to see examples of questions to ask managers and end users.

Here’s a tip: Document your findings in a Confluence page so you can easily reference them later.

Map requirements to Jira configurations

Once you have a solid understanding of your users' needs, you can begin mapping them to Jira. Remember, your goal is to build Jira right the first time and reduce future overhead. You also want to design it so users will want to use it.
Here are a few things to keep in mind while you plan:
Configure Jira to meet your business requirements and users' needs
Make fields, transitions, statuses, and screens easy to understand and navigate
Keep your workflows simple
Set permissions that balance security requirements with how your teams work
Use project roles in schemes
Try to configure only a few schemes and reuse them across many projects
Automate as much as possible
These tips will help you configure Jira in a way that helps people get their work done quickly and effectively.

Implement Jira configurations

Once you’ve discovered business requirements and mapped them to Jira, it’s time to actually implement them in Jira. Keep these best practices in mind as you build.
👇 Click the boxes below to learn more about each best practice.

How do you balance user and admin access?

Consider how much control admins will have on your Jira site.
👉 For example: A site with less admin control gives users more power to do their work. However, the site may be more difficult to maintain. Weigh the benefits of each option as you build your site.
👇 Click the tabs below to see the pros and cons of different levels of admin control.
  • Get up and running fast
  • Gives power to a lot of people
  • People can quickly do their own work without bottlenecks
  • Each project has their own schemes
  • Good for smaller sites with autonomous teams (10 user instance)
How was this lesson?

next lesson

Configure global user interface features in Jira

  • Customize the user experience in Jira
  • Set the default user preferences
  • Configure the default dashboard
  • Customize Jira’s navigation colors, favicon, and logo
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