Workfront and Jira

[SanaPE]

Hello! Anyone using the WF/Jira integration? We are looking into this integration and wanted to get some feedback-- Pros/Cons ,pain points, wishlist, etc. Thanks! Sana Perry National Heritage Academies, Inc.

[VickyFi]

Hi Sana, This is also something we soon hope to look into, so will be interested to hear others users experiences. Thanks, Vicky. Vicky Fitzgerald Telegraph Media Group Limited

[AmandaLe1]

@Anna Dreyser @Meghan Sargent A few system admins at our company are also interested in a Jira integration. Would be interested in hearing feedback. Thanks! Amanda Levine Liberty Mutual Insurance Company

[AnthonyIm]

Hi - Unfortunately we could not use it. Our Workfront is integrated with our financial system (SAP) and stores email address in all caps. Because Workfront is case sensitive (unlike any other software tool in the world), all of our users were being duplicated as JIRA only stores email addresses in all lower-case. So we had to stop that super fast. Anthony Imgrund FCB

[SteveKe1]

I've only just begun testing the integration. At first glance it looks like Workfront Projects, Tasks & Sub-Tasks can only be passed "Issues" to the JIRA instance. This limits what we can do as our set-up within JIRA is to have projects opened as "Epics" and then the required creative assets within the Epic are opened as Issues and assigned. I've not yet been able to figure out if Workfront can open an Epic within JIRA. But again, I've only run a few tests at this point. I would say a pain point right now is a lack of available training or FAQ documents regarding the integration. Steve Kerwin iRobot Corporation

[AnnaGr1]

Hi Steve, You definitely should be able to create new Epics with the Jira connector, it's part of the "https://support.workfront.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005148073-Configuring-the-Workfront-Add-On-for-Jira" configuration . Would love to hear what type of training you would like to get on this or FAQ? We are hoping that the documentation is covering all of the details but if we can improve this would be great. Looking forward to your feedback. Anna ANNA GRIGORYAN Group Product Manager Workfront

[feleqyan]

Hi Anthony. I'm the product manager over Jira integration. The issue with duplicate users will be fixed very soon with our next update, so stay tuned! And thanks for actively engaging into communication about our integrations! Hayk Falakyan Workfront

[JamieHi]

Hi @Anna Grigoryan , What would an "Epic" in Jira match to in the existing terminology used by Workfront? Thank you, Jamie Jamie Hill JLL EMEA

[AnnaGr1]

Hi Jamie, That would depend on your process. In most of the cases that I have seen it would be a task in Workfront that gets assigned as an Epic to a Jira Team. Let me know if you have more questions or would like to talk about this in more details. Cheers, Anna ANNA GRIGORYAN Group Product Manager Workfront

[DavidCo3]

We're going to be integrating to Jira soon. Our preference is to use the existing integration as long as it suits functionality-wise. Otherwise we would likely use Fusion to build it if our requirements are more custom. Will loop back here if any other questions. Cheers David Cornwell

[JamieHi]

@Hayk Falakyan - do you have an ETA on the 2-way native integration? Jamie Hill JLL EMEA

[feleqyan]

Jamie, it's not on our roadmap, yet. Hayk Falakyan Workfront

[GregTr1]

@Hayk Falakyan - We are beginning the process of testing the integration in our Jira dev environment. How exactly will the Workfront Custom Data fields interact with Jira? Do new Jira data fields get created or do we manually map Workfront fields to Jira fields? I'm not seeing a way to configure the latter. Greg Troester CHG Healthcare Services, Inc.

[feleqyan]

Hi Greg. Workfront's custom fields do not get directly synced with any Jira fields. The add-in just shows Workfront's custom forms at the right side of your linked Jira tickets. So it's more of a read-only approach. The add-on cannot actually add/create any new fields in your Jira instance, it just uses the existing default ones. The only fields/data that can be synced with Workfront's original tasks are: Name Description Attachments Due date Status Assignee Comments Please let me know if you have more questions or feedback. Hayk Falakyan Workfront

[GregTr1]

Thanks for the fast reply, @Hayk Falakyan ! What does the roadmap look like for this integration? Any expansion of field sync on the horizon? Other features? Again - thanks for the great support on this thread. Greg Troester CHG Healthcare Services, Inc.

[feleqyan]

Anytime, Greg. Synchronization of more fields (especially custom ones) is not on our roadmap, yet. Most probably, the next step will be a better support of Jira epics. I'm researching now how we can link a Workfront project to a Jira epic. This could mean: Automatically creating a new issue in Jira epic whenever a new task is added to Workfront project; Syncing WBS, i.e. syncing not only WF tasks and Jira issues, but also subtasks; Automatically creating Jira epics based on Workfront project; Other functionality? Again, this is still in the early stages of research. But if this makes sense to you and you want to discuss it in more details, just let me know, I'd love to hear your take on this. Hayk Falakyan Workfront

[MelindaLa1]

Don't forget that Fusion and other API integration tools can be used to build advanced Workflow solutions. Native Integrations are focused on providing a bridge to begin your integration journey.

[GregTr1]

Thanks Hayk - that makes sense. I'm looking forward to testing the integration to see if it will serve our purposes. We are considering a purchased integration solution, but it may not be necessary thanks to this feature. Good to hear about Epics and task/subtask relationships being on the roadmap! I think you've answered all of my questions, but I may take you up on a chat session after using this feature for some time, if that's the direction we go! @Melinda Layten - yes, I agree that we may need to pay for the more advanced functionality. We may not have the ROI or scale necessary to justify even a single-connector solution through a third-party - right now we are only needing to connect to one team moving back to JIRA from Workfront (web development). Ideally, we will be able to be a proof-of-concept that Workfront can be a better roadmapping/reporting tool that can feed work in multiple systems across multiple teams - if we get to that point, I can see multiple-connection solutions becoming justifiable. Fingers crossed! Greg Troester CHG Healthcare Services, Inc.

[feleqyan]

I'll be happy to help, Greg. "https://calendly.com/haykfalakyan/workfront-jira-integration">Here's my Calendly link to book a 30 min. call with me, just pick any time that works for you. Hayk Falakyan Workfront

[GregTr1]

We've attempted setup, @Hayk Falakyan and do have some questions. I've set up time with you for Thursday. Thank you! Greg Troester CHG Healthcare Services, Inc.