Streamline Your Workflow: How to Integrate Jira and Azure DevOps in a Few Steps

Software makes life easier, but when your teams use different tools and platforms like Jira and Azure DevOps, getting them connected is tough. Each team stores useful data in their platform of choice, but sharing it with others is hard to do.

A software integration can change that. You can exchange items, and synchronize data automatically, saving time and effort.

With the right integration, you’re in full control of what’s shared. You can choose which fields are matched to others, add your own custom data, and choose what triggers data exchange.

In this article, you’ll learn how to use an integration solution called Exalate to set up a Jira Azure DevOps integration.

Integrations help teams communicate. There are many possible scenarios where sharing data can benefit you.

Here are some examples.

In House and External Developers
If you have a team of in-house developers managing projects in Azure DevOps, then they may have trouble communicating with external teams. An external team using Jira will store project information differently. An integration can keep both platforms' data in sync, enabling fast, efficient collaboration.

Engineers and Marketing
Engineers store lots of data that other teams can use. For example, a marketing team wants to know about the latest product features. If developers use Azure DevOps, an integration can deliver their data to other departments running Jira. That way the different parts of your company can work together to build the project customers need.

Let’s see how easy it is to set up Exalate.

First, you need to install it on both platforms, then connect them. After that, you can configure it to do what you want.

Then follow the instructions to activate your free trial.

You can also install Exalate via your Jira instance by navigating to “apps” in the cog at the upper right of your screen.

Exalate’s documentation contains detailed instructions for installing Exalate on both Jira Cloud and Jira On-premise, so check those out for more help.

Exalate has an app in the Visual Studio marketplace. Click “Get” and follow the prompts to install it.

Next, select your organization and click install. Exalate is now installed. To access it, go to Organization Settings and find the Extensions.

Note: If you’re running your own server, you can install Exalate via Docker as well.

You can follow a step-by-step installation in Exalate’s documentation.

Now it’s time to connect the 2 instances. You need to initiate the connection from one side and accept it on the other. You can do this from either side since the interface is more or less the same on all platforms.

Let’s start from the Jira side.

From the Exalate menu in Jira, click “connections”, then “initiate connection”. Type the other instance URL in the popup that appears.

One important choice here is which configuration mode to use.

Basic mode sets up everything for you automatically, and lets you quickly sync issues with a minimum of fuss.

Visual mode gives you a simple interface, letting you choose what is synced. That means more control over your connection.

Script mode lets you configure each side of the connection separately, using scripts to precisely control what is shared, and when sharing happens. It’s extremely powerful, but requires some coding skill.

Choose the mode you want and click “Next”.

In Basic Mode:
Select your project, confirm you have admin access, and click “initiate”.

Note:If you don’t have admin access, follow this guide.

Go ahead and accept the invitation after this step. You’re now set to configure the sync.

In Visual Mode:
After choosing visual mode, give your connection a name and preferably a description and click “Next”.

Once again, confirm your admin access to the other side and initiate. The connection is then set up and you can configure it how you want.

In Script Mode:
Start by naming your connection like you did in Visual mode and click next.

An invitation code is generated which you should copy.

Go to “connections” on the remote side and paste the code in the slot. Select your project on the next screen and click “Confirm”.

Alright! You’re all set. Let’s now configure our Jira Azure DevOps integration in the Script mode.

Script mode lets you pick exactly what to synchronize on each shared item. Click the edit connection icon in the connections list to view the sync rules.

You’ll see code that decides how fields are mapped from one item to the other. You can delete any mappings you don’t want, use specific values for some fields, or use more advanced logic for complex decision making.

Learn how to configure your sync like a pro in this documentation.

It’s an extraordinarily powerful system, and one that really puts your integration to good use.

Triggers set the conditions for synchronization. You can access them by editing the connection or going to the triggers tab on the Exalate Admin Console.

If you click the “Create trigger” button, you can then set conditions in the popup that appears.
Select the entity you want to sync, apply your desired filter, and select your connection.
Don’t forget to turn on the toggle.

You can create multiple triggers for each connection, letting you handle different scenarios.

Now your integration is ready, and configured to do what you want. Sit back and relax while it does the hard work for you.

It’s worth checking up on it at first to make sure it does exactly what you need. You can also change the rules whenever you want, so as you learn more about how it works, you can refine what it does and make it even more useful!

To get the most out of your integration it’s important to think about how you use it. Here are some tips.

Control Notifications: Integrations make your system busier, as each side processes items from the other side. If you’re getting notifications on each newly created item, that can become overwhelming. If people get too many messages, they start ignoring them, making them counterproductive. Make sure to limit your notifications to those you actually need.

Document Each Connection: As you create more connections and triggers it’s easy to lose track of what they do. Choose meaningful connection names, and take advantage of the “notes” fields to explain what everything is doing, and why it’s being done. That’s a little effort that can pay dividends later.

A software integration can join the dots in your business, helping different teams work together more easily. With automatic information sharing, your teams don’t have to lift a finger. The software does the work for them.

Setting up integrations is a big challenge. You can start simple with Exalate. And if needed, the advanced integration features are relatively straightforward to set up, too.

It’s free to get started with Exalate, so book a session with one of their integration engineers.