This page explains how to prepare, connect and load your Jira data into PaceMkr.
Preparation
Before you connect to Jira within PaceMkr, you first need to create an access token in Jira.
Start by going to the Jira Admin page. At the top of the page, you will see a Settings button. Click on it.
A new page will be loaded. On the left, there is a list of selection. Click on API key.
The right side of the page will change to display the list of API key generated for your organization. In our tutorial, there isn't any. Click on the button "Create API key".
The next step is to give a name to your API key. In the screen shot below, it is called pacemkr_key. Based on your security policies, you may change the expiry date. Once you've given a name to your API key, click "Create".
You API key is now created. In the image below, the API key would be in the grey box API key. Copy this value into a secure file as you won't be able to access this API key afterwards. When this is done, click the button "Done".
Your API key is connected to your Jira account. PaceMkr uses this combination of your email from Jira andyour API key to connect to Jira.
Finally, PaceMkr wil need the URL of your Jira instance. For Jira Cloud, this is usually n the form of https://<your org. name>.atlassian.net.
Going through the wizard
Step 1 - Authenticate
The first step in the wizard is authenticating yourself to your Jira instance.
You do so with the following parameters:
- Jira Domain: This is the URL of your Jira Cloud instance. It is usually in the form of https://<your org>.atlassian.net. The prefix "https://" is mandatory.
- Email: Enter your email with which you created your API key in the Preparation section of this tutorial.
- API Key: This is the key you created in the Preparation section above.
Once those values are entered, click the "Next" button.
Step 2 - Selecting a board
Once you are connected to Jira, PaceMkr fetches the list of boards you have access to in Jira. They are listed in the drop down list on step 2.
Once you've chosen your board, the "Next" button becomes activated. Click on it for the third and final step of the wizard.
Step 3 - Fetching your issues
PaceMkr retrieves all issues which are currently in progress. This means all issues started but not completed are retrieved.
PaceMkr also retrieves completed issues but limits the amount of completed it retrieves. This is done as old issues might not be relevant anymore due to team composition or change in the meaning of issues in your team.
On the following image, it shows the third step where you can specify the retrieval date. Click the "Fetch" button to see the Kanban metrics of your board in PaceMkr.
