Top 10 Jira Interview Questions

Prepare for your next job role with these 10 Jira interview questions.

The popular project management software, Jira sustains over 65000 companies worldwide. It is highly flexible and can be integrated with many applications. 

Knowledge of this tool is invaluable for software developers and other non-technical teams that follow Agile methodology. Companies look for project coordinators, development engineers, and administrators who are well-versed with the Jira workflow. If you are a beginner, here are the best answers to the most-asked Jira interview questions. 

Q1. How would you define Jira and its products?

Ans. Jira is a powerful project management tool created by an Australian company, Atlassian. It was first created for software development to track issues and bugs back in 2002. 

Soon, the company started creating a range of Jira products to cater to the widespread adoption of Agile principles. Today, multiple teams can collaborate with it. And it is not just limited to software development teams. 

Its range of products include

• Jira Software – It is used by project managers, program managers, software developers, etc
• Jira Service Management – This Jira product is for IT operations managers, DevOps managers, etc
• Jira Work Management – It is for non-technical teams including marketing, human resources, etc
• Jira Align – It is used at an enterprise level for bulk operations

Explore project management best practices. 

Q2. Could you highlight the main features of Jira for managing projects?

Ans. Jira offers many useful features for managing a project successfully. 

1. Project Roadmaps – These align every project stakeholder and team member, and they function as a work breakdown structure. If one uses the Jira Software product, they have two options – basic roadmaps and advanced roadmaps. The advanced roadmaps are used for more than one team. 
2. Multiple Reporting Formats – Jira offers several formats for reporting that are automatically available. They are known as Standard Reports. Under them, there are Pie Chart report, Recently Created Issues report, Time Tracking report, etc. 

Also, there are Jira Add-ons for Agile project management. These include Scrum board, Kanban board, Control chart, Sprint report, etc. 

3. Time Tracking – For Agile methodology, time tracking is crucial. It is present by default. But one can also integrate more time-tracking add-ons from the Atlassian Marketplace. 

Q3. Which are the key concepts that you must know before creating a basic roadmap in Jira?

Ans. In Jira projects, there are a few roadmap concepts to consider. 

Theme – It is the main goal of the project

Epic – This is the work item that is broken down into several parts. These parts are tasks and are generally known as stories that describe what the end-user wants. 

Start and Due Dates – These appear as horizontal bars on the roadmap. Users set dates on every epic. 

Filters – Jira has its native filters that allow you to use keywords to find what you are looking for. 

Issue Links – These are also known as dependencies. They are mapped and show in which order they should be completed. 

Sharing and Exporting –  The sharing feature lets you share the roadmap with stakeholders instantly. You can even export the roadmap as an image file. 

Q4. Could you briefly explain the meaning of an issue in Jira?

Ans. An issue is representative of a task, bug, or ticket. It is defined as an action that has to be completed. 

Q5. If you have used Advanced Roadmaps in Jira, what can you tell about hierarchy levels?

Ans. As a default, there are three hierarchy levels in Jira. 

1. Epic Hierarchy – It comprises all the epic issues that arise from the top-most level of priorities. They are categorised into smaller parts. 
2. Story Hierarchy – Story issues are smaller segments of epic issues, and they are placed at this level.  
3. Sub-task Hierarchy – These are tasks that help in finishing a story and they are mapped here. 

Q6. How do you create an issue in Jira?

Ans. To do so, one has to take the following steps. 

1. Click on the + button to create an issue
2. Write down the issue in the Summary tab
3. Enter the details in all the necessary fields such as Configure Fields and others (if required)
4. Click on Create

Q7. How would you clone an issue in Jira?

Ans. There are three steps required to clone an issue in Jira. 

1. Use the ‘more actions’ tab after opening the issue and select ‘Clone’
2. You can even edit the Summary of the issue you want to clone
3. Hit the Create option

Q8. Why would you clone an issue in Jira?

Ans. The main reason to clone an issue is that it prevents manual work and saves time. One can clone subtasks, attachments, links, etc, as required. 

Q9. What is a Jira dashboard?

Ans. The Jira dashboard contains all the information when one logs into Jira. It gives a comprehensive overview of who is performing tasks and such. 

Its default one is referred to as the system dashboard. 

Q10. What are the main differences between Jira Server and Jira Cloud?

Ans. Jira Cloud does not require additional spending on infrastructure. But Jira Server does. Jira Server is also useful when there is too much data that exceeds cloud storage space. 

Parting Thoughts

These are the commonly asked Jira interview questions and answers for beginners. But recruiters also ask these questions to experienced users. While you prepare for these, you can also develop your practical knowledge with Complete Agile scrum project management using JIRA tool course on Udemy. Or you can get a hang of Agile methodology with Coursera’s Agile with Atlassian Jira. 

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