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> It generates amazing reports, fantastic predictions, fancy charts, great managerial tooling, makes imposing processes easier, has robust integrations, etc.,

by voidr 4y ago

> It generates amazing reports, fantastic predictions, fancy charts, great managerial tooling, makes imposing processes easier, has robust integrations, etc., and that’s why most managers I’ve spoken to really enjoy Jira, while on-the-floor engineers either range from fiery-eyed hate to toleration. You kinda need to impose process for large projects, and know where you are. The engineers are free to show a better tool for the job. > I think Jira does a good job of making teams look much busier than they are, but in the end I see it more as a “talk more not do more” situation. It does not make teams looks busier, it shows that teams are a lot busier in reality, which is valuable information. > The Alternative > Although a potential downside to Linear is that it is built explicitly for engineers, thus may not be suitable for other teams such as marketing, design, etc. And this is why engineers will never build any viable alternative to Jira, because there is this us vs. them mentality. Issue management tools need to work for the whole organisation, that's why Jira is still the gold standard. > If you’ve given Linear a try, but it just doesn’t work for you, some viable alternatives include GitHub Issues, Asana, ClickUp, YouTrack, Trello, Pivotal Tracker, and monday.com. None of these are viable in larger organisations, they are fine for small projects, but you would have a lot of trouble with them in an enterprise context. Jira's web UI can be very annoying, however an alternative to Jira would need to be at least as customisable and familiar as Jira, otherwise no large team will ever adopt it.

ridafkih 4y ago
Author here, for the record, I never said the problem was the imposition of processes, I know that is totally necessary, and was listing great "pluses" to Jira as a management tool. Something I think I could have iterated better in the blog post was that I believe Jira--even without all the bureaucratic processes it promotes--panders solely to higher-level management with zero regard for the ones interfacing with it: the engineers. That's the big issue I see. I think Linear--by stripping away all the hullabaloo--continues to provide management good insight on team progress without abandoning the ones who actually use it on a daily basis. I'm really hoping Linear continues to step up to the plate and manages to take on some of the features that make Jira a more attractive piece of software for a lot of people that are familiar with it veering Linear away from its great UI, speed, etc. However, I wonder how many people are actually picking Jira based on its merits rather than it just being what they're accustomed/used to, or simply not knowing there are other options out there.
- voidr 4y ago
  I feel that the main issue with Jira is that it is a victim of its own success the same way Windows was, when it was built it fulfilled the needs of the time, however time did not stand still and instead of refining what they had, they kept on adding to it without changing its fundamentals. I think we both agree that in the age of VSCode: it is unacceptable for 30+ billion dollar company to have such a sluggish web UI. I'm an engineer and I actually feel that Jira fails me because it's not flexible enough, some examples include: - issues cannot have more than one assignee - projects cannot have multiple releasable items / components - poor Bitbucket integration > However, I wonder how many people are actually picking Jira based on its merits rather than it just being what they're accustomed/used to, or simply not knowing there are other options out there. I pick it still because most people will understand how it works and I am able to customise it the most to fit everyone's needs more than all the other tools out there.

by voidr 4y ago

ridafkih 4y ago

Author here, for the record, I never said the problem was the imposition of processes, I know that is totally necessary, and was listing great "pluses" to Jira as a management tool. Something I think I could have iterated better in the blog post was that I believe Jira--even without all the bureaucratic processes it promotes--panders solely to higher-level management with zero regard for the ones interfacing with it: the engineers. That's the big issue I see. I think Linear--by stripping away all the hullabaloo--continues to provide management good insight on team progress without abandoning the ones who actually use it on a daily basis. I'm really hoping Linear continues to step up to the plate and manages to take on some of the features that make Jira a more attractive piece of software for a lot of people that are familiar with it veering Linear away from its great UI, speed, etc. However, I wonder how many people are actually picking Jira based on its merits rather than it just being what they're accustomed/used to, or simply not knowing there are other options out there.

voidr 4y ago
I feel that the main issue with Jira is that it is a victim of its own success the same way Windows was, when it was built it fulfilled the needs of the time, however time did not stand still and instead of refining what they had, they kept on adding to it without changing its fundamentals. I think we both agree that in the age of VSCode: it is unacceptable for 30+ billion dollar company to have such a sluggish web UI. I'm an engineer and I actually feel that Jira fails me because it's not flexible enough, some examples include: - issues cannot have more than one assignee - projects cannot have multiple releasable items / components - poor Bitbucket integration > However, I wonder how many people are actually picking Jira based on its merits rather than it just being what they're accustomed/used to, or simply not knowing there are other options out there. I pick it still because most people will understand how it works and I am able to customise it the most to fit everyone's needs more than all the other tools out there.