Currently, the Team '24 event is taking place in Las Vegas, and Atlassian has made several exciting announcements. One of these is the merger of Jira Software and Jira Work Management into a single, even better product - Jira. Here's a summary of what this means for you, the new features you can expect, and any changes that might affect you.
A Platform for All Teams
Originally, Jira was designed for software development and issue tracking for developers. However, over the years, Atlassian has expanded its offerings to support teams outside of development, such as Marketing, Sales, and HR, with specialized versions like Jira Work Management. This newly announced merger aims to create a comprehensive platform that enables various teams within a company to work together more easily and track their work more efficiently.
What Changes?
With the new version of Jira, Jira Software and Jira Work Management (JWM) are merged into a single product, with Jira Work Management no longer being available as a standalone product. Users can look forward to new features that make Jira more flexible and user-friendly. These features provide leaders with better company-wide insights and overviews, and help all teams coordinate better.
Some of the new features include:
- Goals: The ability to add goals to any project or task to improve visibility and coordination within Jira.
- Plans: An enhanced version of the former Advanced Roadmaps, now integrating the best elements of Jira Work Management for a simplified experience and navigation.
- List View: Previously only available in Jira Work Management, this feature is now accessible for all types of Jira projects, allowing for the editing of issues without navigating away from the issue view.
Impact on Jira Software Users
For existing Jira Software users, essentially nothing changes except that they gain access to the new features.
Impact on Jira Work Management Users
- May 1, 2024: After this date, Jira Work Management plans will no longer be available. Existing JWM users need to prepare for the upcoming migration.
- Until Early 2025: Users with an active subscription will continue to have access to their Jira Work Management features.
- Q1 2025: Automatic migration of all Jira Work Management subscriptions to a Jira Cloud subscription. This step is crucial for the unification of the platforms and provides users with access to enhanced features and an integrated work environment.
- No Pricing Changes Until the First Renewal After Migration: To make the transition as smooth as possible, prices for existing Jira Work Management customers will not change until the first renewal after migration.
- Renewals Follow Jira Pricing Structure: After the migration, subscriptions will follow the Jira pricing structure. To reward customer loyalty, they will automatically receive a 10% discount on their Jira subscription for 12 months after migration.
- Several months before the automatic migrations, Jira Work Management customers will be provided with more detailed information to ensure they are fully prepared for the transition.
More AI in Jira
Atlassian is also introducing a range of new AI-based tools in Jira to facilitate this type of collaboration. These include:
- AI Work Breakdown: Helps teams automatically break down their epics into individual issues (or issues into sub-tasks).
- Issue Comment Summaries: Soon to be available in Confluence as well.
- Natural Language JQL Queries: Enables users to formulate Jira Query Language (JQL) queries in natural language.
With the merger of Jira Software and Jira Work Management, Atlassian creates an even better working environment - seamless, efficient, and integrative. This innovation promises to fundamentally change the way teams work together. It provides a platform that is not only powerful and flexible, but also fosters collaboration across functional boundaries.
If you have questions about your subscription, please contact us, and we will go through everything with you.