Project reporting for Jira Cloud with Projectrak

Having a software tool that offers accessibility to project reports is a useful resource. Especially for those who need greater visibility of the teamwork evolution, or for a team member who needs to get an overview of team projects development, in any case, users with access to the Jira Cloud dashboards could have this type of visibility. In this post, we will show you which type of project information and project statistics you can display with Projectrak for Jira Cloud gadgets.

Usually, managers, project managers, and/or Product Managers are the profiles interested in having the big picture of the work, to obtain reports and statistics; and projects are the unit of measure that best suits for this type of visibility. Obtaining reports in Jira Cloud at the project level allows grouping information in a general way, and at the same time, allows to dig deeper (at the task level, in the case of Jira) as much as necessary, if needed (learn how to import project information from Jira to Power BI).

Learn how to get the list with all the project historical changes with Projectrak >>

For these reasons, the Projectrak Cloud team works on developing mechanisms to generate project reports, in addition to other features (those of major relevance to users), with the vision of achieving feature parity with those that already exist in the Projectrak Data Center version.

Before explaining how you can get project information in the Jira Cloud dashboards, with Projectrak gadgets, let's review some concepts:

1. The Atlassian Marketplace apps: The Atlassian Marketplace is the place to find additional and specific solutions (Atlassian apps) for the Atlassian product you're using. There you can find solutions of all kinds, from project management solutions, to monitoring information, export issues, and more.
   
   
2. Gadgets: They're small pieces of functionality that provide dynamic content and fit the needs of reporting on some aspect of the information stored in your Jira instance and can be inserted into a Jira dashboard.
   
   
3. Jira Dashboards: It's a type of view offered by Jira and allows you to organize the information you need, inserting gadgets (either native or from Marketplace apps) in a way that allows you to track multiple projects (in this case) and tasks in a single place.

Projectrak Gadgets to track projects in Jira Cloud

If you are a Jira user, you are probably already familiar with Jira's default Gadgets and Dashboards, otherwise, we have already explained it to you before. The purpose of these elements will allow you to closely observe the development of your issues, and in the case of the Gadgets that Projectrak incorporates, that of your projects.

Projectrak Data Center version includes five different types of Gadgets, and the Cloud version, includes (so far), two of the most used by the users of the app: the "Two-Dimensional Gadget" and the "Pie Chart Gadget". We're going to tell you more about them below:

1. The Two-Dimensional gadget

The Two-Dimensional gadget allows you to group project information on two axes, and calculate the totals for each combination of values you choose. For example, in the image we can see that the graph indicates that we have 5 projects in progress ("On Track") with a "Medium" priority:

How does the Two-Dimensional gadget work?

First of all, make sure you've editing permissions in the Jira Dashboard you're working with. That's, where you are allowed to add a new gadget. In this case, search in the Jira gadget directory for the Projectrak gadget "Two-dimensional project statistic", select it:

Once added to the Jira Dashboard, you have to configure it. To do this, you will be able to configure the PQL query with the project information you want to view and the fields you want to illustrate on each axis:

Once you have configured the Gadget, you will see the final result, similar to the table with the fields defined in each axis and the total projects where there is the combination of values you were probably looking for that we showed you at the beginning. Now you can start analyzing the report!

3 Projectrak's Two-Dimensional gadget for Jira Cloud benefits

Projectrak users need reports and that is why we offer these Gadgets, in addition to the possibility to integrate with other reporting apps such as eazyBI, Custom Charts, Dashboard Hub, or Power BI connectors. Here are some of the benefits offered by some of the uses of this gadget:

1. It allows knowing which are the highest priority projects that need immediate attention.
2. They provide insight into the workload of the project managers using the user type field.
3. It allows identifying at a glance which projects have a status that may put others or the project itself at risk.

2. The Pie chart gadget

This gadget allows you to categorize the projects based on a project field, calculating how many projects exist in each of the values.

How does the Pie Chart gadget work?

To begin with, make sure that you are in a Jira Dashboard with editing permissions. That's one that allows you to add a new gadget. In this case, you will look in the Jira gadget directory for the Projectrak gadget, the "Pie Chart Gadget", and select it:

Configure the PQL query with the projects you want to query and the field you want to categorize them by:

Once the gadget is configured, you will see a graph, like the one shown at the beginning, in which the circle is divided into portions according to the number of projects, by value. You can also see a table with the number of projects and their percentage according to the value of each one. It is also possible to see the total number of projects according to the query (PQL) and from each value, you can access the results, in detail, in the Project Navigator. It is now possible to analyze the project report and draw appropriate conclusions!

3 Projectrak's Pie chart for Jira Cloud benefits

The following, are a few use cases and benefits they could offer. Projectrak users need reports, and Jira's gadgets and those offered by Projectrak, are an easy way to analyze the status of your projects.

1. Discover the workload of project managers.
2. Get an overview of the projects that will finish soon, even those with overlapping dates.
3. Know at a glance, the status of your project portfolio.

Once you have analyzed your needs and know the gadgets you might need and the information you want to display, remember that you can get a complete dashboard with the gadgets that will help you track your projects in Jira Cloud, like the one you can see below:

Either if you are looking to create a Jira dashboard to meet business intelligence needs or to easily move the information to another tool, or you are looking for more advanced reporting options, Projectrak is also integrated with several tools that can help you get the most out of your project information with eazyBI, Custom Charts, Dashboard Hub and more, which will certainly help you achieve your goals.