Azure DevOps Jira Integration

In the fast-paced world of software development, teamwork and effective communication are essential to success. Teams frequently find themselves adopting specialized technologies for particular jobs when development processes change, such as Jira for project management and issue tracking and Azure DevOps for version control and continuous integration. The difficulty lies in combining different technologies to provide a seamless development process, even though each platform is excellent in its particular field.

We explore the power of integrating these two major platforms in the market in this complete guide on Azure DevOps Jira integration.

Azure DevOps Jira integration - Table of Contents

• What is Jira?
• What is Azure DevOps?
• Benefits of a Jira and Azure DevOps Integration
• How to Set up a Jira Azure DevOps Integration?
• Common Use Cases for a Jira Azure DevOps Integration
• Best practices for Azure DevOps Jira integration

What is Jira?

Jira also has the ability to manage projects and track problems. Developers like it, and agile methodology-using teams find it to be effective. It can be used to manage bugs and delegate work. It comes in two different forms mostly. Despite the fact that we're examining the cloud-hosted version, you can alternatively decide to self-host if you'd like. If you're in charge of an open-source project, Jira is an excellent choice because it's free.

In addition to being very customizable, Jira offers a number of extensions that are offered on the Atlassian Marketplace. With them, you can make it more functional. We'll use this capability to configure Azure DevOps integration.

What is Azure DevOps?

Microsoft's Azure DevOps is a collection of cloud-based collaboration tools and services that assist software development teams in effectively planning, creating, testing, and deploying applications. The product was rebranded from Visual Studio Team Services (VSTS) to Azure DevOps.

The complete software development life cycle is covered by the extensive feature and capability set provided by Azure DevOps. In addition to services for testing, building automation, and release management, Azure DevOps manages code versioning. It is well integrated with Eclipse and Microsoft's popular development environment, Visual Studio, making it a favorite among developers like Jira.

If you want to enrich your career and become a professional in Azure DevOps, then enroll in "Azure DevOps Training". This course will help you to achieve excellence in this domain.

What are the Benefits of a Jira and Azure DevOps Integration?

Jira and Azure DevOps integration can benefit development teams in a number of ways, particularly when they utilize different tools or follow specific workflows. Because of the smooth communication and data exchange between these two platforms, the development process is more effective and transparent. Some of the them are:

• The integration of Jira and Azure DevOps fosters better communication between the project management and development teams. By enabling everyone participating in the project to access the crucial information without switching between multiple tools, this fosters improved communication and teamwork.
• Teams may create unified reports and dashboards using data from both Jira and Azure DevOps systems. By giving stakeholders and management a complete picture of project progress, sprint performance, and team productivity, this encourages data-driven decision-making.
• While development teams commonly utilize Azure DevOps for source code management, project managers and product owners may prefer using Jira for continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD).
• The connection of Jira and Azure DevOps enables traceability at every stage of the development process. This ensures that requirements, user stories, and issues are linked to code changes, builds, and deployments, making it easier to follow the development of a feature or bug patch from conception to deployment.
• The integration allows development teams to work alongside teams using other tools while still using their preferred tools. Teams can choose the finest toolkit for their needs thanks to this versatility without compromising communication or information sharing.
• By integrating Jira and Azure DevOps, work items including bugs, user stories, and defects can be shared between the two systems. This synchronization reduces the likelihood of duplicate entries and maintains both systems up to date by guaranteeing that changes made in one tool are reflected in the other.

How to Set up a Jira Azure DevOps Integration?

The first two steps are to install Exalate on both platforms. After that, you’ll connect the instances, and then you’ll see how information flowing between the instances can be controlled.

We’ll get to the step-by-step process of the Jira Azure DevOps integration, but if you prefer watching a tutorial, you can go ahead and watch this video instead.

Step 1 – Install Exalate on Jira

The first step is to install Exalate on Jira.

