Using Jira Software search to accelerate DevOps workflows

DevOps is the term that gathered the interests of Information Technology organizations over the past few years. The organizations started following the DevOps principles to enable defined processes to keep the Development and the IT Operation teams on the same page. Jira Software serves as the Single Source of Information for teams that follow the DevOps Model integrated tooling set.

Jira Software allows us to view the status of various tasks related to Software Development LifeCycle from BitBucket, GitHub, and Bamboo using the JQL Search functionality. This helps to track Releases, collaborate with various teams, plan and make decisions, and deliver quality software, on time.

JQL Search with a Development view

The native search capability of Jira software is enhanced to include the information about the Software Development activities from BitBucket. The Jira Query Language is a combination of various clauses, functions, operators that helps to filter the required set of issues. This shows the list of desired Development tasks and the status of the Code in the Bitbucket project in the basic view. The in-built issue navigator has the capability to add any field required to the columns shown in the search results. There is a column named “Development” that can be added to the search results, to view the status of Development tasks at one glance.

Advanced JQL Filters for development information

You can now search by more parameters to add information related to the Development tools to your JQL search. This gives more visibility into the status of the Development. This helps to track the status of Development, Report on various activities to ensure seamless delivery. To use this feature, the JQL query can be like

Sample JQL Query: project=”Website Services Menu” AND fixVersion = 1.1.0 AND development[pullrequests].merged > 0

Search Bitbucket development Progress

When Jira is integrated with one or more Bitbucket instances, the JQL Query String can be built with one of the following development field searches. This helps to see the status of various Commits, Pull requests, Merge in Bitbucket.

To filter issues that have branches on a linked Bitbucket instance:

fixVersion = 1.1.0 AND development[branches].all > 0

To filter issues that have pull requests declined on a linked Bitbucket instance:

fixVersion = 1.1.0 AND development[pullrequests].declined

To filter issues that have an open and/or merged pull requests on a linked Bitbucket instance or instances:

fixVersion = 1.1.0 AND development[pullrequests].status

Search Bamboo Build Progress

When Jira is integrated with one or more Bamboo instances, the JQL Query String can be built with one of the following development field searches. This helps to see the status of various Builds in Bamboo.

Filter issues that have built on a linked Bamboo:

fixVersion = 1.1.0 AND development[builds].all

Filter issues that have passed builds on a linked Bamboo:

fixVersion = 1.1.0 AND development[builds].passing

Filter issues that have successful deployments on a linked Bamboo:

fixVersion = 1.1.0 AND development[deployments].deployed

Search Crucible Reviews Status

When Jira is integrated with one or more Crucible instances, the JQL Query String can be built with one of the following development field searches. This helps to see the status of various Reviews in Crucible.

Filter issues that have open or closed reviews on a linked Crucible:

fixVersion = 1.1.0 AND development[reviews].all

Filter issues that have open reviews on a linked Crucible:

fixVersion = 1.1.0 AND development[reviews].open

Dashboards

So now, what are we going to do with the saved searches? They serve as a quick reference to the tickets and the Development status. But that’s not all that can be done with it. The filters created from this JQL search can be saved and used to create Dashboards in Jira for reporting purposes. This will serve as one-stop for the status of each task and the progress of development.

Conclusion

Jira Software can be integrated with various tools in the Atlassian Suite that helps with the development of a Software. Jira Software’s native search functionality extends to show the status of product development, builds, and reviews. The use of development properties in the JQL Advanced search makes Jira the single enhanced view of the entire Software Development Life Cycle processes.