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Integrating Jira with Vistaly helps align teams by providing the context of why their work matters to customers and the business. When Jira issues and epics are linked to Vistaly cards, individual contributors can see what their work is connected to and how it’s measured.

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Key Benefits

  • See strategy and delivery in one place: View Jira issue progress directly on your roadmap cards, connecting strategic outcomes with engineering execution
  • Connect work to customer impact: Engineering teams can trace their Jira issues back to the customer problems and business outcomes they’re addressing
  • Link to any card type: Connect Jira issues and epics to Solutions, Opportunities, Outcomes, or any other card type in Vistaly
  • Enhanced workflow support: Create epics, link child issues to parent epics, and transition issues through your Jira workflows
  • Progress visibility: Track Jira epic and issue status directly on Vistaly card faces in the roadmap view
  • Smart search and linking: Search across multiple projects and issue types, or paste Jira URLs for instant connections
Vistaly Story in Jira

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Installing the Vistaly Jira App

To install the Vistaly Jira app:
  1. Visit the integrations page in Vistaly and select ‘Add to Jira’
  2. A new window will open where you can install the Vistaly app to your Jira site
  3. Select “Get app” to begin the installation
  4. Choose your Jira site from the list (most teams have one site)
  5. Navigate to “Manage your apps” and select Vistaly in the lefthand menu
  6. Select “Allow access” to grant Vistaly permission to connect
  7. Review the permissions Vistaly requests and select “Accept”
  8. Choose which Vistaly organization should have access to the Jira site
Once connected, you’ll see a Jira tab appear on your Vistaly cards.

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Linking to Jira from Vistaly

With the Jira integration installed and the Vistaly organization connected, any card in Vistaly will now have a Jira tab. You can link Jira issues to Solutions, Opportunities, Outcomes, or any other card type where you want to track delivery work. Select the Jira tab on an unlinked card - this will present options to create a new Jira issue or epic, or link to an existing Jira issue. After selecting “Create & Link”, you’ll choose from the available Jira projects and issue types configured in your workspace.

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Enhanced Field Support

Vistaly now supports comprehensive Jira field types when creating issues:
  • User assignment: Assign issues to team members during creation
  • Labels: Add Jira labels to organize your issues
  • Dates: Set due dates, start dates, and other date fields
  • Priorities: Choose from your Jira priority levels
  • Custom fields: Support for text, numeric, select, and multi-select custom fields
  • Epic linking: Create standard issues and link them to parent epics
The Jira integration remembers your last selected project and issue type, making repeated issue creation much faster.

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Creating and Linking Epics

You can create Jira epics directly from Vistaly and link child issues to parent epics:
  1. Select “Create & Link Epic” from the Jira tab
  2. Choose your project and epic issue type
  3. Fill in the epic details
  4. Click “Create Epic”
Creating a new Jira epic
 When creating standard issues, you can link them to existing epics by searching for the parent epic during issue creation.
Creating a new Jira issue

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Linking Existing Issues

If you link to an existing issue, you have two options:
  1. Search: Use Jira’s native search across multiple projects and issue types simultaneously
  2. Paste URL: Copy a Jira issue URL and paste it to instantly link the issue
Searching for Jira issues
 The enhanced search capability allows you to filter by project and issue type, making it easy to find the right issue even in large Jira instances. Once the issue is created and linked, the Jira issue details and external link will be available in the Jira tab.

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Updating Jira Issues from Vistaly

Once a Jira issue is linked to a Vistaly card, you can update its status directly from Vistaly using Jira workflow transitions:

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Status Transitions

  1. Open the Jira tab on a linked card
  2. View the current issue status
  3. Click on the status to see available transitions based on your Jira workflow
  4. Select a new status to transition the issue
The status change is immediately reflected in both Vistaly and Jira, keeping both systems in sync.

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Viewing Progress in the Roadmap

When Jira issues and epics are linked to cards, their status and progress appear directly on card faces in the roadmap view.
Jira progress displayed on roadmap cards
 This powerful feature allows product leaders to:
  • See at a glance which initiatives are on track in Jira
  • Understand delivery status alongside strategic outcomes
  • Identify work that needs attention
  • Connect strategic goals to engineering execution
The roadmap view shows both your strategic direction (Opportunities, Outcomes) and delivery reality (Jira issue status) in one unified view.

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Linking to Vistaly from Jira

To link from Jira to Vistaly, you can enter the Vistaly card identifier within the Jira issue. To get the card identifier, select the card in Vistaly and copy the identifier from the URL.

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Multiple Issues per Card

You can link multiple Jira issues to a single Vistaly card, which is useful for:
  • Breaking down large Solutions into multiple implementation issues
  • Tracking work across different Jira projects
  • Managing phased delivery approaches
  • Connecting related technical work to the same strategic goal
Each issue can be tracked and updated independently while maintaining the connection to your strategic context.

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Best Practices

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When to Use Jira Epics vs. Issues

Based on how teams are using the Jira integration:
  • Use Jira Epics for:
    • Opportunities - Large customer problems or needs that span multiple solutions
    • Large Solutions - Complex features that require multiple issues to implement
    • Multi-sprint initiatives that involve coordination across the team
    • Work that breaks down into multiple smaller deliverables
  • Use Jira Issues for:
    • Solutions - Individual features and improvements that deliver customer value
    • Specific implementation tasks that can be completed within a sprint or two
Tracking Maintenance and Technical Debt: Bugs, technical debt, and “keeping the lights on” work are typically managed entirely in Jira. However, some teams create a “Maintenance” or “Non-Strategic Work” bucket in Vistaly and link these issues there. This allows you to visualize:
  • How much time and energy is spent on strategic vs. non-strategic work
  • The balance between new features and maintenance
  • Where engineering capacity is actually going
This visibility helps product leaders make informed decisions about resource allocation and technical debt prioritization.

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Organizing Your Integration

  • Link Jira epics to Opportunities or large Solutions - This helps track the bigger customer problems and complex features you’re addressing
  • Link Jira issues to Solutions - Connect individual features and improvements to track their delivery progress
  • Use Vistaly’s roadmap view to see both strategy and delivery status together
  • Keep issue and epic status current to maintain accurate progress visibility on your roadmap
  • Consider linking multiple Jira issues to a single Solution when breaking down complex work

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Communication and Alignment

  • Share roadmap views with stakeholders to show strategy + progress
  • Use Jira’s link back to Vistaly to give engineers strategic context
  • Update Jira issue status through your normal workflow - changes sync automatically
  • Connect customer feedback in Vistaly to show engineers the “why” behind their work

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Updating the Vistaly Jira App

If a new version of the Vistaly Jira App is available, you can update it by navigating to the following url (make sure to replace your-jira-instance with your appropriate identifier) and selecting “Update”. 
https://your-jira-instance.atlassian.net/plugins/servlet/upm
Update Vistaly Jira App

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