Jira Software is a great tool for software teams and organizations to plan, track, and deliver solutions effectively. With Jira data, project and issues can be tracked and business decisions can be made. To identify the actionable insights, Jira data need to be visualized. Bold BI lets you turn your data into useful information by showcasing key metrics, such as issues resolved and created over time and the current status of issues, into individual visualization widgets organized as Jira dashboards for your agile teams. This blog post will walk through the steps to connect your Jira data to Bold BI. The sample data used throughout this post is focused on the issue tracking module in Jira project management tool.
First of all, if you are new to Bold BI, register a site. Log into the site to see the homepage.
Create a new dashboard through any of the following ways.
- Built-in dashboard template
- Data connected to a blank dashboard
- Blank dashboard
Start with a built-in Jira dashboard template and connect to your Jira data
To create a new dashboard with Jira dashboard template, navigate to the New Dashboard tile on the homepage and click Start from Template link.
As a result, the Dashboard Templates window displays like the following:
Select Jira in the Data Sources listing to the left. Doing so will list the available Jira dashboard templates on the right.
Choose the preferred template from the listing. Currently, only one template is available in Jira. More templates may be available in the future.
To preview the dashboard template, click Load with sample data. The notification banner at the to-right shows the dashboard preparation progress with sample data.
As a result, the Jira dashboard loads with sample data, as shown below.
Once previewed, if you would like to visualize you own data, simply click Connect Your Data at the top of the dashboard. As a result, a window prompt like the one below asks you to input your Jira domain and account details. This step is mandatory to authorize the connection to your account from your dashboard.
Enter the requested details and click Continue. As a result, the notification banner at top-right shows the dashboard preparation progress with your own data.
Once the preparation process completes, the current page renders the Jira Dashboard with your own data. To share this dashboard with others, enable access permission to it for concerned users, copy the URL from address bar, and share it.
Start with your Jira data connected to a blank dashboard
To start with connecting data, in the homepage view choose Data Sources and click Create Data Source, scroll down to see the supported data sources.
Choose the icon Jira. As a result, Jira connection window prompts like the following:
Provide your Jira domain name, account details, JQL or Raw Query, custom fields (if any you have) and authentication type. Also define the refresh settings (to refresh the dashboard with latest data updates as per the schedule) and data format (format of the result returned by the query from the Jira service) as shown in the image below. Ignore the Header(s) section. Provide a unique name for the data source.
Click Preview & Connect. A window will open and display the data results, categorized into table and columns.
Choose the desired columns and click Connect to create a data source with the selected table and columns. The designer page will load to proceed designing new dashboard with this data source.
Starting with a blank dashboard and connecting to your Jira data
Navigate to the New Dashboard card on the homepage and select it. The Start from Scratch window opens to create new dashboard.
Enter the name and click Add and Design. The dashboard designer page opens with a new blank dashboard.
To create a new data source with a Jira data connection, select the data source icon at right. Doing so will expand the data source panel as shown below.
Create a data source through any one of the following ways:
- From scratch
- Existing/Shared data sources
- Built-in sample data sources
Creating new data source connection from scratch
To create a new data source connection from scratch, select CREATE NEW in the panel. The DATA SOURCES panel lists the data connectors as shown in the following screenshot.
To more easily discover the Jira connectors in this list, choose the category Project Management.
Choose the Jira connector. As a result, the Jira data connection window is displayed.
Provide your Jira domain, account details, JQL or Raw Query, custom fields (if any you have), and authentication type. Also define the refresh settings (to refresh the dashboard with latest data updates as per the schedule) and data format (format of the result returned by the query from Jira service) as shown below. Ignore the Header(s) section. Provide a unique name to the data source.
Click Preview & Connect to get a window listing the data result categorized into table and columns.
Choose the needed columns and click Connect to create a data source with selected table and columns.
Drag and drop the table, perform data modeling operations like column type conversion, column renaming, column hiding, and save data source by pressing Save and Exit option at top right corner menu.
The data sources panel lists the created data source in the dashboard design view as shown in the following screenshot.
Creating new data source from existing/shared data sources
Find existing or shared data sources through any of the following ways:
- Navigating through the URL
- Data Sources listing
Navigating through the URL
With the URL, https://<your-site-name>>/bi/en-us/data-sources, you can access all shared or previously created data sources. You can also navigate to this page by selecting the Data Sources icon (highlighted below) at left-side panel.
From this view, you can also create a new blank dashboard with a respective data source chosen through the menu option available as shown below.
Data Sources listing
The Data Sources listing exists in the dashboard design page at right-side panel. Select Use Existing at the bottom of this panel to navigate to the already created or shared data sources.
The panel shows the existing data sources.
Above all, the search box helps to filter out the specific items based on the owner or the data source name from a larger list.
Select the data source and click ADD at the bottom of the panel. As a result, DATA SOURCES panel will now display the selected data source.
Built-in sample data sources
The built-in sample data sources are available for use by available widgets. This can help beginners understand the functionality of the widgets and learn how these widgets can display the information that is fed to them.
To explore sample data sources, select EXPLORE SAMPLES in the DATA SOURCES panel.
Choose a data source based on your needs and click ADD. The DATA SOURCES panel will display the selected data source.
To further expand your dashboard, you can explore the following links.
Adding a widget to design view
Configuring properties for widgets
We hope this walkthrough helps connect your Jira data to Bold BI Dashboards, build Jira dashboards, and visualize your project and team insights. For more information about the features available in Bold BI Dashboards, please read our blog post on the subject. You can build dashboards focusing on modules such as Jira agile dashboards to monitor activity streams, task assignments, milestones, sprint progress, and more. For any questions or clarifications, please post us through the comments section available below. You can also contact us by submitting your queries here or if you already have an account, please login to submit your support query. Bold BI Dashboards now comes with a 15-day free trial with no credit card information required. We are happy to assist you! Design with smile!
