This year, Atlassian shared some exciting news at Team '24 in Las Vegas. Besides Atlassian Intelligence, all eyes are on Jira, with Atlassian announcing two interesting and long-awaited updates.
Merger of Jira Work Management and Jira Software into Jira
This announcement was likely one of the major highlights at Atlassian Team '24: Jira Work Management and Jira Software will be merged into a single product—Jira. The goal is to create a single, unified project management tool that efficiently supports both software and business teams.
This shift brings multiple benefits to teams. Now, they only need to work within a single tool that consolidates all their tasks and information. At the same time, managing multiple products becomes significantly easier. Tasks like billing, provisioning, and permissions become simpler and more streamlined.
New features
The merging of Jira Work Management and Jira Software brings not only advantages but also new features:
Goals: Jira users can now create goals directly in Jira and link them to projects or tasks. This provides teams with a better overview of their objectives and the associated tasks. Users can also view a list of all company goals and the teams involved in the "Goals Directory," ensuring everyone stays on track.
Plans: The best features from Jira Work Management are now available in Jira Plans (formerly Advanced Roadmaps). New overviews offer a calendar view, an updated summary view for quick metric insights, and a user-friendly interface that makes it easier to create and navigate plans.
List View: The List View, previously exclusive to Jira Work Management, is now available in any Jira project, including software projects. It allows for editing task information in a table-like format without having to click into each individual task.
Atlassian Intelligence: Another exciting feature is AI work breakdown. This functionality (currently in beta mode for Premium and Enterprise users) suggests ways to split epics into issues or issues into sub-issues, making work organization much simpler. Once customized and approved, Atlassian Intelligence creates the new work items and sorts them into the correct hierarchy.
What does this mean for Jira users?
Starting May 1, 2024, Jira Work Management will no longer be available for standalone purchase. Existing customers with a Jira Work Management subscription can continue to use it until early 2025, after which it will be automatically transitioned to the new Jira version.
This transition will not affect existing projects, and there will be no pricing changes. Atlassian is also offering an automatic 10% discount on the new Jira subscription for 12 months after the migration.
For Jira Software users, nothing changes initially. The new features and user interface will be added automatically, without affecting existing projects or plans. Speaking of the new user interface...
Jira is getting a new UI
Another major announcement at Team '24 is the completely redesigned UI for Jira. The new navigation aims to improve usability and create a consistent experience across all Atlassian products, making Jira even more intuitive and efficient. Here are some of the key changes:
- Simplified top navigation: The top navigation has been reimagined, reducing clutter to focus on essential tasks like search and content creation. All other menu items are now relocated to the left sidebar to create more space.
- Product and global navigation: Product-specific navigation, like apps, is now located in the left sidebar.
- Project navigation: Project-specific navigation elements, like boards, backlogs, and timelines, are structured as tabs for easier project navigation.
- Customizable and collapsible sidebar: Users can customize the left sidebar to their preferences and collapse it to focus on what matters most.
- Unified look and feel: The new navigation creates a cohesive experience across all Jira products, allowing for seamless transitions between tools.
