How to Connect a Github Pull Request to Jira Issues?

GitHub and Jira are both tools that are commonly used by software development teams to manage and track their work. GitHub is a version control platform that allows developers to collaborate on code and manage their projects. Jira is a project management tool that helps teams track and organize their work, including bugs, tasks, and other issues. 

By using both GitHub and Jira, remote Scrum teams can stay organized, track their progress, and collaborate effectively. For example, developers can use GitHub to store and manage their code and then use Jira to track and prioritize issues and bugs that need to be addressed. This allows teams to stay organized and focused on their work and helps ensure that issues are addressed in a timely manner. 

This article will show you how to integrate a GitHub pull request to a Jira issue. Connecting GitHub and Jira allows you to see all data in one place and use automation to shorten delivery time.

What are Pull Requests?

To begin with, let's look at what exactly are pull requests in the context of Git. In git systems, such as GitLab, GitHub, and BitBucket, pull requests are used to inform the rest of your team that a branch or fork is ready for review. The repository's maintainer can then decide if they want to merge or not. 

Before connecting GitHub and Jira, let's see the benefits of connecting them.

Why Should You Connect GitHub PRs with Jira?

Using Jira and GitHub together has many advantages. One of the main benefits of integrating GitHub with Jira is that it allows developers to track their code changes within the context of their Jira tickets making it easier for team members to understand how a project is progressing since they can see which code changes are associated with which Jira tickets. With the integration, developers can link their code commits and pull requests to Jira tickets for tracking and reviewing change requests. 

Another benefit of integrating GitHub with Jira is that it allows teams to automate certain tasks. By setting up automation rules in Jira, teams can automatically move tickets through different stages of the workflow based on the status of corresponding code changes in GitHub. This way, teams can work more efficiently and reduce the risk of human error.

In the next section, we will see how to connect pull requests from GitHub to Jira. This can be done by installing the ‘GitHub for Jira’ app and configuring it to link the two tools.

Integrating Jira with GitHub

To connect GitHub and Jira we will be using the ‘GitHub for Jira’ app. You can follow these steps to integrate the two apps: 

• Log into your Jira account and navigate to the Apps section on the taskbar. Install the GitHub for Jira app.

• After installing the ‘GitHub for Jira’ app, configure the app for your use.

• Click the "Add Account" button to add a new GitHub account to the app. Follow the prompts to enter your GitHub login credentials and authorize the app to access your account.

• Once the account is added, you can select the repositories that you want to connect to Jira. Click the Save button to save your changes.

After you have connected your GitHub and Jira accounts, you will be able to use the ‘GitHub for Jira’ app to link Jira issues to GitHub repositories and track the status of your code changes in the context of your overall project management. You can also use the app to comment on code changes and collaborate with your team members in Jira.

Connecting Pull Requests from GitHub to Jira Issues

• In GitHub repository that we connected earlier to Jira instance, let's connect Issue D1-1 to one of the pull requests in our dummy Jira board.

• We start by creating a new branch in your connected GitHub repository. To do this expand the Issue D1-1 and click on ‘Create Branch’. The Branch name will appear in the format 'Issue ID - Issue Name' for our example it is 'D1-1-Fixing-Bug' in our case.

• This new branch should contain the code from which you wish to submit a pull request. Again, expand the Jira issue D1-1 and then click on Create pull request now.

• The pull request description will automatically appear in the format 'Issue ID - Issue Name’.

• Leave a comment and click on ‘Create pull request’

• The Jira Cloud for GitHub app will automatically link the pull request to the corresponding Jira issue and update the status of the issue to reflect the status of the pull request.

If you're looking for additional tips to enhance your pull request process, we've compiled a list of Tips on writing better Pull Requests in our dedicated guide.

Conclusion

Integrating a GitHub pull request to a Jira issue using the ‘GitHub for Jira’ app can be a powerful way for software development teams to streamline their workflow and improve collaboration. Other than just linking pull requests to JIRA you can also track the status of code changes in the context of overall project management, comment on code changes and collaborate with team members in Jira, Receive notifications in Jira when there are updates to code changes and so much more. One unique way to easily integrate GitHub and JIRA is to use the Smart Commits feature- to make commit messages in your GitHub repository that contain special keywords to automatically update the corresponding Jira issue with information about the commit.

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