Using Jira for Scrum
Industry standard for software development teams — most PMs will encounter Jira in their career. When combined with Scrum, this makes Jira a strong candidate for teams who want a structured, repeatable workflow without sacrificing flexibility. Scrum works best in Jira when you leverage its sprint planning, backlog management to implement the framework's key practices directly in the tool your team already lives in.
Scrum structures work into fixed-length sprints (typically 2 weeks) with defined ceremonies: sprint planning, daily standup, sprint review, and retrospective.
How to set up Scrum in Jira
Set up your project and backlog
In Jira, create a new project and open the Backlog view. Create user stories using the format "As a [user], I want [goal] so that [reason]". Add story point estimates to the top 20–30 items before your first sprint.
Create your first sprint
Use Jira's native sprint feature to create a 2-week sprint. Set the start date, end date, and a sprint goal (e.g. "Ship onboarding v2"). Pull in issues from the backlog based on team velocity.
Configure your sprint board
Set up a board view in Jira with columns: To Do → In Progress → In Review → Done. These map directly to Scrum board stages. Use custom workflows to add team-specific stages (e.g. "Blocked" or "Testing").
Set up velocity tracking and retrospective workflow
Enable Jira's analytics or reporting to track velocity over time (story points completed per sprint). After each sprint, run a retrospective in Jira using a dedicated section or template to capture What Went Well, What Didn't, and Action Items.
Which Jira features matter for Scrum
Jira has 2 of 2 core Scrum features natively.