Syncing Jira projects to Forecast projects

The integration between Jira Cloud and Forecast allows for an in-depth level of project management by utilizing both platforms and ensuring optimal project progress and delivery. This is achieved by Forecast's ability to seamlessly sync projects and their components between the two platforms. This article presents a guide to the various ways that Forecast projects can be synced to Jira as well as information on the Jira settings and how they affect the integration.

This article includes:

• Synchronizing an existing Forecast project
• Syncing Jira projects right after the setup
• Setting a Jira Cutoff Date
• Synchronizing issues between synced projects
• Synchronizing phases between synced projects
• Changing Jira prefix settings
• Synchronizing Jira issues' date fields to Forecast

Synchronizing an existing Forecast project

Considering that projects might exist in Forecast before the integration with Jira takes place, it is possible to sync existing Forecast projects to existing Jira projects without having to create a new project in Forecast. To be able to do this process manager permission is required in order to be able to view the project settings. The steps below explain the process: 

How to synchronize an existing Forecast project to Jira:

1. Click Projects in the top bar. 
2. Select All Projects from the dropdown. 
3. Click on the project you wish to sync. 
4. In the left side panel, click Settings. 
5. Select Integrations.
6. If the integration was successful one of the options available will be Jira
7.  Click on Sync Jira project or Sync to Jira Epic
8. From the pop-up that will appear, select the Jira project that this project should be synced with from the dropdown menu
9. (Optional) Change the dates and the color of the project.
10. (Optional) Next to the dates fields is the option Exclude items with due date before.
    • This setting allows users to set a cutoff date for the sync by restricting the synchronization of Jira data before a specific date. Jira issues, versions or sprints with no end date or an end date after the selected date will sync to Forecast. Jira issues, versions or sprints with end dates before the selected date will not sync to Forecast. 
11. Choose the settings that best fit the project. Those are:
    • Synchronize Sprints: This will synchronize the sprints between the two projects across platforms and any change made on one platform will be reflected in the other. Select the sprint board that should be synced from the Jira project.
    • Estimate Type: This choice is important as the project will either make use of hour estimates or will make use of Story points. If the estimate type differs between the platforms for this project then the information will not synchronize properly. Make sure that both projects use the same estimate type (!)
    • Sync Forecast phases as: This choice will determine how the phases from the Forecast project are synced over to the Jira project. The options are either to be synced as Epics or as Versions/Releases.
    • Create Jira sub-tasks as: This choice can determine how subtasks that come over from the Jira project will be shown in the Forecast project. The options are for the sub-tasks to appear as tasks or subtasks (which can be decided also from the Task tab in the project settings) or they can appear as To-Do lists.

Once the above process is completed click on Sync project for the process to be complete. All of the information will be synced between your projects on both platforms.

Syncing Jira projects right after the integration setup

It is also possible to sync projects between Forecast and Jira once the integration setup is finalized. When the connection is verified the below message will appear presenting an opportunity to begin syncing Jira projects in Forecast. 

By clicking on the "Sync Jira Projects", the process to begin syncing projects may begin. The only difference with the previous method is that from this page, it is possible to create a NEW Forecast project to sync with an existing Jira project.  This process as it takes place on the integrations page requires Admin access. The steps below go over this process:

How to sync existing Jira projects to newly created Forecast projects

1. Click on Projects in the top bar.
2. Select All Projects from the dropdown.
3. Open the project you wish to sync.
4. In the left side panel, click Settings.
5. Select Integrations.
6. Under the Jira section, click Sync to Jira Project. 
7. From the pop-up that appears fill in the required information
8. Select the Jira project from the dropdown menu
9. Name the Forecast project under the Project Name field
10. Set the dates.
11. (Optional) Next to the dates fields is the option Exclude items with due date before.
    • This setting allows users to set a cutoff date for the sync by restricting the synchronization of Jira data before a specific date. Jira issues, versions or sprints with no end date or an end date after the selected date will sync to Forecast. Jira issues, versions or sprints with end dates before the selected date will not sync to Forecast. 
12. Select a client from the client dropdown
13. Choose the settings that best fit the project. Those are:
    • Synchronize Sprints: This will synchronize the sprints between the two projects across platforms and any change made on one platform will be reflected in the other. Select the sprint board that should be synced from the Jira project.
    • Estimate Type: This choice is important as the project will either make use of hour estimates or will make use of Story points. If the estimate type differs between the platforms for this project then the information will not synchronize properly. Make sure that both projects use the same estimate type (!)
    • Sync Forecast phases as: This choice will determine how the phases from the Forecast project are synced over to the Jira project. The options are either to be synced as Epics or as Versions/Releases.
    • Create Jira sub-tasks as: This choice can determine how subtasks that come over from the Jira project will be shown in the Forecast project. The options are for the sub-tasks to appear as tasks or subtasks (which can be decided also from the Task tab in the project settings) or they can appear as To-Do lists.
       Note: If using the Task Hierarchy feature in Forecast and you want to see the full task hierarchy when syncing Jira projects you need to:

      1. Sync Phases as Versions/Releases: Epics will be synced as normal tasks and will be part of the task hierarchy
      2. Create Jira Sub Tasks as Tasks: This will create Jira Subtasks as regular tasks in Forecast and will be part of the task hierarchy.
      3. If you are syncing one or more Jira Epics to a Forecast project then those Epics will always be synced as Phases, but you can still choose to sync Subtasks as Tasks to see the common issue to sub-task hierarchy.

