WatchTower — One Agile Board for multiple Jira instances

Atlassian team

If you have ever struggled to deal with a setup where work assignments are spread among different Jira instances — you should know the pain of getting an overview and aligning your tasks properly.

WatchTower consolidates issues from remote Cloud, Server, and Data Center Jiras into one agile board. This app solves the pain of switching between multiple Jira instances. It helps you to focus on issues from several sources at the same time. WatchTower is a single point of control for distributed assignments in federated environments with different projects, teams, departments, and Jiras.

Why do you need WatchTower app for Jira?

One-for-all

If you are tired of jumping between several remote Jiras, WatchTower is an easy and fast way to get a clear picture of all issues on your board.

Collaborative point

When you need to show the situation the way you see it, you can share your consolidated board from WatchTower with your team. There are two permission levels available to evoke the cooperation. With the “View” permission, users will be able to see the board as an admin but won’t be allowed to make any changes. And the “Edit” permission lets users introduce changes on condition that they input their own credentials to achieve traceability and enable efficient teamwork.

Time saver

If you spend too much time handling the overall progress of your team, this app helps you to save time and effort by updating remote issues from a single board directly to source Jiras.

Jira’s native

If you would like to have one convenient tool for management, WatchTower offers you a convenient solution. It supports board configurations, maps original issue statuses to board columns, uses the familiar drag-n-drop feature to change statuses, and sends updates to remote Jiras directly.

Migrate in comfort

In case an enterprise-level company has to merge several Jiras into one, it may be a long process comprising different stages. WatchTower can help to avoid a mess when one team has already migrated, while the others are queued for a further stage. One agile board will still gather the data from all instances and you won’t miss a thing.

What is WatchTower good at?

• using Cloud & Server as a data source;
• sharing the board with your team and setting a proper access policy;
• fine-tuning the pulled-out data based on JQL;
• clear mapping & configuration of issue statuses to board columns;
• common user experience from standard Agile Boards — Drag-n-Drop for transitions, Swimlanes, Worklogs, etc.;
• updating issues remotely at their source Jiras;
• reporting time to issues in remote locations from the WatchTower board;
• supporting cross-references between issues from different Jiras;
• helping to stay focused in the middle of a multi-Jira merge; secure and reliable control of sensitive data;
• simple licensing, only one consolidating Jira instance needs a license.

How does WatchTower work?

WatchTower gathers issues from different Jira sources, either Cloud or Server-hosted, to present them on a single board.

It organizes issues into columns by mapping their statuses from remote Jiras the way you configured. The app splits issues into swimlanes according to the Jira source.

The single board is easy to adjust. It takes less than 5 minutes to complete the initial configurations and setup. The app guides the user with predictive suggestions and clear notifications.

WatchTower does not store sensitive data. It is a secure and reliable solution. Your credentials are only necessary for authorization. The app uses them to retrieve a token, which is required for updating source issues directly in remote Jiras.

The app uses common practices of a Jira agile board: drag-n-drop to change status, log work, create a reference to issues from other sources, etc. WatchTower operates data directly to dedicated remote Jiras with an immediate change of the source issues.

Codegeist winner

WatchTower was submitted to an annual contest of new Apps for Atlassian — Codegeist Hackathon 2017. Atlassian jury honored the app in the Best Software Team app category. Since dealing with several Jiras correlates with pains of many, consulters evaluated the WatchTower app as one of the most useful apps of the competition.

Get started today

If you would like to eliminate the annoyance of having to switch between multiple Jiras, get started using a single WatchTower board for all sources. The app is available on the Marketplace for Cloud and Server and Data Center instances. Book a demo, evaluate and decide on a purchase. In any case, we would be eager to hear your comments and thoughts.