Review of the Jira Core product

In 2015, Atlassian split Jira into two different products—Jira Core and JSW. Jira Core was always billed as a simple way to get started with issue tracking and became the base product that was offered when new users came on board with the tool. The focus was on non-technical teams in an organization, oftentimes referred to as business teams.

JSW continues to be aimed at software development teams and provides the most functionality and flexibility of the two products. The two have lived side by side for nearly a decade in versions deployed on-premises (Jira Server) and in the cloud (Jira Cloud). Data Center versions are also available.

While Jira was always intended to be used by technical and non-technical teams alike, the introduction of the JSW product placed an emphasis on Agile development, release management, and software team-related reporting. In fact, the previous releases of Jira leading up to the JSW announcement had already begun implementing many of the features that were coming. As Jira continued to grow in capabilities, it also grew in complexity.

Perhaps the biggest knock against Jira by those newcomers dipping their toe into Atlassian waters for the first time was figuring out the beast that it had become. It seems that the namesake of Gojira (Japanese for Godzilla, and the inspiration for the shortened name of the tool) had to a certain extent become a monster for the rookie user.

To address this issue, Jira Core became the intended safe path into the waters. It kept many of the powerful functionality that had endeared it to the Jira fanbase but provided a simpler approach to getting started with the tool, and all without having to sacrifice what made Jira the best tool for the job for many people.