To do that, select "Apps" from the drop-down menu by clicking the Jira administration settings button. Choose "Find new apps" from the menu on the left. Enter "Exalate" after typing it in the search box. There will be numerous apps listed. Pick "Exalate Jira Issue Sync & more" from the menu.

Step 2 – Install Exalate on Azure DevOps

Now, Azure DevOps requires Exalate to be deployed. You may connect Azure DevOps with Jira using the Atlassian Marketplace. Go straight to Visual Studio if you choose.

The Visual Studio marketplace may be accessed by logging into Azure DevOps and selecting the shopping bag icon in the top right corner of the screen.

Select "Browse Marketplace". Enter "Exalate" into the supplied search box.

Select the "Exalate for Azure DevOps" app, and then on the next screen, click the green "Get" button to begin the free sample.

Step 3 – Connect Your Jira and Azure DevOps Instances

After installing Exalate on each platform and setting up the Jira Azure DevOps connector, it's time to connect them.

Either platform can initiate the connection. In this post, I'll talk about Azure DevOps.

If you haven't already, after logging in, navigate to Exalate by clicking the marketplace icon, "Manage extensions", and then "Exalate" from the left-hand menu under the "Extensions" header.

Under the Exalate menu, select "Connections". There won't be any connections listed if this is your first visit to the location. Select the green "Initiate connection" button in the top right corner to start using.

Next, choose your final destination URL. That is where your Jira instance is located in this particular situation. If you're carrying out this action in Jira, use the address of your Azure DevOps instance instead.

A short check to see if Exalate is already installed on the node you entered has just been performed. If so, you have the option to configure in Basic, Visual, or Script modes. I'll go over each one in turn, but if you'd prefer to go straight to a certain configuration mode, go to that area.

1. Continue with the Basic Mode

After clicking "Next" on the previous screen, you are taken to a new one where you must select the project for which you wish to synchronize work items.

Click "Next" after selecting the project.

On the Jira side, you must confirm that you have admin rights. If you don't have admin access, please choose "No, I don't have admin access". When you click this, you will be given an invitation code that you must copy and paste on the Jira side by choosing "Accept Invitation" under the "Connections" tab.

The same procedure is carried out after clicking "Initiate": choosing the project on the Jira side.

Your connection has been successfully created when you click "Confirm". After completing that, you may begin synchronizing your first issue right away by entering the issue key and selecting "Exalate" from the issue list. Additionally, you can bulk exalt issues or work items or design triggers to synchronize them.

2. Continue with the Visual Mode

Visual Mode is a great way to sync your work items and issues without having to write any code. The UI is quite intuitive, so it can be used with ease by both technical and business users. 

Click "Next" on the screen where it asks you to choose one of the three modes, name your connection, and describe it.

The name of the connection can be formed by giving a name to either side of the connection and then joining those names together. If you want to, you can easily modify this.

The "Initiate" button must then be clicked after you click "Next" to guarantee that you have admin access to the Jira instance. You will be directed to the Jira instance for verification.

Next, pick the Jira and Azure DevOps projects for which you want the synchronization to happen. By selecting the "Sync Method" menu, you can choose between manual and automated sync.

Additionally, you can "Filter entities" for both projects and configure the synchronization's parameters. 

Filtering work items or issues can be done based on their Type, Priority, etc. To access more complex filters, such as "Assigned to/Assignee" and "Created by/Reporter", click "More". 

Click the "Save" button to keep the changes in place. You can always "Cancel" them at any time.

The "Rules" page contains default mappings, such as the mapping of "Type" in ADO to "Issue Type" in Jira. You can modify these predefined defaults by clicking the edit icon next to each entry.

To add further mappings, click the "Add Mapping" button.

Here, you can establish any additional mappings between Jira and Azure DevOps that you like.

Select the items that must line up on both sides. Choose "Sync direction" in addition. You can specify what needs to happen even if a match is not made. Either "Set a default value", "Report an error", or "Do nothing" are choices. 

