This article describes the steps of the project import and project linking from Jira (Cloud or Server) as well as resource import.
In this scenario, we consider that you are importing or linking projects from Jira to PPM Express for the first time.
Linking PPM Express Project to Jira Project
1. Open the PPM Express project that you would like to link to the Jira project and press the Link Project button.
2. On the 'Link to Project' tab select Jira option.
3. Open the Connection drop-down and select the 'Add new connection' option.
4. As you select the 'Add new connection' option, the 'Create connection' window will be opened.
PPM Express allows establishing connections to both Jira Server and Jira Cloud:
- To add a connection to Jira Server please refer to this article.
- To add a connection to Jira Cloud please refer to this article.
5. When the connection is added, select the project for linking.
The Board drop-down allows selecting the Board and importing Jira Sprints from the selected Board to the Iterations project section. If the board is specified, only the sprints from the linked Board will be considered during data synchronization.
The Parent Issue drop-down allows selecting the required issue(s) from the list and linking the PPM Express project to the selected issue(s) instead of the whole project. All Jira issue types are available for linking (except sub-tasks).
You can link custom hierarchy levels with a PPM Express project if your Jira instance has custom hierarchy levels. If you have multiple Initiatives or Epics in Jira that you want to handle as a distinct project, you can connect these items with a project in PPM Express. This allows you to manage all these work items together as a unified project.
In this case, data to PPM Express project sections will be synchronized from the linked Jira issues only.
6. Click the 'Link Project' button.
Project linking will start immediately.
Linking PPM Express Project to multiple Jira Projects
PPM Express allows linking several Jira projects to one PPM Express project. You can link either the Jira projects fully or only the selected Jira issue types. Selecting the required Jira issue types for linking allows managing issues from different Jira projects as a single project in PPM Express. For example, in the scenario when several different teams (Marketing, Dev, Customer Success) manage their tasks in different projects per department in Jira, it will be easier for a project manager responsible for the launch of all these activities to manage them as one project in PPM Express.
Please note: It is possible to link several projects from Jira to one PPM Express project only if Jira projects belong to the same Jira issue type scheme.
1. Open the PPM Express project that you would like to link to Jira projects and press the Link Project button.
2. On the 'Link to Project' tab select Jira option.
3. Open the Connection drop-down and select the 'Add new connection' option.
4. As you select the 'Add new connection' option, the 'Create connection' window will be opened.
PPM Express allows establishing connections to both Jira Server and Jira Cloud:
- To add a connection to Jira Server please refer to this article.
- To add a connection to Jira Cloud please refer to this article.
5. When the connection is added, select the projects for linking.
Only the projects that belong to the same Jira issue type scheme can be added to one PPM Express project. When a project is created in Jira, it is associated with a new Issue type scheme created with this project. Even if the scheme is the same in terms of the issue types it contains, the system still considers this as a different scheme in PPM Express.
To calculate all project-related settings, like Project Progress, Project Status, Rollups, Storypoints, etc. PPM Express requires Jira projects to be associated with the same Issue type scheme in Jira.
To associate the required projects to the same scheme open Jira -> gear button -> Issues -> Issue type scheme.
Open the menu next to the required scheme, and associate the selected projects with the same scheme.
For more details about the Issue type schemes, please refer to the 'Working with issue type schemes' Jira article.
The Board drop-down allows selecting the Boards and importing Jira Sprints from the selected Boards to the Iterations project section. If the boards are specified, only the sprints from the linked Boards will be considered during data synchronization.
The Parent Issue drop-down allows selecting the required issue(s) from the list and linking the PPM Express project to the selected issue(s) and their sub-tasks instead of the whole project. All Jira issue types are available for linking (except sub-tasks).
You can link custom hierarchy levels with a PPM Express project if your Jira instance has custom hierarchy levels. If you have multiple Initiatives or Epics in Jira that you want to handle as a distinct project, you can connect these items with a project in PPM Express.
In this case, data to PPM Express project sections will be synchronized from the linked Jira issues only.
6. Click the 'Link Project' button.
Project linking will start immediately.
Importing Projects from Jira
To start importing data from Jira to PPM Express, perform the following steps:
1. Sign up to PPM Express using Office365 or a Google account.
On the Projects page, open the Actions drop-down and choose the Import Projects option.
2. On the Import Projects to PPM Express page, choose the source system - Jira.
In the 'Connections' section select the 'Add new connection' option.
As you select the 'Add new connection' option, the 'Create connection' window will be opened.
PPM Express allows establishing connections to both Jira Server and Jira Cloud:
- To add a connection to Jira Server please refer to this article.
- To add a connection to Jira Cloud please refer to this article.
Please note: It is not possible to select Jira boards for import in Jira Server. However, you can link your existing PPM Express project to any Jira board.
3. As the connection is added, click on this connection.
4. On the next step choose the issues you want to import into PPM Express by marking the corresponding check-boxes in the list.
5. Select the board in case you need to synchronize iterations from the Jira project.
Please note: PPM Express will synchronize iterations from the selected board.
- In case "No Board" is displayed in the Project Board column - the Jira project has no boards.
- In case the board is selected - the Jira project has only one board and iterations from this board will be synchronized. You can select "No Board" if necessary.
- In case no data is selected in the Project Board column next to the project - the Jira project has several boards. You can select either of the boards or select "No Boards" if necessary.
6. Click on the Import button.
Depending on the amount of data to process, this operation may need some time. You can see the import progress.
As soon as the project import is complete, you will see the Already linked status for the linked Projects.
To exit the Import Projects screen, just click on the left part of the page outside the Import Project screen.
First, you will get to the step where you can add another Connection if required. After the first import operation is complete, you can select another Jira account to import data from.
If you do not need to import more Projects to PPM Express, click on the left part of the page outside the Import Project screen once again.
Your imported Projects will appear on the Projects page in PPM Express.
Importing Resources from Jira
In a very similar way, you can import your Resources from Jira to PPM Express.
Please note: Some of the resources in the list may have Already linked status. These resources were assigned to the projects you have already imported and thus added to PPM Express automatically.
On the Resources page, open the Actions drop-down and choose the Import Resources option.
The Import resource page is organized similarly to the Import project page.
As you have already added a connection, you can select an existing Jira connection to import resources from. Click on the added connection to load resources into the import page.
Mark the corresponding resources in the list and click on the Import Resources button.
As the import process is completed, you will see the Already linked status next to the Resources selected for import.
Now you can navigate to one of the projects we have just imported. The following PPM Express project sections can be populated with data from Jira: Team, Schedule.
To see the assignments and the number of tasks and bugs currently assigned to each of them, navigate to the Team section.
To manage your project, use the control panel in the upper right part of the project details page:
- Force sync project. This button allows manually synchronizing your project with the linked item at the source system. If it's grayed out, it means that sync is currently in progress.
- Linked project. Opens the linked project in Jira.
- Link Project. Opens Configure connections menu for the current project allowing changing the linked item at the source system or unlinking the project completely.