Using Confluence Cloud and Jira Software Cloud together
Confluence and Jira are powerful tools on their own. Together, they transform the way that your team collaborates on projects, builds software, tracks key decisions, and more. There are many ways to integrate Confluence and Jira, and here’s how you can get started.
Integrate Confluence and Jira Software
Jira is great at helping your team plan and track project work. Adding Confluence gives you the power to organize all of the ideas, content, and files that you and your team create as you bring your vision to life.
When you link a Jira Software project to the Confluence space where all your project documentation lives, you eliminate the need for shared drives and file folders. Finding what you need has never been easier. Let’s get down to business!
Connect a Confluence space to a Jira project
This is the first step to integrating Confluence and Jira.
- Navigate to ‘Project pages’ in the Jira lefthand sidebar
- Click ‘Connect to Confluence’
- Search for the Confluence space you want to connect
Great! You are now ready to view, create and edit pages from within Jira.
Add a Jira shortcut to a Confluence page
Adding shortcuts will make it easy to switch between products when needed.
- Copy the URL of your Jira project
- Navigate to the Confluence space you’d like to connect it to
- Tap the Add shortcut option in the Confluence lefthand sidebar
- Paste your Jira project URL in the Edit space shortcuts dialog box, and name your shortcut for easy reference
Now you can smoothly navigate to your Jira project by clicking on the shortcut in the left sidebar. Anyone can use shortcuts, but only site admins can create new shortcuts for a Confluence space.
Add a Confluence shortcut to a Jira project
Admins are able to add a Confluence shortcut to a Jira project.
- Navigate to the Confluence page you’d like to link to Jira — this is probably your space overview page
- Copy the page URL by selecting share
- In your Jira project of choice, select Add item in the left sidebar, and select shortcut
- Paste the Confluence page URL and name your shortcut, just as you did in Confluence
Using Jira and Confluence together
Example 1: Display Jira issues on Confluence page
Confluence allows you to display details from Jira issues. You can display individual issues, an issue count (based on a filter), or a table (also based on a filter). When displaying Jira issues in a table, you customize display options and chose what data from the issue you want and in what order: issue key, summary, due date, assignee… By adding Jira issues individually or from a filter to a page, tasks can been seen alongside notes or project information. No jumping back and forth between tools!
Example 2: Create reports with Jira Charts
Create visually impactful retrospective pages or end of quarter reports by displaying Jira Charts on Confluence pages.
Jira Charts will help you to highlight key data from Jira and to share your results in context by embedding them with explanations, helpful macros, and images or illustrations.
Limitations
Jira: If you are looking for more traditional project management software, perhaps that includes project cost tracking, Jira wasn’t built for that (although there are apps on the Marketplace to add that kind of functionality). Jira is really good at tracking and reporting on individual tasks, but for a broader vision of a project or version planning, it’s better to work in Confluence.
Confluence: Confluence does include the possibility to assign tasks, but tasks are either “To do” or “Done”. If you need to keep track of a more complex workflow, Jira is a better option. Similarly, if you need to track how much time was spent on a task, Jira is a better option than Confluence.