To save changes, select "Save" from the menu. Close the window and go back to the "Rules" page if you don't want to. Once you've completed, don't forget to "Publish" these edits. 

We just witnessed how straightforward it is to configure your connection in Visual mode without writing any code. Moreover, by choosing the "Edit Connection".

3. Continue with the Script Mode

As you proceed with the "Script Mode," you name the connection in the same way that you did for the "Visual Mode".

There is also an optional description field here. The more information you can provide, the better, as you may have more links afterwards. Filling this out is really helpful. 

Try to be as descriptive as you can when filling out the form. Click "Next" to proceed after that.

The next step is to choose an Azure DevOps project that will be synced with the other platform. Click the green "Initiate" button after selecting one from the drop-down list.

From one side to the other, you must copy and paste an Exalate-generated invitation code. Click "Copy invitation code" to put the code to your clipboard. It would be best to paste it right now into a text file or another secure location.

The "Settings" cog icon in Jira should have "Add-ons" selected. In the Exalate menu on the left, pick "Connections".

Azure DevOps and Jira's connection screens are very similar. Exalate offers the advantage of offering a constant user interface (UI) across a number of platforms, making it simple to connect to other platforms after installation and familiarization.

The button that says "Accept invitation" is in the upper right corner.

On the "Accept invitation" box, there is a sizable field where you may put the code that you just wrote in Azure DevOps. Once you're done, click "Next".

A few of the selection screens you see will be similar to those you saw when configuring the connection. You will be asked to select a project from the drop-down menu to use for the Jira side of the synchronization on the first screen. After choosing the project, click "Confirm".

By selecting the "Confirm" button, you finish the connection configuration.

Now that you've completed this step, you can move on to the ones that follow to learn how to accurately control what your integration does.

Step 4 – Configure Your Connection to Determine What Gets Shared

Exalate gives you complete control over exactly what is transferred to and from either side by letting you customize each connection.

that achieves that using scripting. However, with a little work, anyone can adjust. It should be really easy for you if you have experience working with scripting or programming languages.

In the Visual Mode

In step 3, under the "Configure Sync" option, we already covered how to adjust the "Scope" and "Rules" for Visual Mode connection. 

By selecting the "Edit Connection" option that is displayed next to the Connection name, these scopes and rules can be changed once more. 

In the Script Mode

Exalate uses scripting to modify connections established under Script Mode. If you've worked with scripting or programming languages before, it should be really easy, but anyone can update it with some work.

The Sync rules employ the Groovy scripting language. You shouldn't have too much trouble with this if you are familiar with it. Otherwise, remember that while utilizing a scripting language demands accuracy, learning the rules isn't too challenging once you get the hang of it. 

Exalate is robust enough to withstand mistakes, so experiment without restriction. If you make a mistake, you can always go back and correct it.

Hover your mouse pointer over the link you want to alter in the list, and an edit icon will appear. Click it to start making changes. The process is the same even though Jira is utilized in this guide.

Additionally, you can remove or deactivate the connection using the three dots or the remote button, which will take you to the other side of the connection.

The "Edit Connection" screen only has the "Rules", "Triggers", "Statistics", and "Info" tabs.

We'll talk about the "Rules" next, and then we'll talk about the "Triggers".

Under the statistics tab, you may see details about the objects currently being synced and the most recent synchronization date. On the info page, you may get several details about the connection, including the URL of the opposite side. These tabs can be useful if you want to make sure your connection is working as it should.

For the time being, select the "Rules" option.

The top contains a list of outgoing sync rules. These show the component mapping between Jira and Azure DevOps. The incoming sync rules illustrate how items in Azure DevOps are converted from data from Jira.

Edit the outgoing rules to change the information AzureDevOps sends across the connection. You can alter how the connection's data is handled by using the incoming rules.

Of course, the relationships will be reversed if you are viewing this screen in Jira.

