Having worked extensively with JIRA in the past, I will say that whoever designed it had to have done it with clear intention.<p>JIRA has an uncanny way of attracting to it a very specific (and valuable) person inside organizations.<p>I mean the person who is obsessed with the creation and quantification of knowledge worker processes that are subtly complex. This complexity naturally gives plenty of fodder and massive surface area for engagement and features —- one can spend hours tweaking JIRA workflows, running reports, and playing with the query builder. And we all know that once a user is engaged past a few days you’ve got them, almost like a kind of pair bonding. They have bonded with your software, and they’ll be forced to spend their days in it. If there is some ritual like work involved all the more better.<p>I’ve seen these guys come in from other organizations where they’ve used JIRA and the first thing they do is push for its adoption and use. There could be plenty of other things to tackle and I’m not here to make the case JIRA is or isn’t a good tool, has value, or is more or less important, I’m just sharing my observations. When you’ve literally made it your job to be the JIRA master, you are in fact more concerned with the performance of the work than the actual work product itself. It’s like the difference between introverted and extroverted personality types. Some people come in and want to get their hands dirty with the product and code, while others want to setup JIRA and start tweaking workflows.<p>Another brilliant thing I noticed they did was to optimize the scrum display for large TVs. Many issue trackers and other tools simply don’t look good (not readable) or are not functional on a massive 70” screen. The purpose of this is clear: for standups and planning meetings where it is used in a group setting (usually by the JIRA advocate/master).<p>Another big thing is the daily e-mails. It’s a way to show your boss and co-workers you’re doing something without telling them directly. And it makes people feel good to see activity, regardless of what is actually being done, it’s often times more important that people are working together, as 90% of all work done in JIRA is irrelevant anyway.<p>People talk bad about JIRA and despite its flaws you’d do well to study its workings if you are at all interested in building a similar B2B or enterprise app that requires a certain manipulation of the end user.