Jira is powerful… until it becomes a source of friction. Tickets pile up, action items disappear after retros, and developers spend more time updating issues than writing code.
Sound familiar? Jira plugins can transform the developer experience from painful admin overhead to a smoother, more enjoyable experience.
But not every plugin is worth your time. The key is to understand what makes developers productive and choose tools that support that.
Why Developer Experience is a Critical Metric
Developer experience is how easy—and satisfying—it is for developers to do their work. It’s not just about making your developers happy, but about improving business outcomes.
Your team and your company benefit in a variety of ways when your developers have great experiences.
1– Enhanced Productivity And Efficiency
Good developer experience starts with good tools and workflows that reduce friction in daily tasks. When Agile tools work seamlessly together, developers can focus on what they do best—writing, testing, and deploying code.
2 – Increased Quality
Without additional administrative work, developers have the mental space to focus on coding. They can enter and stay in flow state for longer, which means better quality code and faster output.
3 – Faster Time to Market
Efficient developers mean faster feature releases and quicker bug fixes. If you’re using Agile tools to keep your team members focused and friction-free, they can respond to changes seamlessly, instead of getting confused about targets, goals, or expectations rather than relying on misleading metrics.
4 – Lower Employee Turnover
When Jira for developers is easy and stress-free, it contributes directly to a positive job experience and avoids killing developer engagement.
That, in turn, reduces burnout and helps increase employee retention. Companies with great DevEx usually become talent magnets for great developers, thus indirectly increasing your code quality.
Since DevEx is tied to output and retention, improving Jira for developers isn’t optional; it’s strategic.
How Plugins Can Support DevEx in Jira
Plugins can make a world of difference in Jira for developers. Plugins improve usability, streamline workflows, and integrate important Agile tools into a developer’s environment.
Great plugins enhance Jira in four main ways:
Automate Repetitive Tasks
After a release, a dev starts closing tickets. But since the task is repetitive, they zone out and forget to close a single ticket. Managers get confused when they see it still in their task list.
With plugins, you can automate a lot of repetitive tasks like transitioning issues, updating custom fields, and sending notifications. Overall, it saves developers from doing boring admin work.
Improve Issue Tracking And Visibility
When issues number in the thousands, they are hard to track. It’s not uncommon to miss deadlines or bugs, creating additional friction in the workflow.
Plugins can help to enhance issue tracking, visualize relationships between issues, highlight blockers, and keep teams on the same page, thus improving Jira for developers.
Integrate Development Tools
The admin work lives on Jira, but coding takes place in various development environments. When developers use five different apps in one workflow, it requires task switching and is inefficient.
Plugins can connect these development tools and create a seamless workflow.
Enhance Feedback and Collaboration
Developers often work remotely and asynchronously, so they cannot easily reach team members to communicate and collaborate. When they’re misaligned, the project is delayed.
Using retro tools to enhance feedback process and collaboration can help realign the team. You can also use them to gather quantifiable data about your workflow so that you can make better data-driven decisions.
Top 5 Jira Plugins to Improve Developer Experience
While Jira can improve developer experience, not all plugins are worth the time. Here are a few that can help your team:
1 – Agile Retrospectives for Jira
Problem it solves: Ineffective feedback loops that occur because there’s a disconnect between Agile retrospectives and Jira.
How it helps: A Jira retrospective tool that enhances the team feedback process (inside Jira or Confluence) by providing a space for structured feedback and grouping similar feedback into themes. Helps collect and collate data about developer experience in the team, enabling data-driven decisions.
DevEx win: Developers know their feedback won’t vanish because retro tools like these keep improvements visible and actionable. Bonus, management gets to see real, trackable, actionable data about what works and what doesn’t.
2 – Scriptrunner for Jira
Problem it solves: Countless repetitive tasks and uncustomizable workflows that consume time and resources.
How it helps: A scripting tool that allows users to automate tasks and optimize workflows in Jira.
DevEx win: Saves devs from tedious admin work and enables custom solutions tailored to team workflows.
3 – GitHub Links for Jira
Problem it solves: Constant platform switching and transferring information between Jira and GitHub or vice versa.
How it helps: GitHub Links for Jira connects Jira to GitHub directly, so developers don’t have to switch tools. It enables a smoother development process.
DevEx win: Developers see code context without leaving Jira, reducing cognitive load and speeding up traceability.
4 – Zephyr
Problem it solves: Managing test cases can take a long time and be very cumbersome.
How it helps: Zephyr helps developers manage their test management because it has advanced test planning and reporting.
DevEx win: Developers and QA share one source of truth, reducing confusion and ensuring coverage. It improves Jira for developers.
5 – Timesheets by Tempo - Jira Time Tracker
Problem it solves: Hidden development bottlenecks that occur because there’s a discrepancy between how much time was allocated to the task and how much was spent on the task.
How it helps: Timesheets by Tempo provide detailed time tracking insights, which are crucial for tracking metrics like cycle time.
DevEx win: Developers know exactly where they’re spending their time. Teams learn how to better prioritize work and flag hidden blockers.
Jira Plugins: The When and Why
| Plugin | What it Does | Who Should be Using Them |
| Agile Retrospectives for Jira |
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| ScriptRunner for Jira |
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| GitHub Links for Jira |
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| Zephyr |
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| Timesheets by Tempo |
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Nowadays, good developer experience is a necessity, not a luxury. Address the pain points in your developers’ workflows, whether it’s keeping action items visible, automating tasks, time tracking, or reducing tool-switching to keep your team happy.
Ultimately, it’s not about adding tools, but making your team’s working experience a better one using the right combination of tools. Because when developers thrive, so does your business.
Wondering what your pain points are? Try Agile Retrospectives for Jira and get honest feedback from your team today.