Slack is the most popular collaboration and messaging platform for individuals and teams worldwide. Jira, on the other hand, is one of the most used project management tools. It enables teams to track issues, manage projects, and automate workflows. It would be easy, therefore, to assume that both these tools would go hand-in-hand. Teams all over the world must be using these tools together! 

The reality, however, is a little different. While most organizations have access to these tools, very few actually have an integration process to use them together. In this blog, we will try to understand the Jira-Slack Integration, the steps of the integration, its features and benefits, the challenges, and the best method to integrate the two tools.

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What Is Jira-Slack Integration?

Jira-Slack integration is a way to bring Atlassian Jira functionality into Slack, and it offers numerous features to enhance productivity and collaboration within teams. Here are some of the key features:

1. Real-Time Notifications: Receive instant updates in Slack for activities like issue creation, updates, and comments in Jira, and keep the entire team informed in real-time.

2. Customizable Alerts: Customize the type of notifications you receive in Slack based on projects, issues, and types of updates, enabling you to focus on the most relevant information.
3. Create and Update Jira Issues: Directly create new Jira tickets or update existing ones from Slack. This includes setting priorities, assigning team members, and updating statuses without leaving Slack.

4. Rich Issue Details: When a Jira issue is mentioned in Slack, rich details like summary, status, assignee, and priority are displayed, so you don’t have to switch contexts to get key information.
5. Link Previews: Get previews of Jira links shared in Slack, providing immediate insight into the issue without needing to leave the conversation.

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How to Integrate Jira with Slack?

Integrating a Slack workspace with Jira Service Management allows you to create Slack channels for Jira notifications, create Jiras from Slack, include team members in those channels to respond to new issues, update the Jira priority, and add stakeholders & comments. One can integrate Jira and Slack with the native Jira Cloud App for Slack - or with third-party integration tools like Zapier and ClearFeed. We cover each of these methods in detail below.

How to Use Jira Cloud Slack App to Integrate Slack and Jira

1. From the top left of your screen, click on Your apps and then select Slack.

2. Pick the Slack workspace and authorize the connection by clicking Allow. You’re done adding the Jira Cloud App to your Slack workspace, and both these tools can talk to each other. You will get a confirmation message in your Slack workspace.

3. To select a specific project, you can do this by going to the project, scrolling down in the left navigation bar, and clicking on Slack integration. Here, select the workspace and desired channel, and finalize the setup by clicking Connect project.

Once done, you can select the frequency of notifications, tasks you want to be notified about, and more.

If you want to be notified of a specific issue, you can do so by going to the three-dot menu option in the left corner and selecting Connect to Slack. 

Now, you can select the notification types that suit your preference.

Now, if there’s any change in the issue done within the Jira app, you will also be notified in your connected Slack channel.

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How to Use Zapier to Integrate Slack and Jira?

Compared to the native integration of Jira and Slack - Zapier allows finer-grained control over events that trigger integration flows between the two tools.This is how you can set it up in just a few minutes: 

1. From Zapier, Choose a trigger from Jira Service Management. A trigger is an event that initiates your Zap and activates the workflow. For instance, in Jira Service Management, a trigger could be "New Request." With Zapier, you can do the following:some text
   1. Automatically send messages to a Slack channel whenever there are new requests in Jira Service Management. 
   2. Send Slack private channel messages for new Jira Service Management requests.
   3. Post Slack messages for new Jira Service Management request updates.
   4. Create a new Jira Service Management request when a message is posted to a Slack channel.
   5. Create Jira Service Management requests from new Slack pushed messages.
2. Once the trigger is set up, you need to test it to ensure it is successfully set up and working as expected. Now, decide the action (action is what happens after the automation is triggered. For example, in Slack, the action could be posting a message when a new Jira issue is created.

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What Are Some Challenges of Slack-Jira Integration?

1. No two-way synchronization: While you can create a Jira ticket in Slack and assign it to a Jira project board, replies on Slack are not seamlessly replicated to comments in Jira. This creates silos of information between the two tools. 
2. Lack of custom forms: When users create a Jira issue, there's no way to present a custom form to them. Therefore, for bug reports and feature requests, you will need to message them to obtain any additional details they forgot to include.
3. Limited customization options: Zapier's trigger and action options are limited by the specific integrations available. For example, the Jira Service Management integration may not have all the triggers and actions needed for a particular workflow.

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How to Use ClearFeed to Integrate Slack and Jira

ClearFeed’s AI-powered Jira-Slack integration converts Slack channels into help desk. It allows users to manage escalations across Slack and Jira. Here are some of the key benefits:

1. One Click Issue filing: You can turn Slack messages and threads into Jira issues. Just use the 🔒emoji. ClearFeed will extract all messages in the thread, create a title and summary using AI, and file the ticket with zero manual overhead.

2. Automatic Issue Filing: ClearFeed can be configured to file Jira issues on incoming messages on Slack automatically. It will even combine consecutive related messages into the same issue where appropriate.
3. Bi-Directional Sync of Comments and Status: Unlike other integrations - ClearFeed can enable bi-directional sync of comments between Jira issues and Slack threads. It can also push important status updates from Jira back into the Slack thread for full visibility across the two systems.
4. Automatic Issue Assignment: ClearFeed has assignment policies, such as assigning to the first responder on Slack. These assignments can be reflected in the created Jira Issues to reduce the overhead of managing issues. Many engineering and operations teams store their on-call schedules in external systems like PagerDuty and OpsGenie. ClearFeed can tap into such external systems and use them to automate issue assignments and notifications.

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5. Collaborate Privately on Issues in Slack: Support and Operations personnel handling problem reports on Slack may want to have private discussions inside Slack itself. ClearFeed makes this a pleasure with Triage Channels. Exchange private comments on issue threads from the safety of ClearFeed-managed Triage Channels. Jiras can also be linked, and their Statuses can be synced as private comments.
6. GPT-powered Automated Responses: Support desks are rife with repeated or similar issues. A lot of questions can be answered from documentation or prior conversations. ClearFeed’s GPT-Powered Answers can index Documentation, Confluence, Notion, and prior Slack chats to answer common questions in Slack automatically.

5. Close all issues reported in Slack: Face it; not every report in Slack needs to be converted to an issue in Jira. However, support teams will want to make sure all requests raised in Slack are responded to and brought to closure regardless. ClearFeed tracks the status of every thread in a Slack channel, raises alerts when responses are pending, and allows users to list unresolved issues.

To learn more about our Jira-Slack Integration, check out our solution page here, or contact us today!

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FAQs about Jira-Slack Integration:

1. Is Jira-Slack Integration free?

Yes, the Jira-Slack Integration is free to use, though some advanced features may require a subscription to Jira's premium plans.

2. How do I update my Jira ticket from Slack?

To update your Jira ticket from Slack, follow these steps:

• In Slack, navigate to the channel where your Jira integration is set up.
• Use the slash command /jira followed by the action you want to perform (e.g., /jira update).
• Follow the prompts to select the ticket you want to update.
• Enter the new details or changes you wish to make.
• Confirm the update.

3. Can Slack workflow create a Jira ticket?

Yes, Slack workflows can create a Jira ticket. By integrating Jira with Slack, you can set up a workflow in Slack that includes steps to create a Jira issue. This can be done using Slack's Workflow Builder, where you add a step to create a ticket in Jira, typically involving a form where users can enter the necessary details for the Jira ticket.