How To Set up a Jira-Azure DevOps Integration in Minutes (2 Methods)

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Published in Software Development on 15/06/2024.

Your software development team barely looks up from Azure DevOps so they can get all their work done. That makes things difficult for team leads and other stakeholders who need regular updates on software projects but only work in Jira. That’s where a Jira-Azure DevOps integration comes in.

Here are two ways you can make this happen.

Method 1: Use the Azure DevOps for Jira Marketplace app

The team at Atlassian built an app specifically for syncing data from Azure DevOps to Jira. You can find it on the Jira marketplace here. With a little bit of technical know-how, developers in Azure DevOps will be able to push data from that tool to Jira, giving leaders more visibility on their software projects.

Let’s go through setting this app up and using it with your Jira projects.

Step 1: Install the Azure DevOps for Jira app

You can either follow the link above to get the Azure DevOps for Jira app or get to it from your Jira projects by following these steps:

1. Hit Apps in your Jira project then Explore more apps.
2. You’ll get a search bar. Search for Azure DevOps for Jira. Make sure to pick the one with “Official” in the name, since there are a few apps on the marketplace with a similar name.
3. Hit Get app then Get it now.
4. After installing the app, hit Configure now.

Step 2: Connect Azure DevOps to Jira

Before you can start using this integration, you’ll need to configure your Azure DevOps account so it can connect to Jira properly.

1. Sign in to your Microsoft account and accept the necessary permissions.
2. Hit Continue on the configuration screen.
3. In the new tab that opens, enter the credentials for the Azure DevOps account you’ll connect to Jira.
4. On the next screen, hit Accept.
5. Hit Connect for any of the organizations you want to connect to Jira.

Step 3: Set up OAuth in Azure DevOps

OAuth is an authorization method that lets third-party apps interact with your Azure DevOps data. It’s essential to set up before this integration can work. You’ll get a pop-up in Jira that tells you when this needs to get set up. Here’s how to do it.

1. In the pop-up, hit Go to Azure DevOps.
2. Go to your organization settings, hit Security, then Policies.
3. Find the Application connection policies header and toggle on Third-party application access via OAuth and SSH authentification.

Congrats! You’ve done everything you need to integrate Azure DevOps with Jira. Now let’s quickly cover some of actions your developers can take to push data form Azure DevOps to Jira.

Step 3: Trigger integration events in Azure DevOps

Since this integration is a little more technical, your developers will have to take manual action in Azure DevOps to push data over to Jira. Here are some of the things your team can do to trigger an integration event:

• Set up a CI/CD pipeline using deployment jobs or the classic release pipeline.
• Link deployment events to Jira by including Jira issue keys.

Limitations of this method

This integration is a great way to start pushing data from Azure DevOps to Jira, but is it necessarily the best one for your organization? Let’s go over a few reasons why that might not be the case.

It’s technical

While setting up the integration itself isn’t too complex, actually getting your data to go from work in your Azure DevOps workspace to your Jira issues can be. Developers need to take active, technical actions in Azure DevOps to move that data over. Your head of marketing isn’t going to set this up.

It only covers Jira and Azure DevOps:

This integration is perfectly suited to managing workflows that rely on these two tools, but that’s it. You’ll need other integration platforms to sync data between the rest of your tool stack.

It’s one-way only

This integration really only serves one purpose. It allows your developers to push data from Azure DevOps to your Jira issues, giving product managers, team leads, and other stakeholders more visibility into that work. You can’t get Jira data into Azure DevOps with this method.

So with these limitations in mind, what are some of your other options?

Method 2: Use Unito’s Jira-Azure DevOps integration

Unito is an integration platform with native 2-way syncing that offers deep integrations with some of the most powerful SaaS tools on the market, like Jira and Azure DevOps. But you can sync other tools too, from spreadsheets in Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel to project management tools like Asana, Jira, and Trello.

Here’s why Unito is the best way to sync Jira issues with data from Azure DevOps.

Anyone can use it

Unito is a no-code solution, and most users don’t have a technical background. That means anyone from a team lead to a project manager can set up a Unito flow to sync data between these tools. No specialized training necessary.

It integrates over 40 tools

While the Azure DevOps for Jira app is great for pairing these tools, it doesn’t support any others. With Unito, you can get integrations for more than 40 tools, including spreadsheets, project management apps, databases, and more.

It’s two-way

Unito is a two-way sync tool by default, meaning you can get updates in both Azure DevOps and Jira. You’ll also see new work items created automatically in one tool when you manually create them in the other. This keeps all your work in sync everywhere, with no extra work required.

Here’s how easy it is to set up your first Unito flow.

Step 1: Connect your tools

First, connect your tools. In this case, we’d be connecting a Jira project to an Azure DevOps project.

Step 2: Pick flow direction

This will determine if new work items are automatically created in just one tool or both. It’s where Unito stands out as an integration solution because users can select either a one-way or 2-way syncing.

Step 3: Build rules

Maybe you don’t want absolutely every item syncing over to the other tool. That’s perfectly fine. You can choose to filter issues based on their assignee, their state, their story point, and more.

Step 4: Map your fields

Unito supports most field types so no details are missed. You can have Unito map these automatically or fine-tune them yourself.

And that’s it! You’re ready to launch. Your Jira and Azure DevOps projects wil be in sync, saving you manual work and licenses.