Setting a Jira Cutoff Date

The Jira Cutoff Date feature is an extension of the Jira integration. It allows users to restrict synchronization of Jira data which lies before a certain date to Forecast.  Users are able to define a specific date for a Jira linked Forecast project and only sync Jira Issues/Versions/Sprints which either have no end date or have an end date which lies on or after the specified date.
In other words, all Jira Issues/Versions/Sprints which have an end date that lies before the specified date, will not be synched to Forecast.

How to set a cutoff date

The Jira Cutoff Date can either be set when a project sync is being set up or it can be applied to an existing project which is already linked to Jira. 

How to add a Jira Cutoff Date when syncing a new project with Jira

1. Click Projects in the top bar. 
2. Select All Projects from the dropdown
3. Open the project you wish to sync.
4. On the left side panel, click Settings.
5. Select Integrations.
6. Under the Jira section, click Sync to Jira Project.
7. From the pop-up that appears fill in the required information
8. Next to the dates fields is the option Exclude items with due date before.
   • This setting allows users to set a cut-off date for the sync by restricting the synchronization of Jira data before a specific date. Jira issues, versions or sprints with no end date or an end date after the selected date will sync to Forecast. Jira issues, versions or sprints with end dates before the selected date will not sync to Forecast. 
9. Click the box next to Exclude items with due date before.
10. Click the calendar icon and select the date from which to sync from.
    

How to add a Jira Cutoff Date for an existing project already synced with Jira

Projects that are already synced with Jira can also have a cutoff date enabled. Changing the cutoff date on a project will immediately initiate a sync of the project with the new setting, and the fields will be disabled while this sync is in progress.

1. Click Projects in the top bar. 
2. Select All Projects from the dropdown
3. Open the project you wish to sync.
4. On the left side panel, click Settings.
5. Select Integrations.
6. Under the Jira section there will be a checkbox and date field.
7. Click the box next to Exclude items with due date before.
8. Click the calendar icon and select the date from which to sync from.
9. The project sync will immediately initiate to reflect the new cutoff date settings and a message will appear in red, "The options cannot be changed while the data sync is in progress. Please check back later" indicating the sync is in progress. 
   

Synchronizing existing issues in Forecast to Jira

If a project in Forecast existed before the integration with Jira took place, then tasks (issues) that predate the integration will not be automatically moved to Jira in the project that was synced with the Forecast project. It is possible however to manually move Forecast tasks to Jira. The steps below go over this process: 

How to move Forecast tasks to Jira

1. Click Projects in the top bar.
2. Select All Projects from the dropdown. 
3. Open the project you wish to sync.
4. In the left side panel, click Scoping.
5. Find the task that needs to be moved to Jira and click on the three dots at the end of its line
6. Click on Move to Jira
7. From the pop-up that will appear, select the type for this issue
8. Click on Create

The task will now be moved to Jira as an issue. To confirm this, click on the task and open the task module, there will be a JIRA issue link just above the task description if the move was successful.

Synchronizing phases between synced projects

Like with tasks, it is also possible to move phases from Forecast projects to Jira. The process is the same as with the tasks. The steps below go over this process:

How to move Forecast phases to Jira

1. Click Projects in the top bar.
2. Select All Projects from the dropdown. 
3. Open the project you wish to sync.
4. In the left side panel, click Scoping.
5. Find the phases that are not moved to Jira and click on the three dots at the end of their line
6. Click on Move to Jira
7. Name the phase so that you can find it in Jira
8. Click on Create

It is important to note that synchronizing a phase will not synchronize tasks under that phase automatically and it will require to be synced manually. When successfully synced, the phases in Forecast will have the Jira icon next to them.

Changing Jira prefix settings

Once the Jira integration setup is completed, it is possible to set the Jira prefix settings to match your needs. The prefix settings will determine how the task (issues) title will appear in Forecast. This process requires Admin access. The steps below provide a guide on how to access this setting.

How to access and change Jira prefix settings

1. Click Admin in the top bar.
2. Select Integrations from the dropdown.
3. Select Jira Cloud.
4. Select between None, Simple, or Full Jira prefix on the issues in Forecast, i.e. Tasks

By default, the prefix setting will be set to None. These settings are exclusive to one another and will need some time to take effect, this depends on the number of synced tasks. The difference between these three options is shown in the screenshots below

• None: 
  
• Simple:
  
• Full: 
  
  

Synchronizing Jira issues' date fields to Forecast

With the Jira Cloud integration, Forecast allows for the synchronization of the start dates of the Jira issues into Forecast. The information is taken from the Jira date field that has been created in Jira and will determine the start date of an issue. Some important things to note:

• Synchronizing start dates will override start dates on already existing Forecast tasks with the start dates on the associated Jira issues if these are not already identical
• Existing task start dates in Forecast will only get synchronized to Jira when they are updated in Forecast.

How to change the start date

1. Click Admin in the top bar.
2. Select Integrations from the dropdown.
3. Select Jira Cloud.
4. Click on the Change button under the Start Date Settings.
5. Select one of the three available options.
6. Click on change. This will set the start date of tasks (issues) in the Jira synced Forecast projects to start based on the field of your choosing.