Connect to a Jira data source - Amazon Managed Grafana
Known limitationsAdding the data sourceQuery the Jira data sourceTime series queryTemplates and variablesUsing transformations from Grafana to answer common questionsGet the most out of the data source

Connect to a Jira data source

Get the whole picture of your development process by combining issue data from Jira with application performance data from other sources.

Note

This data source is for Grafana Enterprise only. For more information, see Manage access to Enterprise plugins.

Additionally, in workspaces that support version 9 or newer, this data source might require you to install the appropriate plugin. For more information, see Extend your workspace with plugins.

  • Create annotations based on issue creation or resolution, to see the relationship between issues and metrics.

  • Track detailed Jira stats, such as mean time to resolution and issue throughput.

In order to use the Jira data source, you need an Atlassian account with access to a Jira project.

Known limitations

Custom field types from Jira addons might not be supported.

Adding the data source

  1. Open the Grafana console in the Amazon Managed Grafana workspace and make sure you are logged in.

  2. In the side menu under Configuration (the gear icon), choose Data Sources.

  3. Choose Add data source.

    Note

    If you don't see the Data Sources link in your side menu, it means that your current user does not have the Admin role.

  4. Select Jira from the list of data sources.

  5. Enter the following information:

    • For Name, enter a name for this Jira data source.

    • For URL, enter the root URL for your Atlassian instance, such as https://bletchleypark.atlassian.net.

    • For User, enter an email address for the user/service account.

    • For API token, enter an API token generated for the user.

Query the Jira data source

From the Jira Query Editor you can select fields and query issues.

The Jira data source queries Jira for issues, which can represent bugs, user stories, support tickets, or other tasks in Jira

Filter and view issues

  1. Choose Fields choose the dropdown and use type-ahead to select from any of the fields in your Jira instance, including custom fields. Some fields to try:

    • Summary— The name of the issue

    • Epic Name— The epis that an issue belongs to

    • Story Point Estimate— The number of story points that the team has estimated for an issue

  2. Filter or sort the issues. To do so, enter any valid JQL expression to filter or sort the issues based on any of their fields such as Project, Assignee, or Sprint with the Atlassian query language JQL.

From here, you can display your data in a table or use Grafana transformations to manipulate that issue data, run calculations, or turn the data into a time series graph. For more information, see Applying a transformation.

Time series query

To show time series data, choose a Date field along with a numeric field, then switch to graph visualization. For example: Sprint Start Date, Story point estimate.

The preceding example, on its own, is not very useful. The numeric field can be (and will most likely be) calculated from Transformations. Using the Group By Transformation would allow grouping by Sprint Start Date and summarizing the Story point estimate allowing a visualization of Story Points over time per Sprint. For more information about transformations, see Applying a transformation.

Templates and variables

To add a new Jira query variable, see Adding a query variable. Use your Jira data source as the data source.

You can define variables on your dashboards and reference them in JQL expressions. For example, you can create a project status dashboard and choose between projects, or an epic status dashboard and choose different epics, or a task status dashboard and choose different assignees.

To get a dynamic list of projects, epics, assignees, and so on to choose from, create a Query type variable. Query type variables use JQL to query issues and return Projects, Epics, Assignees, or anything related to issues. The following is an example:

Create an Assignee variable to get the status of issues by Assignee

  1. Add a variable of type Query named assignee.

  2. Select Field: Assignee.

  3. )Optional) Add a JQL filter project = 'your project'.

  4. Choose Run to see a list of Assignees.

  5. Choose Update to add the variable to the dashboard.

  6. Add a new panel to the dashboard and edit the JQL to filter using your new variable assignee = $assignee.

    Now, when choosing from the dropdown, you see only the issues assigned to that user.

Multi-value variables allow selecting multiple options and can be used as part of the IN clause. For example, assignee IN ($assignee).

Using transformations from Grafana to answer common questions

Macros are variables that reference the Dashboard time window so you can filter issues only within the range of the Dashboard window. There are 2 macros:

  • $__timeFrom

  • $__timeTo.

The following example JQL query filters issues created within the dashboard time window: createdDate >= $__timeFrom AND createdDate <= $__timeTo

Get the most out of the data source

Using Grafana's transformations and other built-in features can help you meaningly view your Jira data.

Using transformations to augment JQL

While there are many Transformations in Grafana to choose from, the following provide a powerful augmentation to give JQL some of the features/power of SQL.

Group By This transformation provides a key feature that is not part of the standard Jira JQL syntax: Grouping. Using the Group By transformation, you can group by Sprints or other Issue fields, and aggregate by group to get metrics like velocity and story point estimates vs actual completed in a Sprint.

Outer Join Similar to SQL joins, you can join 2 or more queries together by common fields. This provides a way to combine datasets from queries and use other transformations to calculate values from multiple queries/datasets.

Add Field from Calculation Similar to SQL expressions, this transformation allows adding new fields to your dataset based on calculations of other fields. The fields used in the calculation can be from a single query or from queries you've joined together. You can also chain together calculations and perform calculations from calculated fields.

Using transformations from Grafana to answer common questions

You can use Transformations to visualize, aggregate, group, and join datasets, along with many other types of transformations to transform simple results into answers for complex questions.

How do I show Velocity per Sprint?

  1. Select Fields: Sprint Name, Story point estimate.

  2. Add a JQL filter: project = "Your Project" AND type != epic AND status = done order by created ASC

  3. Add a Group By transformation:

    • Sprint Name | Group By

    • Story Point Estimate | Calculate | Total

  4. Choose the Bar Gauage visualization.

How do I show what was Completed vs Estimated in a Sprint?

  1. Add a query. First, select Fields: Sprint Name, Sprint Start Date,, Story point estimate.

    Then add a JQL filter: project = 'Your Project' AND type != epic

  2. Add a second query. First, select Fields: Sprint Name, Sprint Start Date,, Story point estimate.

    Then add a JQL filter: project = 'Your Project' AND type != epic AND status = done

  3. Add a Group By transformation:

    • Sprint Name | Group By

    • Sprint Start Date | Group By

    • Story Point Estimate | Calculate | Total

  4. Choose the Graph visualization.

What is the Average time to complete issues in my project?

  1. Add a query. First, select Fields: Created, Status Category Changed.

    Then add a JQL filter: project = 'Your Project' AND type != epic AND status = done

  2. Add a transformation: Add field from calculation

    • Mode = Reduce Row

    • Calculation = Difference

  3. Add a transformation: Add field from calculation

    • Mode = Binary Operation

    • Operation = Difference / 86000000

    • Alias = Days

  4. Add a transformation: Organize fields

    • Hide Different field

  5. Add a transformation: Filter data by values

    • Filter Type = Include

    • conditions = Match any

      • Field = Days | Match = Is Greater | Value = 1

  6. Add a transformation: Reduce

    • Mode = Series to Rows

    • Calculations = mean

  7. Choose the Stat visualization.