Atlassian’s JIRA is a general purpose issue-tracking tool designed to be flexible. JIRA believes every team has a unique process for shipping software and that they can match the way a team works.

To be sure, one tool that can do anything is seductive on the surface. However, after each individual team customizes the tool in their own way, your organization is left with several different tools that happen to come from one vendor. We believe this approach comes with inherent risks:

• The quality of the workflows will vary from team to team;


• Individual workflows will grow in complexity over time;


• That complexity will hinder use, reducing the efficacy of the tool, and will make implementing changes to the workflow complex;


• At the company level, this complexity means that cross-team communication becomes complicated; and


• Significant resources will be needed to manage these workflows.

Tracker is a precision instrument, optimized for cross-functional agile development teams. It facilitates consistent outcomes, smooth collaboration, and drives the work so managers don’t need to hassle people to update tasks. We believe agile software teams only need three things from a project management tool to thrive:

• Visibility and transparency. A single source of truth for their project helps them focus on doing what’s most important for the business.


• Structure. Just the right amount of structure and a shared workflow for the whole team to be as productive as possible.


• Simplicity. Make it easy and fun to use for the entire team—productive teams are happy teams.

We hear from customers all the time, and here's what they tell us are their favorite things about Pivotal Tracker.

• Ease of use. A single-page, drag-and-drop UI makes prioritization and collaboration intuitive, and helps new users get to work on projects in minutes.


• Workflow that works. Pivotal Tracker’s built-in workflow functions the same way for everyone, eliminating confusion, ensuring productivity, and allowing for aggregate productivity data across projects.


• Project transparency. A shared, clear view of your entire team’s work means everyone has a real-time, single source of truth.


• Automatic planning. When you let Pivotal Tracker do the planning, release markers are automatically generated based on team estimates and past progress so you can see when work will be completed.


• Developer love. Developers like that Pivotal Tracker lets them see what they need to do next, and helps them do it without getting in the way.


• Mobile apps. Full-featured, native iOS (with over 500 five-star reviews) and Android apps keep on-the-go members informed.

The difference between Pivotal Tracker and tools like JIRA is fundamentally a philosophical one. But if your team is ready to work more efficiently with a workflow that ensures predictability, there are several ways you can move from JIRA to Tracker. It’s possible to migrate your data over and move all your information, lock, stock, and barrel—or you may decide to have Tracker and JIRA work hand-in-hand for now.