Top 20 JIRA Interview Questions and Answers

This tutorial covers the most frequently asked Atlassian JIRA interview questions with detailed answers. Most of these questions are considered for a JIRA interview for a QA tester.

Defect/bug management tools have been a part of software testing and development cycles for years. “JIRA” is an incident management tool, developed by Atlassian, which is commonly used for defect/issue tracking as well as project management.

JIRA Alternatives were explained in detail in our previous tutorial.

=> Click Here For Complete JIRA Tutorials Series

This defect tracking tool is not only used for convenience-related features like recording and reporting, but is also integrated directly with the code development environment.

JIRA Interview Questions Quiz

Take this comprehensive JIRA interview quiz covering workflows, issue tracking, agile boards, and administration. Perfect for project managers, scrum masters, and team leads preparing for the JIRA interview and certification exam.

Before you take a closer look at all the questions, here is a quick QUIZ you can take to know your JIRA skills.

JIRA is an efficient tool and can track any kind of defects/issues. Agile projects are also supported by JIRA.

Now, above was the basic description of Atlassian JIRA, a defect tracking tool. In this article, we will discuss multiple interview questions and answers which will help you understand this tool much better as well as on the other hand will help you prepare for your interview.

Entry-Level JIRA Interview Questions

Given below is the list of the most frequently asked JIRA interview questions and answers.

Q #1) Why is JIRA used?

Answer: Atlassian JIRA is basically an issue and project tracking tool that allows us to track any project-related work by following a proper workflow.

Below are a few reasons that determine the usage of JIRA:

• Able to track project progress from time to time.
• JIRA use-cases include project management, feature implementation, bug tracking, etc.
• Workflow can be easily customized as per our requirements.
• Along with issue tracking, the history of work done on issues, when, what, and by whom, can also be tracked.
• JIRA is platform-independent and can run anywhere.

Q #2) Explain the JIRA workflow.

Answer: Workflow defines the series of steps or stages an issue/bug goes through during its lifecycle from creation to the closing of the issue.

The workflow here includes the creation of an issue, a series of actions performed to fix the issue, and the last step includes the closing or completion of the issue after verification.

Refer to the diagram below for a better understanding:

Q #3) Enlist the report types generated by JIRA.

Answer: There are multiple reports available in JIRA that are used to show the project statistics throughout the project life cycle. There are general reports available for analyzing issues, as well as different reports for Scrum projects and Kanban projects.

General reports generated as and when required for analyzing issues include:

• Average Age Report
• Created vs Resolved Issue Report
• Pie Chart Report
• Recently created Issue Report
• Resolution Time Report
• Time Tracking Report
• User Workload Report
• Version Workload Report
• Workload Pie Chart Report

Examples of reports generated for Scrum projects are:

• Sprint Report
• Control chart
• Burndown chart
• Cumulative Flow diagram
• Epic Report
• Release Burndown
• Velocity chart
• Version Report

Examples of reports generated for Kanban projects:

• Control chart
• Cumulative Flow diagram.

To generate reports for your project, follow the steps below:

• Navigate to the desired project dashboard.
• Click on the Reports tab on the left-hand side to view different reports.
• Click on Switch Reports to view the different reports.

Q #4) Explain the step-by-step procedure of how an issue is created in JIRA.

Answer: Whenever an issue or defect is encountered while testing, it needs to be reported so that the developers can work on it and take the necessary action to fix it.

We will see step by step how an issue is created in Atlassian JIRA.

a) Log in to your JIRA account using valid credentials and get directed to the dashboard.

b) Click on the ‘Create’ button displayed and you will be navigated to a window for creating an issue.

c) Enter all the necessary details as required to create an issue. The field example below can be better understood with the image below.

• In the Project field, a project is selected for which we are creating an issue. In this example: STH_Learning(STHL) is selected from the dropdown containing all the available projects.
• In the Issue Type field, the nature of the issue is selected from a dropdown that contains options like Bug, Task, Improvement, Story, New Feature, etc. In this example, ‘Bug’ is the nature of the issue.
• The Summary field contains a one-line title of the issue that imparts critical information about the issue in a summarized way. The more effective the issue headline, the more you can show the criticality of the issue. Of course, the headline should be easily understood without any chances of misinterpretation. The example I have given here, however, is not very critical.
• The Reporter is the one who reports the issue. In most cases, the name of the Project Manager is selected in this field.
• In Description field, the detailed description of the issue is written. As you can see in the below example screenshot, Steps to reproduce the issue, Actual result, Expected result are included in the description.
• In the Affect Version field, the current build version of the project is selected in which the issue has been encountered.
• Fix version field is basically selected by the concerned developer people, who choose the version as and when their work for the particular issue has been completed and the issue has been fixed.
• Priority field defines which issue should be considered first to be fixed. Tester selects the priority of the issue from the dropdown based on its effect on the application. This example issue is basically of a Medium priority.
• In the Attachment field, any video or screenshot related to the issue is being uploaded.
• In the Environment field, operating system and browser details are mentioned on which issue has been encountered.

d) After all the details have been completed, click on the ‘Create’ button displayed on the window to create the new issue.

e) An issue id is generated which can be used in the future as a reference for tracking the progress of the issue.

