A Complete Guide to Jira Integration

Jira is the command center for software development and other technical work, but it’s rarely the only platform these teams use. Context from other platforms, updates from other teams, and more data is essential to this work. That’s where Jira integrations come in; they transfer data between Jira projects and other tools, keeping your software teams productive.

Here’s everything you need to know about Jira integrations.

What is Jira?

Jira is a popular project management tool, often used by software development teams and other technical users to track complex work. Jira is built with these teams in mind, allowing many to apply it to their projects without significant customization. Other common project management tools typically don’t take this approach by default, requiring specific templates or integrations to work the way Jira does by default.

What is Jira integration?

Jira integration bridges the gap between Jira projects and tasks happening in other tools, ensuring technical teams always have the context they need as they work. Without an integration, someone typically has to copy and paste data between Jira and these other platforms, which creates productivity drag as software teams struggle to get the information they need or, worse, double up on work someone’s already completed.

Jira is often integrated with tools like:

• Version control tools like GitHub and GitLab.
• Other project management platforms like Asana, Smartsheet, and Wrike.
• CRM tools like HubSpot and Salesforce.
• Customer support apps like Freshservice and ServiceNow.

Why does Jira integration matter?

A Jira integration can completely transform the way technical teams work, leading to benefits like:

• Smoother sprint planning: Sprint planning involves centralizing requests and priorities from throughout the organization, which are often scattered throughout multiple tools. Integrations can do that automatically, meaning no one has to hunting for context across systems.
• Better code quality: Having the right context for software work can directly impact code quality, and that context often lies in other tools. Integrations put all that context at a developer’s fingertips.
• Better alignment between teams: Integrations push data between tools
• More robust reporting: Jira has robust reporting features, but it’s not always the most popular reporting tool with all stakeholders. With the right integration you can sync work from Jira and other tools into a single report, improving visibility on all software work.
• Increased productivity: Many software teams are used to someone manually copying and pasting data from other platforms into Jira. Integrations prevent all that extra manual work, increasing productivity throughout the team.

4 types of Jira integration

Not all Jira integrations are created equal. Some are easy to deploy with more limited functionality, while others are designed with enterprise organizations in mind, requiring advanced technical resources and expensive maintenance to keep running.

• Built-in Jira integrations: The Atlassian marketplace is full of integrations you can load into Jira without any third-party platforms or services. This includes integrations for Asana, GitHub, and Trello. Functionality for these integrations ranges from quick previews of linked work items to full automation.
• Automation platforms: Platforms like Zapier use if-this-then-that logic to automate a range of actions across thousands of apps. This simple logic allows for a broadly similar experience across integrations, but does limit the depth of these integrations. Automations typically only create new work items or update a single field in these work items.
• Two-way sync: A two-way sync solution like Unito builds relationships between Jira issues and work items in other tools, automatically keeping fields up to date as you work. These platforms allow for seamless collaboration across Jira and other tools.
• Agentic AI: AI agents can take many actions that human users do in tools like Jira, from creating issues to updating them and adding context to them. Atlassian’s own AI platform, Rovo works natively across all Atlassian products, including Jira, Confluence, and Trello, making it a natural first step for anyone looking to automate tasks across these tools.

How to integrate Jira with Unito

Here’s a look at how an integration between Jira and other tools works with Unito.

Step-by-step integration guide

1. Connect tool accounts to Unito: After signing up for Unito, click +Create Flow and connect Jira and the tool you’re integrating to Unito.
2. Choose flow direction: Flow direction tells Unito flows where to create new work items. Most Unito flows are two-way, meaning they automatically create work items in Jira and other tools. But you can also create one-way flows, which only create work items in one tool.
3. Set rules: Unito rules use trigger-action logic to filter out work items you don’t want synced or automate certain actions. Build a rule by setting the trigger Unito should look for and the action you want it to take.
4. Map fields: In most flows, Unito can automatically map fields in Jira to fields in other tools. From there, you can customize these mappings to match statuses across tools or match your unique workflow.
5. Launch your flow: Once you map your fields, your flow is ready to launch. After an initial sync, Unito will check for changes in real-time.

Curious to see this in practice? Check out these video tutorials to syncing Jira with other popular tools:

• Syncing Jira with Asana
• Connecting Jira with Smartsheet
• Integrating Jira with ServiceNow
• Connecting Jira with GitHub
• Syncing Jira with Trello
• Integrating Jira with Azure DevOps

Challenges to watch out for when integrating Jira

Before you choose an integration solution, here are some challenges you need to consider.

Integration depth

“Depth” refers to the number of fields an integration solution can sync data from and the actions it can automate. Some integrations support nearly every Jira field, allowing users to work seamlessly across Jira projects and other tools. Others might only support a few fields or automations. Getting the deepest integration isn’t always the best fit for your workflow, so it’s something you need to evaluate.

Authentication and security

Because Jira projects often hold proprietary information like code, which makes security especially important. Since an integration solution either takes data out of Jira or adds data to Jira projects, it creates an inherent security vulnerability. Integrations need to access your Jira projects, and they’re often authenticated the same way as end user accounts are. That means reviewing an integration’s security protocols and authentication measures is essential before connecting it to your Jira projects.

Performance and scalability

As your Jira projects — and your organization as a whole — scales, your integration solution needs to follow. An automation platform like Zapier might be enough to support some workflows at a certain size, but it might quickly become inadequate as you grow, requiring too much maintenance to actually be effective. When choosing an integration solution, you need to review its ability to scale with you and perform consistently.

How to keep Jira integrations secure

Any organization handling customer data needs to keep that data secure. Using Jira integrations can potentially complicate that requirement. Here’s how.

Compliance

Just like any other processes your organization uses, integration solutions have to comply with data security regulations in your jurisdiction. Some areas have their own specific regulations, like California and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).  Specific industries sometimes have their own frameworks as well, such as HIPAA in healthcare. Maintaining compliance with these regulations is the organization’s responsibility, which means researching potential integration vendors to ensure they’re compliant as well.

Access control

Anyone who has access to a Jira integration can potentially pull data out of your projects and transfer them to another system, which can lead to unauthorized access by other users and other potential security issues. In some organizations, that access needs to be strictly controlled to maintain data security, meaning any integration solutions you use need role-based permissions and similar security measures.

Security certifications

Certifications like SOC 2 Type 2 are frameworks for organizations committed to keeping data secure beyond minimum regulatory requirements. Software integration vendors, like any organizations, can earn these certifications. This allows you to evaluate potential vendors so their certifications match your security needs.

Best practices when integrating Jira

Before you roll out your first Jira integration, consider these best practices:

1. Start with a small pilot project between one Jira project and a block of work in another tool. This allows you to evaluate a potential integration in action before it’s deployed to potentially sensitive data.
2. Evaluate the results of a pilot project before implementing integrations at scale.
3. Consider if you need an integration solution that requires technical knowledge to use or if you need something that’s more accessible for all your teams.
4. Review integration vendors at least yearly to ensure they’re competitive compared to others on the market.
5. Use built-in Jira integrations and automations to enhance third-party integrations.

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