Getting started with the Hansoft Jira Server integration
Note: This guide explains how to integrate Hansoft with Jira Server. Atlassian is deprecating Jira Server, which means that the Jira Server integration will reach end-of-life soon. If you use Jira Cloud or Data Center, see the Jira integration guide.
Hansoft supports integration with Atlassian Jira. The integration lets you access and manage Jira data in Hansoft, giving you visibility into project, product, or portfolio progress with one backlog for your entire team.
Before you install the integration, take some time to learn about the differences between Hansoft and Jira and how they communicate.
Differences between Hansoft and Jira
Before you use the integration, it is important to understand the major differences between Hansoft and Jira and how they impact the integration.
Items and tasks in Jira and Hansoft are different regarding type, workflow, and status.
- In Jira, all item types are associated with a workflow and the item status is derived from the workflow. Item types in Hansoft are defined by the section where they originate.
- In Hansoft, items in the Product Backlog only exist in the backlog and can be typed as user stories. Items in the backlog can be committed to the Project Schedule as task scheduling items and planned out Gantt style, or they can be committed to Sprints and estimated as Agile items. These items do not have a workflow by default.
Because of these differences, the Hansoft and Jira workflows must match. You can configure this manually or the integration can do it automatically. See Configuring matching workflows.
Hansoft projects have different views where tasks and items are located: the Product Backlog for planning and estimating tasks, Project Schedule where users work on tasks, and QA section where bugs and issues are managed during development.
The QA section is most similar to Jira because the item (bug) structure is flat, not hierarchical. Items in the QA section always have an assigned workflow, which make the section easy to map to Jira.
The Product Backlog and Product Schedule sections are hierarchical and support unlimited tree depth. Jira items are organized in a flat structure with subtasks adding one level of hierarchy.
Because of this structure difference, you must create Jira filters and Hansoft reports to identify the items to sync between the applications correctly. See Creating a Hansoft report to indicate items to sync with Jira and Creating a Jira filter for issues to sync with Hansoft.
Hansoft has clear separation between backlog items, bugs, and schedule items. Jira does not have the same separation, but you can apply filters to show only the item types you are focusing on. You must configure the Jira integration to match item types to the different Hansoft sections. For example, Jira bugs may go into the Quality Assurance view in Hansoft. Stories from the Hansoft backlog may go into Jira as stories.
You must configure the integration for each section in a Hansoft project you want to sync items to. In each section, you create a Jira filter that includes items to sync from Jira. For example, if you are syncing three Jira item types to different sections in Hansoft, you need to create three Jira filters—one for each item type.
The following diagram shows Jira filters that sync different item types to different sections in Hansoft.
The following diagram shows one Hansoft report per section that specifies which items are synced to Jira.
The following diagram shows two Hansoft sections syncing to one project in Jira and another Hansoft section to another Jira project.
How Hansoft and Jira communicate
1. The Hansoft Jira integration service initiates communication with the Jira server by contacting the servlet Hansoft Service module, which is added when you install the Hansoft for Jira plugin.
2. The hostname of the server that hosts the integration and the number of an unused port is sent to the servlet.
3. The servlet opens a TCP channel back to the Jira integration server on the specified hostname:port. This channel is used for all communication between the integration and the Jira server.