You might be asking how to alter the rules after looking at them. You just need to click in either box, change the text, and when you're done, click the green "Publish" button in the top right. For additional information, read this article about sync rules.

You can see that there are numerous fields, such as replica.key = workItem.key, in the outgoing rules. This means that the other side of the connection can use the same name to access the key field.

Any field that you don't want to share can be deleted or changed with another one.

Just delete the line to get rid of it. As an alternative, you can make a comment by putting a '//' in front of the line in question so that synchronization will disregard it.

If you wanted to send a specific piece of information, you could, for example, change replica.status = "from Azure DevOps" to replica.status = "workItem.status". On the Jira side, the status field of incoming items will say "from Azure DevOps".

Similarly, you can give each item in the incoming sync that you receive from Jira a specific value. In the workItem.description field, you might change "replica.description" to "from Jira".

Step 5 – Set Up Automated Synchronization Triggers

After that, choose the "Triggers" tab. On this page, you can specify triggers that decide what the connection shares. Jira Query Language (JQL) for Jira and work item query language (WIQL) for Azure DevOps are the languages in which the triggers were developed.

Both a separate menu item in the left-hand menu and the "Edit Connections" page both provide access to the synchronization triggers. The interface is essentially the same in this case, with the distinction that you can view the connection as a separate entry in that list.

Step 6 – Start Synchronizing Tasks

Now that your connection is established and you are aware of how to configure it, work items will be divided between the platforms in accordance with the rules you have defined. Items that are developed in the future that meet your rules as well as existing rules that meet the same criteria will be synchronized.

The number of items that have been synchronized is shown on Exalate's connections screen. Please wait a few minutes if the trade doesn't happen right away because synchronization takes some time.

[ Check out the comparison of Azure DevOps vs Jira ]

Common Use Cases for a Jira Azure DevOps Integration

1. Development and Testing Teams

In many businesses, the development team uses Jira while the testing team makes use of Azure DevOps. Every time a Jira problem is moved to the under review state, a Jira Azure DevOps integration can be configured to automatically create a work item type (test case) in Azure DevOps. These teams have instant communication capabilities for notifications, status updates, comments, and attachments.

The Azure DevOps status in Jira can be changed to "ready to release" once the testing activity is finished, enabling the scheduling of applicable releases. The same cozy environment that your teams are used to can be used for this seamless collaboration.

2. Customer Service and Development Teams

Jira care Management is a popular tool for overseeing customer service from beginning to end. Occasionally, using Azure DevOps, certain tickets (especially bugs, feature requests, etc.) need to be forwarded to the development team. With an integration in place, these tickets can be immediately delivered to the development team. You can share important information about the issue using attachments, comments, or custom fields. The customer service agent will be fully informed about the progress being made by the development team on the problem and can proactively update the client.

3. Design and Marketing Teams

The marketing team researches consumer behavior and might provide the product or engineering teams with some useful information regarding a new feature request. It might be possible to communicate between these teams so that everyone is informed of the status updates and what can be implemented or not.

The marketing department might be in a position to ask for feedback on a product feature if they have relevant understanding of it. An integration between Jira and Azure DevOps might be used to make all of this happen.

Learn Top Azure DevOps Interview Questions and Answers that help you grab high paying jobs

Best practices for Azure DevOps Jira integration

Here are some best practices for Azure DevOps Jira integration:

• Clearly define the integration in your development process's goals and needs. 
• Choose an established integration plugin or service that achieves your requirements. 
• Design the architecture for the integration. 
• Effectively map the fields and work item types between Jira and Azure DevOps. Before implementing the integration in a live environment, thoroughly test the synchronization between the two systems. 
• Ensure that security and access restrictions are in place to safeguard sensitive data.

Conclusion

The combination of Jira with Azure DevOps provides many compelling reasons for development teams to use this methodology. In conclusion, we hope this blog shared some valuable information on the Azure DevOps Jira integration.