Jira vs TFS

Both Jira and TFS are the bug tracking tool and life cycle management tool respectively. Jira supports agile methodologies such as Scrum and Kanban whereas TFS is known as the mixture of the version control system, Jira, and the system of lifecycle management. In this article, we will learn about the difference between Jira and TFS on the basis of Pricing, Version Control, Native Mobile Support, Management Models, Reporting, and Implementation along with its advantages and disadvantages.

What is Jira?

Jira is a bug-tracking tool developed by an Australian company, Atlassian. It is considered to be an excellent project and bug-tracking tool. Also, it is available in different versions for different types of users. Simple or complex tasks can be handled by the Jira tool. Companies that use the Jira tool are Twitter, Udemy, Reddit, CRED, and many more.

Advantages:

1. Easy to use: It is easy to use and has all the premium features included.
2. Time-tracking: It has a time-tracking feature.
3. Seamless integration: It has seamless integration within its system.
4. User management capabilities: It has flexible user management capabilities that allow you to manage team member roles, access, and permissions.
5. Efficient challenge management: It is very efficient to manage and track the challenges.

Disadvantages:

1. Not all features are good: It’s management features is not as good as its other features.
2. Expensive: It is quite expensive to use for large businesses and for multiple projects.
3. Time-consuming customization: Customization with the use of Jira tool is time-consuming.
4. Information overload issue: Jira generates an enormous amount of emails and notifications, which if not correctly managed, can lead to information overload.

What is TFS (Azure DevOps)?

TFS stands for Team Foundation Server. It is a Microsoft product that allows the managers to collaborate and arrange their projects or to to create their products. It has 6 main components namely source code management, requirements management, project management, reporting, testing, and release management. Some of the companies that use TFS are NetSuite Inc, Red Hat Inc and Blackfriars Group etc.

Advantages:

1. Easy integration: It can integrate easily with the products of Microsoft like SharePoint and Visual Studio.
2. Convenient data exchange: Data exchange due to ease of integration is very easy.
3. Can be used as backend: It can be easily used as a backend in other integrated development environments.
4. Easy team cooperation: It gives boosts in team cooperation by offering the features like code reviews, debates, and comments on work items
5. Reporting and analytics features: It has built-in features of reporting and analytics which further helps teams to provide good work.

Disadvantages:

1. Not good reporting: Reporting is good in TFS but not as good as other tools in the market.
2. Data loss when server unreachable: If TFS server is unreachable, then there are high chances of losing all the work too.
3. Limited non-Microsoft support: It offers only a small amount of non-Microsoft technology support.
4. Requires special hardware: It needs special hardware and resources which may be difficult for small-scale businesses or teams with limited funds.

Jira vs TFS

Parameters	JIRA	TFS
Objective	It is a bug tracking tool.	It is an application life-cycle management tool.
Version Control	It has a built-in version control system.	It does not has a built-in version control system.
Native Mobile Support	It supports native mobile application development for iPhone and Android.	It supports only few features of native mobile application development.
Management Models	It supports management models such as application lifecycle management, issue tracking, software development management, customer service management and many more.	It supports management models such as issue tracking, software development management, code repository and many more.
Reporting	Reporting in Jira tool is very easy to track every issue in a project.	Reporting in TFS is also good and can tracks issue at any point of time but still lacks in performance when compared with Jira tool.
Implementation	It’s implementation takes time because of the numerous features in it.	It’s implementation is poor.

Conclusion

The tool, Jira is more widely used in the market nowadays as compared to TFS as it has a support for third-party plugins and other tools. Also, people prefer it as it is an open source tool and has easy bug tracking system. Each tool has its own advantages and disadvantages and in the end it all depends on the user to choose the right tool according to their company’s need.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Is Jira good for projects that are non-software?

Yes, Jira can be used in many different tasks besides software development, such as marketing campaigns, HR procedures, and corporate operations.

2. What are Jira’s main features?

Jira has capabilities including project boards, agile approaches (Scrum, Kanban), customized dashboards, problem tracking, and connection with other programmes.

3. Can non-software projects use TFS (Azure DevOps)?

Despite being primarily intended for the development of software, Azure DevOps’s features can be applied to manage non-software projects, particularly ones with a significant technical component.

4. Does TFS (Azure DevOps) have a free version?

Yes, a free tier of Azure DevOps is available, and it comes with standard capabilities like version control, work item tracking, and CI/CD pipelines.