Jira is supposed to be making everything visible. In the case of a good setup, everyone will know what is being built, who is responsible for it, and when it is going to be shipped. In a bad case, the tool itself will become a work-around.
The problem is that a bad Jira setup will not fail abruptly but in a gradual manner with minor delays and workarounds, which seem normal after a while. A few more clicks here, some odd statuses there, and all of a sudden, dozens of working hours are being spent on administrative tasks.
This article discusses eight indicators that your Jira configuration is hampering your development process and causing issues, the typical reasons for each issue, and a solution for fixing it. Should multiple of these signs look familiar, a thorough assessment is required, which our Jira consultancy can provide you with.
8 Warning Signs Your Jira Setup Is Holding Your Team Back
1. Your workflow has too many statuses
Where you need to go through nine or ten states for a ticket to be considered finished, no updates are made. Additional states like “Ready for Review” and “Review Finished” are added to resolve just one dispute but never get deleted. What you get is an ideal workflow on the board, which in reality nobody uses. A good Jira workflow has just as many steps as your team actually passes on work, and each state must give a definitive answer as to whom something belongs.
2. Tickets contain wildly different levels of detail
Select five random tickets. If one contains acceptance criteria, another contains only a single vague line and yet another has been copied and pasted as an email, then clearly your issue types and fields are doing nothing to help you. The developers have to search for context in chat rather than building. Good templates, appropriate required fields, and a brief definition of done will keep everything uniform.
3. Nobody trusts the board
It makes no sense when a board is filled with expired tickets, duplicated epics and old sprints that were left behind. When someone says that one needs to forget about the board and go to Slack for information, then there is no trust at all. Expired tickets accumulate because no one cares for the backlog, and board filters always pull the outdated items from it..
4. Permissions have grown by accident
Permission systems usually grow without any planning involved. Once a contractor is granted access at one point, he or she is granted broad permissions that stay. At the same time, a new hire cannot transfer a ticket and has to ask an administrator. This is how one situation becomes risky, while another turns into a bottleneck. Check who can perform which actions.
5. Reporting still needs a spreadsheet
When a manager uses reports to show “what shipped this month?” The dashboards aren’t doing their job properly. Reports based on conflicting labels, optional values or free text entries are not credible and people create them from scratch. Effective reporting is based on consistent data entry. Choose the right fields to focus on and build filters and dashboards on measurements like cycle time, blocked items, sprints finished etc.
6. Custom fields and screens are out of control
Custom fields seem innocuous when viewed individually. Over the course of two years, however, an application ends up amassing many custom fields, some of which are not being used while others duplicate each other. Lengthy forms are a barrier to creating tickets, and administrators are wary of making any changes that might upset the delicate balance of the system. Cleanse your custom fields.
7. The team works around Jira instead of in it
A pretty obvious sign is that real communication happens elsewhere. Progress is discussed in chat, priorities are defined in the slide deck, and tickets get their updates weekly, if not never. Usually, this implies that updating Jira takes too much time compared to the benefit it provides. Fix the problem first by making transitions easier, adding valuable notifications, and integrating your project management system with the tools that you use.
It works the same when customer-facing teams have to duplicate information in Jira and in the CRM. Connected systems solve the issue automatically, while our guide on choosing a proper CRM for the UK will help you find the best solution for your company. When your CRM has to fit into your process rather than vice versa, consider using our CRM customization services.
8. Repetitive tasks are still done by hand
Allocating tickets, establishing deadlines, notifying the right people, resolving tickets: if your team is doing all these tasks manually on a daily basis, then you are essentially wasting money on automation that you aren’t even using. Jira comes with automated rules which can manage all your mundane tasks. This will enable your team members to focus on their actual job. In case you require more sophisticated automation solutions, our AI solutions and automation services can create workflows based on your workflow.
How to Fix a Slow Jira Setup
You don’t have to redesign everything all at once. Do the steps one by one, beginning with a single project to make sure it works before you apply them elsewhere.
1. Visualize the workflow as it is. Have a look at the current workflow in Jira and understand the process in which work is completed.
2.Reduce the amount of steps in the workflow. Get rid of redundant statuses and combine statuses that are the same.
3.Create standard tickets. Come to terms with issue types and create a concise template along with only a few mandatory fields.
4.Clear the backlog. Get rid of unnecessary tickets, archive inactive ones and assign someone to manage the backlog regularly.
5.Redesign the reports. After making sure the data is consistent, create dashboards that will show the data that matters to your leaders.
6.Set up automation. Begin with assigning, notifying and changing statuses manually.
7.Educate the users and document the process. Create a one-page documentation for using Jira for your team and prevent chaos from happening again.
The good setup should be easily describable. Newbies can create a valid ticket the very first day, board shows real workflow and managers
Frequently Asked Questions
When should I know that my Jira configuration is too complex?
If new team members need guidance to create tickets, or only an administrator understands how a Jira workflow works, the configuration may be too complex. Review the number of statuses, mandatory fields and issue types, then ask your team which ones they actually use.
How long will the clean-up process in Jira take?
This depends on the size and complexity of the project. A single-team project can usually be reviewed and simplified in two weeks or less. Organisation-wide changes may take longer because every team needs to approve the new workflow.
Is it possible to customise Jira without adding complexity to it?
Yes. Only configure features that support your team’s processes. Add new fields, workflows or actions when there is a genuine need, rather than adding unnecessary customisation.
Shall I use a Jira consultant or solve the issue internally?
An internal review is suitable if you have an experienced administrator with enough time to manage the work. However, if several departments use Jira or changes regularly cause new problems, an external expert can provide a fresh perspective and a proven approach. Learn more about our Jira consulting service.
Where should I begin if my Jira board is already messed up?
Start with the backlog and workflow. Close outdated tickets and remove unused statuses. These simple steps can make your board easier to manage. Once that is done, review fields, permissions and reporting to improve the overall setup.
