I have the opposite experience. First of all, like any system, the data for search is as good as the data entered: if the users put in garbage, you'll have tro

I have the opposite experience. First of all, like any system, the data for search is as good as the data entered: if the users put in garbage, you'll have trouble finding things. If your users are very good about making proper titles, using appropriate labels, etc, and most importantly, fixing up (other people's) badly-entered issues when they come across them, you won't have this trouble. In fact, JQL is freaking awesome. It's really like using SQL for finding tickets. For a mildly complex example, here's the JQL I use for viewing active customer-reported bugs: type = Bug AND ("Related Support Tickets" is not EMPTY OR "Bug Reported by" = Customer) AND (status != closed OR status changed to closed after -30d) ORDER BY updated DESC JIRA has a very highly-customizable workflow, which controls how tickets of various types flow from one state to another, and includes optional things like permission restrictions, required fields at certain states, etc. This can be pretty powerful and useful, and it can also be horribly crippling. I wasn't the one that introduced JIRA, but took it over fairly quickly. At this point, I don't think we have any permission restrictions on workflow (that is: if you have access to transition issues on a project, you can do anything). The only actual restriction that springs to mind is the "fixVersion" field (which we use for targeting and then later confirming what release it's in) must not be blank when closing an issue as "fixed". We also early on identified any situations where people had to quickly transition between 2 or 3 workflow states (usually brought up during sprint retrospectives) to do something, and made a way to transition directly. I suspect most of the pain and hate comes from badly configured or even draconian rules. If you try to make it so only QA or a manager can close a ticket, you're going to cause friction. If you try to enforce fields get filled out even if you're closing as "wontfix", it will cause friction. If you also require 8 workflow transitions to get it from "new" to "closed" -- even for wontfix -- then yeah, people will rightfully hate it. One of the best and worst things about JIRA is it's very customizable. If your admin wants to make it a pain in the ass to get work done, JIRA will happily allow them to configure it that way.