Jira project management software is a widely popular tool for organizing and tracking projects. It’s particularly known for its capabilities in Agile project management. However, Jira’s full potential is only reached when paired with powerful plugins that can extend its capabilities. Whether using Jira to track tasks or manage Agile sprints, the right plugins can help streamline processes, improve collaboration, and make project management even smoother.
In this article, let’s get along some top plugins that add extra functionality to the project management software Jira. We’ll also touch on how these plugins improve workflows, increase productivity, and help your teams accomplish goals easily.
Why Use Plugins with Jira Project Management Software?
Plugins are essential tools for making Jira project management software more powerful. They allow users to add customized features to their Jira environment, enabling better task tracking, reporting, automation, and time management. In Agile project management, these plugins can be particularly useful for planning sprints, estimating tasks, and creating more detailed workflows.
Using plugins, project managers can tailor their Jira instance to fit their unique needs. Now, let’s look at some of the top plugins available for project management software Jira.
1. Elements Connect
- Rating: 3.7/4
- Installs: 3,000
Elements Connect allows you to bring in external data from systems like Salesforce, HubSpot, SQL databases, or REST APIs directly into Jira issues. This integration enhances project management software Jira by making external data easily accessible within Jira, enabling a more seamless workflow without needing to toggle between multiple applications. Whether you’re managing customer support data or tracking real-time sales figures, this plugin ensures that all the necessary data is always at your fingertips.
This plugin helps teams avoid the inefficiency of switching between apps, giving them seamless access to important external data, enhancing decision-making, and reducing context-switching.
Teams using Jira for customer support, sales tracking, or any projects that require real-time access to external systems and databases.
2. JQL Search Extensions for Jira
- Rating: 3.4/4
- Installs: 4,300
JQL Search Extensions expands Jira’s native search functionality, offering advanced queries, custom filters, and enhanced reporting capabilities. This plugin is particularly useful for teams managing large-scale projects where complex searches are essential. Agile project management software Jira can benefit from these advanced search features by providing more granular control over issue tracking and reporting, ultimately improving the efficiency of team collaboration and progress tracking.
It empowers agile project management software Jira users to quickly find issues based on specific criteria, automate repetitive tasks, and generate customized reports for data-driven decisions.
This Plugin is best for Project managers, agile teams, or any team handling complex projects that require advanced filtering, querying, and reporting.
3. Tempo Timesheets
- Rating: 3.3/4
- Installs: 11,700
Tempo Timesheets is one of the most popular time-tracking plugins for Jira, offering integrated logging and timesheet management. It is especially useful for teams needing accurate reporting on time spent on tasks, making it an excellent addition to any project management software Jira. Teams can easily log hours worked, track their time-based reports, and manage their timesheets within the Jira interface, making this plugin invaluable for invoicing and productivity analysis.
With Tempo Timesheets, billing clients and tracking productivity become streamlined, ensuring that teams can track effort and time with greater transparency, which is vital for accurate project estimations and billing cycles.
Teams that need detailed time tracking, such as those billing clients based on time worked, or agile teams tracking time spent on specific tasks during sprints.
4. Xray
- Rating: 4/4
- Installs: 942
Xray is a comprehensive test management plugin designed for teams to plan, execute, and track tests directly within Jira. As agile project management software Jira becomes more intertwined with development and testing processes, Xray ensures quality management is embedded directly into the project lifecycle. Teams can link test cases to Jira issues (like epics and user stories), track test progress, and ensure that releases are bug-free.
This plugin is a must for software development teams that need to manage test cases as part of their agile workflows, ensuring quality control and making it easier to maintain bug-free releases.
Development teams that integrate quality assurance testing into their Jira project management software workflow need a seamless way to track and manage test cases.
5. Microsoft 365 for Jira
- Rating: 3.6/4
- Installs: 8,900
The Microsoft 365 for Jira plugin integrates Jira with popular Microsoft tools like Outlook, Microsoft Teams, and Microsoft Calendar. This plugin allows teams to view and respond to Jira issues directly within these tools, improving communication and collaboration without needing to leave their Microsoft ecosystem. This makes it an essential addition for teams looking to streamline their workflows within the project management software Jira while still leveraging their existing tools.
