Integrate Jira

Relevant products:

• Optimizely Web Experimentation
• Optimizely Full Stack
• Optimizely Program Management

Many Optimizely Web Experimentation customers also manage the development of features and experiments within Jira. This integration allows users to connect their Optimizely Web Experimentation and Jira workflows without unnecessary duplication of effort by linking Jira issues to Optimizely Web Experimentation, Optimizely Feature Experimentation, and Program Management products. Natively link Optimizely experiments, personalization campaigns, feature flags and rollouts, and Program Management ideas to Jira issues. Then track their status directly from the relevant Jira ticket.

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Note

Optimizely Performance Edge is a lightweight experimentation product that delivers significantly faster performance than previous versions of Optimizely Web Experimentation. It does this by relying on a streamlined "microsnippet" which limits the range of available features.

Optimizely Performance Edge and Optimizely Web Experimentation integrate with Jira the same way, so all information contained in this article applies to experiments created with either version of Optimizely Web Experimentation.

You can also integrate Jira with Optimizely Full Stack. See our developer documentation for more details.

This integration is only available on the Jira Cloud platform, and not on Server.

Set up Optimizely Web Experimentation for Jira app

Setting up your Jira application (app, sometimes called add-on or integration) is a three-step process:

1. Install the Optimizely for Jira integration from the Atlassian marketplace on the Jira instance. You will only have to do this once per Jira account.

2. Enable the Jira integration on each Optimizely project where you want the integration to be available.

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   Note

   For Program Management, you can either enable the Jira integration on at least one Optimizely Web or Full Stack project, or you can OAuth directly from Program Management itself. If you choose the latter, whenever you authorize a Program Management team, you also authorize all projects tied to that team.

3. Connect the Optimizely Web Experimentation and Jira accounts of each user who will use the integration.

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   Note

   Enable the Jira integration separately for each individual Optimizely project, but you only install the Atlassian marketplace app once for each Jira instance.

Configure the app in Jira

Configure this app before you use it. Your Jira administrator will have the appropriate credentials to do this.

1. Log in to your Jira instance as an administrator.
2. Install the Optimizely for Jira add-on by clicking the admin dropdown and choosing Add-ons (app).

Enable the app

1. Login to Optimizely Web Experimentation as an administrator or project owner in the Optimizely project where you want to use the integration.
2. Go to Settings in the left menu bar and click the Integrations tab at the top of the page.
3. Find and click Jira in the list of partners.
4. In the panel that appears on the right, toggle the switch to On.

5. Click Connect to Jira. This initiates the OAuth process. An Atlassian OAuth page appears. 
6. Select the Jira tenant URL you wish to authenticate (e.g., company.atlassian.net), and click Approve.
7. Back in Optimizely, in the right panel under Integration Details > Settings, click Edit and select the same Jira tenant URL you just authenticated.

8. Click Save. Your Optimizely Web Experimentation project and your Jira instance are now connected.

Connect users' Optimizely and Jira accounts

Now that the integration is set up, other users will be asked to authenticate their accounts with Jira in order to link actions to the specific user who performed them. Users only need to authenticate once in an account, but the integration must be turned on in each project individually. This ensures the appropriate Jira URL is associated to each Optimizely project.

Link an experiment, feature, or idea to a Jira issue

1. If you are using Optimizely Web Experimentation or Optimizely Feature Experimentation, find the experiment, feature, or idea you wish to link to a Jira issue and click ... at the far right-hand side. From the drop-down list, select Link Issue...

If you are using Program Management, find the idea you wish to link to a Jira issue and click ... at the far right-hand side. From the drop-down list, select Link Issue...

2. The Link Jira Issue window appears. A list of recently-viewed Jira issues will be visible at the bottom. If the relevant issue is not listed there, enter the Jira issue key in the search field and click Search.
3. Click Save and Link Issue.

View Optimizely Web Experimentation information in Jira

The Optimizely Web Experimentation for Jira integration is visible to Jira users in your organization, whether they have access to Optimizely or not.

To find the Optimizely Web Experimentation information within a Jira ticket, open the ticket and scroll down the right side until you see the Optimizely logo (for experiments and ideas) or the word "Releases” (for feature flags).

To see more information about an experiment or idea: 

1. From within the Jira ticket, click either Open Optimizely or Releases, whichever is visible to you.
2. In the right-hand sidebar, click on either the Experiments or Ideas tab to display a list of linked experiments or ideas.

3. Click on the experiment or idea you want to view. Jira will display a summary of that experiment or idea.

For experiments, Jira users can see:

• Experiment type

• Status

• Date last modified

• Days running

• Experiment visitors

• Audiences

• Metrics

• Variation details

For ideas, Jira users can see:

• Score

• Owner

• Stage

• Site and touchpoint

• Hypothesis

• Linked experiment

For feature flags, the integration includes the name of the feature and its current status. Hovering over the flag status displays the current percentage of roll-out for the feature. Clicking on the feature name opens it directly in Optimizely.

Unlink an experiment, feature, or idea from a Jira issue

1. Find the feature you wish to unlink and hover over the Jira ticket link. In the callout that appears, click Unlink.

2. If you are sure you want to unlink the Jira issue from the feature, click Unlink Jira Issue.

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Note

When you link or unlink an issue, that should be reflected immediately in both Optimizely and Jira.

Disconnect a user account

To remove user-level authentication between Optimizely Web Experimentation and Jira, follow these steps:

1. Go to the experimentation portal.
2. Log in to Optimizely Web Experimentation as the user whose authentication is to be removed.
3. From the Experimentation platform, go to Settings > Integrations.
4. Find and click on Jira in the list of integration partners.
5. In the panel that appears on the right, click Disconnect (next to the user avatar) and follow the instructions.

Troubleshoot issues 

The integration is not visible from inside Jira

If you have manually selected to use the old view in Jira, you will not be able to take advantage of this integration: you will have to enable the new Jira issue view in Jira. This will make visible the Releases section in each of your Jira issues.

1. Within Jira, click your profile avatar in the lower-left corner and select Personal settings.
2. Toggle the switch for the new Jira issue view.

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Note

If Personal settings is not listed as an option when you click your avatar, you can find the toggle switch under Profile instead.

To learn more about the new Jira issue view, see what is the issue view?

Verify your integration is functioning properly

There are two ways to verify your integration is working as expected. Go to Setting > Integrations and find the project integration settings for Jira. These should indicate that integration is switched on and connected with a Jira tenant URL.

Alternately, if you see the option to link or unlink Jira issues to feature flags in the Experiments, Ideas or Features dashboards, your integration is working correctly.

If it turns out that your integration is not working as expected, make sure your Jira administrator has installed the Optimizely Web Experimentation for Jira add-on before trying to authenticate from Optimizely Web Experimentation. Add this on the Jira side before making any authentication attempts.

Sometimes, the project settings show that Jira integration is enabled, but the option to link issues from the Experiments, Ideas or Features dashboards is not available. This means the user has not been properly authenticated. On the Atlassian oAuth page, be sure to select the same Jira tenant URL that is listed in the Optimizely Web Experimentation project settings.

If you cannot see the Releases section on the right side of your Jira issues, first make sure that New Jira Issue View is switched on in your Jira profile settings. If that does not work, check with your Jira administrator that the Optimizely for Jira app is installed in your Jira instance.

A Jira issue does not show up in Search

Possible reasons for this: 

• The issue does not exist or was moved to a different project and has a new key
• Project integration settings does not have the Jira tenant URL that contains the issue
• The user OAuth failed

Feature flag module is not visible inside of Jira

This is likely because you have not enabled the new Jira view.