The Importance of Clear and Concise Communication in Jira and How Awesome Custom Fields Can Help - News, tips & guidance for agile, development, Atlassian-Software (JIRA, Confluence, Bitbucket, ...) and Google Cloud

Back in the day 2011, when a 2Mbp/s download speed was considered scorchingly fast, a company called Netflix used to mail DVDs to customers' homes to watch.

However, as the technology matured and internet speeds improved, Netflix decided it could stream content and launched a streaming service, and they decided to call it Qwikster.

In the history of car crash rebranding and poor communications, this one stands out. The name meant nothing to existing Netflix customers, and to make matters worse, if customers tried to contact Qwikster via Twitter, they found themselves talking to a teenager who had a fondness for a particular plant that he liked to smoke, some of his tweets were legendary and left Netflix customers wondering exactly what Netflix's new business model was? And if this new content was available for home delivery? As a result, Netflix's stock plummeted until the mess was cleared up.

The art of communication

The above is known as a communication shipwreck, and the story's moral is to be as straightforward as possible when imparting information. Although we all love Jira, the interface can sometimes be a little busy, and when the pressure is on, it's easy to miss important notes or facts.

So let's introduce Awesome Custom fields, or ACF for short, the tool that takes Jira to new levels, and not just for existing users. ACF takes Jira up to a new level for those seeking an issue-tracking software solution.

Enhancing the Jira experience

So before we begin, quickly look at the two screen grabs below and ask yourself which one tells you more about the state of a project at a glance.

Both of the above are identical Jira tickets in terms of content or information provided but imagine yourself as a busy project manager scrolling through multiple Jira tickets before the next major project meeting in 30 min; which Jira ticket would you prefer?

GUI are important

ACF sets out to enhance the Jira experience, improving the visibility, look and feel of the application allowing essential snippets of information to be digested at a glance. And it's not just aimed at Jira power users; ACF is exceptionally user-friendly, so even beginners can use it. The end result is not just better communication between existing Jira users, but Jira as a whole becomes a much more attractive solution for non-Jira users, those businesses looking for an issue, and project tracking software solution.

In the beginning

ACF's developers thought "How can we improve the visual aspect of Jira?" This led to some brainstorming, and the feeling was:

Complexity - Jira has a lot of features and options, which can lead to a feeling of being overwhelmed.
Terminology - Jira has its own unique terminology and acronyms; it may take a while to become familiar with the terminology and how it relates to different features and functions.
Integration - Jira integrates with a wide range of other tools and services, but it can be challenging to understand how everything works together.
Some might say the user interface is a little dated, and although it is continually evolving, some find it challenging to navigate.

Customizing issues in Jira

Now Jira does allow the user to add custom fields to issues, and indeed, it is one of the more powerful features in Jira, but it's not the most accessible feature to use, nor are they particularly eye-catching. So the team behind ACF set out to change this, giving everybody the ability to add large colorful graphics to the interface, making Jira just that little bit more human.

Some examples are:

Traffic light signals
% bar graphs
MoSCoW
Star meetings
T-shirt sizes
WSJF

Soon to come are Radar Charts and many more. In fact, the team behind ACF openly welcomes suggestions to grow the library, and new users have immediate access to a rapidly expanding collection of predefined fields which can be used immediately within Jira.

Why do this

Good project management is not the act of creating endless Jira tickets with little or no useful content. You might feel this helps, but it has the opposite effect. Instead, good project management is the act of creating helpful content, content that is easily digestible and imparts information at a glance, and this is where ACF helps.

Signal-to-noise ratio

Put another way, think of each of your team as having a brain cache; a team member's prime objective or focus may be coding or design, or math, and they have a small cache for the admin stuff. Flooding the team with Jira tickets that offer little use rapidly fills that cache, burying the important stuff in the noise. ACF helps highlight the important stuff and filter out the noise in Jira tickets.

You can customize Jira issues using different fields.

You can think of ACF as the ultimate API for humans allowing us to communicate effortlessly through the use of an improved Jira visual interface. Important information is there graphically so Jira users, both new and experienced, can see the information they need at a glance. Why not take ACF for a free test drive today and get that wow factor in your Jira instances?

Do you have any questions? Want to know more about the status quo and the future of the app? Do you want certain use cases that are not yet available or planned in the app? Then get in touch: The team is looking forward to talking to you!

P.s. Oh, and by the way, in your next sprint meeting, be prepared to explain how you were able to add such cool graphics to your Jira issues.