By connecting Jira to Office 365 apps, teams can quickly check and respond to issues from their inbox or calendars, simplifying task management and communication.
Teams who use Microsoft 365 and want to integrate those tools with their Jira project management software for a more collaborative experience.
6. Agile Poker for Jira
- Rating: 3.7/4
- Installs: 2,500
Agile Poker for Jira is an estimation and planning tool that helps agile teams use methods like Planning Poker, T-shirt sizing, and more to determine effort estimates for user stories and tasks. The plugin integrates seamlessly with Jira’s agile boards, enabling teams to better plan and estimate sprints or product backlogs within their agile project management software Jira.
This plugin fosters collaboration among team members during estimation sessions, making it easier to get consensus on task effort and better plan for sprint execution, especially in agile environments. Scrum and Agile teams looking for a more collaborative, efficient way to estimate and plan tasks for their sprints and releases.
7. Better PDF Exporter for Jira
- Rating: 3.8/4
- Installs: 5,000
Better PDF Exporter for Jira enables teams to export issues, dashboards, and reports to fully customizable PDF documents. This is incredibly useful for generating professional-looking reports or documentation that can be shared with stakeholders outside of Jira. It allows you to present your Jira data in a polished, branded format that’s easy to distribute and analyze.
Teams that require custom reports or want to present Jira data outside of the system can generate well-designed, shareable PDFs, which can be critical for project documentation and client-facing reports.
Project managers and teams need to create and share reports or summaries based on Jira issues and project progress.
8. Checklists for Jira
- Rating: 3.4/4
- Installs: 5,200
Checklists for Jira adds checklists within Jira issues, allowing teams to break down complex tasks into smaller, manageable steps. This plugin is especially useful for ensuring all necessary steps are completed or defining detailed acceptance criteria for user stories or issues. For teams using agile project management software Jira, this plugin ensures that no detail is overlooked during task execution.
The plugin supports improved task tracking and accountability, ensuring that every step in a process is completed before a task is marked as finished. It’s an ideal tool for teams that rely on detailed task management to maintain their workflows.
Agile or Scrum teams need a tool to track the completion of detailed task steps or define acceptance criteria within Jira issues.
9. Jira Workflow Toolbox
- Rating: 4/4
- Installs: 6,300
Jira Workflow Toolbox provides advanced workflow customization and automation features for teams using Jira. With this plugin, you can automate processes, set dynamic rules for issue transitions, and create custom conditions to simplify complex workflows without any coding. It’s an excellent addition to agile project management software Jira, helping teams automate repetitive tasks and improve consistency across workflows.
Teams can use this plugin to create workflows that reduce manual effort, speed up issue transitions, and ensure consistent execution across all tasks, which is essential for teams in fast-paced agile environments.
Teams looking to automate repetitive workflows, improve process efficiency, and ensure consistency in task execution across all project stages.
10. JXL for Jira
- Rating: 3.9/4
- Installs: 4,300
JXL for Jira transforms Jira into a spreadsheet-like interface, allowing teams to manage and organize issues in a format they’re more familiar with. It’s highly customizable and works great for large teams or complex projects, as it allows users to sort, filter, and manage Jira issues with ease, providing more flexibility than standard Jira views.
Teams who prefer a spreadsheet-style interface will find this plugin invaluable for managing large volumes of Jira issues. It combines the power of Jira with the familiarity of Excel-like organization, enhancing task management.
Teams that prefer using a spreadsheet format for managing issues and want a more customizable way to work with Jira issues in a larger project.
Conclusion
The right Jira project management software plugins can significantly enhance your team’s efficiency and productivity. Whether you are working in Agile project management, managing time tracking, improving collaboration, or automating workflows, these top plugins provide powerful tools to customize and optimize your project management software Jira.
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