Q #5) Explain the three color indicators and their significance.

Answer: For any particular issue in JIRA, 3 colors like Blue, Green, and Orange is used to denote the amount of time spent on any particular issue. This information is displayed under ‘Time Tracking’ section. Each color has its own significance like;

• Blue: This color is to denote the ‘Original Estimate’ i.e. time estimate to be invested in resolving the issue. This field has been labeled as ‘Estimated’.
• Orange: This color determines the time left for resolving the issue. This field has been labeled as ‘Remaining’.
• Green: This color defines the actual time that has been used or say spent in resolving the issue so far. This field has been labeled as ‘logged’.

Q #6) For any particular issue, what all are included under the change history?

Answer: Change history section displays the activities of changing any record with information regarding the person who has made the change as well as the time at which the changes have been made.

The change history also displays information about the old and new field values in the case of the change in any field.

Change history includes the following records of the changes:

• Creation and deletion of a comment.
• Creation and deletion of an issue link.
• Deletion of a Worklog.
• File attachment changes
• Issue field changes

Change history for any issue can be viewed in JIRA by following these steps:

• Open any particular issue.
• Click on the ‘History’ tab present in the ‘Activity’ section.

Q #7) Mention a way with which an issue can be shared with other users in JIRA.

Answer: An issue can be shared with other users in JIRA by using the share option available on the issue description page.

When a share option for any particular issue is clicked, it contains a link to the issue to be shared along with ‘Username or Email’ and ‘Note’ field that has to be filled.

Q #8) What is the importance of labeling issues?

Answer: Labeling an issue is basically done to categorize an issue within a particular section which in turn can be easily searched with the help of labels.

Labels for a particular issue can be initially set at the time of creating the issue, while they can also be edited within the issue. Label field is displayed under the ‘Details’ section as shown below in the figure:

Q #9) How is an issue linked in JIRA?

Answer: As the name itself defines, Linking means the association between the two.

In the same way, a JIRA issue can be linked to any other issue in cases like:

• Relate to another issue
• Duplicate to another issue
• Block another issue.

For displaying the details of the Linked issues, there are two fields available in JIRA: ‘Linked issues’ and ‘Issues’.

The Linked Issues section contains a dropdown for the option to be selected as the reason for linking the issue. As per the selected option, the suggestions of the issues to be linked are displayed in the ‘Issue’ dropdown.

Linking of issues can be done either on the same or different JIRA servers.

Q #10) What is the purpose of the JIRA dashboard?

Answer: The first page which is displayed whenever we get logged in to JIRA application is ‘Dashboard’ which is basically the default or system dashboard.

A personal dashboard can also be created and designed by adding different gadgets and can be edited also as and when required. These gadgets are the means to display the project progress in terms of issues, etc.

Let us understand the steps as to how a personal dashboard can be created:

a) Enter valid credentials and get navigated to JIRA dashboard.
b) Click on “…” displayed on the upper right-hand side and choose option ‘Create dashboard’. You can also choose ‘Copy dashboard’ in the case of copying the currently viewed dashboard.

c) ‘Create Dashboard’ page is displayed.
d) Enter all mandatory information and click on ‘Create’ button.

e) After creating a dashboard, you get navigated to a page where there are multiple options to select and add gadgets to your dashboard.

f) There is also an option available to choose and edit the layout of your dashboard.

Any particular Dashboard can be edited, copied, shared, or deleted from the Manage Dashboard section.

Q #11) What do you mean by Scheduling an issue?

Answer: Scheduling an issue means scheduling the work of the issue for a particular ‘due date’.

For this function to work, one must have ‘Schedule Issue Permission’ by the JIRA Administrator. In this case, a field with ‘Due Date’ is being populated.

Q #12) Explain how particular project details are listed in JIRA.

Answer: Every project has some main attributes that have to be displayed in the project summary.

These attributes include:

• Name of the project
• Key
• Components
• Versions (if present)

Please refer to the below screenshot of Project ‘STH_L’ summary page for your reference. Although not much activity has been done on this project, this image will give you a clear idea.

As you can see from the image, the middle display area of the page shows the ‘Activity’ screen containing details on the activities done on issues or project.

The right-hand side section displays basic information about the Project like Project Lead, Key, Issue Status, etc.

The left-hand side contains various options like Components, Issues, Reports, Active Sprints, etc. The related information is displayed as per the selection from the option.

For Example: If I select the ‘Issue’ option, the below-displayed screen will appear.

Q #13) What are the issue types that are created and tracked via JIRA?

Answer: JIRA has a defined set of default issue types that are displayed under the ‘Issue Type’ section.

Other issue types can be added, edited and deleted as per the requirements of the project. Some of the common issue types are Bug, Task, Sub-task, Epic, Story, etc.

Their details can also be seen under the Issue Type section as shown in the figure below.

As per the definition of ‘Issue Type Schema’ mentioned in the JIRA application,

An issue type scheme determines which issue types will be available to a set of projects. It also allows specifying the order in which the issue types are presented in the user interface.

There are two types of Issue Type Schema:

• Default Issue type schema
• Scrum Issue type schema

Q #14) How is a sub-task created in JIRA?

Answer: A sub-task is a way of splitting up a parent issue into a number of small tasks that are tracked and worked on separately.

A parent issue contains information about all its sub-tasks, which can only be of the same project. A parent issue cannot be closed unless and until all its sub-tasks are closed. A sub-task has the same fields as those of any standard issue, but its issue types are different.

Now, let us see step by step how a sub-task is created. I have created an issue in the example below for the understanding creation of the sub-task.

a) Open a parent issue by searching with an issue id or create a new issue id.
b) On the right-hand side of the issue description screen, you will see “…”. Click on it and options are displayed.
c) Click on Create Sub-task from the displayed dropdown option.

d) ‘Create a sub-task’ window is displayed.
e) Enter all the mandatory details and click on the ‘Create’ button.

f) Now the created sub-task gets added to the parent issue under the sub-task section as shown below in the figure:

g) There are also options available to convert an issue into a sub-task as well as sub-task into an issue.

Q #15) Explain the term Cloning an issue.

Answer: Cloning an issue means copying an issue.

In this case, a clone of the original issue is created which contains the same information as is present for the original issue. Cloning of an issue is done so that multiple users can work on the same issue, however, the operations done on either the original issue or the cloned issue have no effect on each other.

All the information from the original issue is cloned except for a few as mentioned below:

• Time tracking
• Comments
• Issue history
• Status and Resolution

Let us see how to create a clone of an issue:

a) Open any issue by searching with an issue id or create a new issue id.
b) On the right-hand side of the issue description screen, you will see “…”. Click on it and options are displayed.
c) Click on Clone from the displayed dropdown option.

d) ‘Clone Issue’ window is displayed.
e) If required, you can edit the summary of the issue and click on the ‘Create’ button.

f) Another issue is created with ‘CLONE’ added in the summary.

Intermediate Level JIRA Interview Questions

Q #16) Explain the Kanban board.

Answer: Kanban boards are created for projects where the team has their prime focus on visualizing the workflow and managing the project’s work in progress.

The most important feature of Kanban board is that it is found in work mode because the projects do not have their work as planned.

Let us see how the Kanban board is created in JIRA step by step.

a) Log in to the JIRA application using valid credentials and get navigated to the dashboard.
b) Click on the Project dropdown and select the option ‘Create Project’.
c) Select ‘Kanban Software development’ and click on the Next button.

d) Enter all the necessary details and click on the Create button.
e) Kanban board is created as shown in the example below.

Note: I have just given a basic example of creation

In the case of Kanban, the incoming task is given more priority and hence it is considered as the best methodology for cases like bug fixing and maintenance release.

Q #17) Mention one similarity and one difference between JIRA Scrum and JIRA Kanban.

Answer:

Similarity: Both JIRA Scrum and Kanban are considered the most powerful process tools for optimization of work and the processes as both processes focus on continuous optimization and visualizing the workflow. In these cases, large and complex tasks are broken down and each individual task is worked on and completed efficiently.

Difference: Scrum board is the work mode where the progress of sprints and tracking of its work is done. Here the team determines the list of issues that have become backlog and then these issues are moved to sprints as per team plan.

In the case of the Kanban board, the work in progress activities are being maintained and their process flow is tracked. Here the team decides the increase and decrease of the number of issues that are to be displayed in each status of the workflow.

Q #18) What are the most useful JIRA add-ons?

Answer: Some of the most useful JIRA add-ons are listed below:

• Jenkins CI
• Usersnap
• Slack
• HipChat
• GitHub
• PagerDuty
• Tempo Timesheets

Q #19) What comes under JIRA Schema?

Answer: JIRA Schema consists of the following:

• Workflows
• Issue types
• Custom fields
• Screens
• Field configurations
• Notifications
• Permissions

Q #20) How is the security setting helpful in JIRA?

Answer: The security settings for any issue are defined or set at the time of the creation of the issue or while editing the issue.

The basic reason for security settings is to restrict user access to the issue so that not all users are able to work on that issue. Security settings also allow access to be issued to members of a chosen security level.

Concluding Thoughts on the JIRA Interview and Further Resources

Through this article, I have covered everything that is necessary to know as a part of understanding and learning this famous and most useful issue tracking tool i.e. JIRA.

Further reading =>> Top Project Management Interview Questions

Although it is not possible to take any ongoing project as an example to make things clear, I have created a new id and new project in JIRA, so that I can provide my answers with screenshots for better understanding. We hope this article proves helpful in your preparation for interviews.

All the best and keep learning.

=> Visit Here For Complete JIRA Tutorials Series

We hope this comprehensive tutorial on JIRA would have immensely enriched your knowledge of JIRA to a great extent!!

PREV Tutorial | NEXT Tutorial