There are several free retro boards and integrations for Jira. But which of the tools is best?
An agile retrospective in Atlassian can be conducted in Jira and Confluence. On the right you can see a retrospective template as a Confluence page.
Jira itself can only be used for retrospectives via detours, namely by 1. creating a project and then 2. creating your own Kanban board in this project with the typical retro questions, for example "Start, Stop, Keep" (one column each). Now team members can leave their feedback in the respective columns during the retro.
However, we would not recommend using the Jira Board, as it is simply not directly designed for agile retrospectives. Alternatively, you can better use a Confluence template for retrospectives, which integrates well with Jira. The best way to do this is to use a specialized retro tool such as Echometer, which has an integration into the Jira tool and also integrates central features such as ROTI score, flexible whiteboard, health check and retro formats. There are many other options for retro boards on the Atlassian Marketplace.
The Echometer Jira retro plugin works relatively simply: In your Echometer workspace administration, you have to connect your Jira account using your Jira workspace link. Once you have done this, you can then automatically store measures from your retrospective in Jira as a ticket or similar. You can find more information about this at the top of this page.
To do this, you must first 1. create a project and then, in this project, 2. create your own Kanban board with the typical retro questions, for example "Start, Stop, Keep" (one column each). Now team members can leave their feedback in the respective columns during the retro.
However, as I said, we would not recommend using Jira itself for the retro, as Jira was simply not developed for this purpose.
You can better use a Confluence Retro Template. The results can then be easily integrated into Jira.
But the best way to do this is to use a specialized retro tool such as Echometer, which has an integration into the Jira tool and also integrates central features such as ROTI score, flexible whiteboard, health check and retro formats. There are many other options for retro boards on the Atlassian Marketplace.
To my knowledge, there is no Jira Retrospective Template, but only a few retrospective templates for Confluence pages - e.g. "Good/Bad" and "Start, Stop, Keep". You could only develop Jira Retrospective Templates yourself in a project or on a page. However, Jira is not ideal for retros. Instead, we recommend that Scrum Masters and Agile Coaches use retro tools with Jira integration, such as Echometer. Further options can also be found in the Atlassian Marketplace.
There are various options for creating a retro board in Jira (via detours or integrations):
Either you carry out the retrospective on a Jira page or in a ticket, or you create a project board for it. Obviously, neither is ideal because they are not designed for it. Instead, you can use a retrospective template in Confluence or, alternatively, a retrospective tool such as Echometer, which has a Jira plugin.
Either you simply take a screenshot of your respective retrospective board including the measures created, or you add a link to the retrospective content in, for example, a Jira ticket. However, a sprint retrospective report can best be automated in tools such as Echometer, which create a retrospective report or summary without your input and also have an integration into Jira.
For a Jira Sprint Retrospective Meeting, you can use a Jira page or a Jira Board, neither of which is ideally suited. It is better if you use a Confluence page (there are also a few retrospective templates for your meeting there). Alternatively, you can use a Sprint Retrospective tool such as Echometer, which offers integration into Jira and is likely to offer more interactivity and fun than the direct Jira alternatives (more on the best free software for agile retrospectives).
You can do your retro on a Confluence page or on the Jira board. There are also various Jira Cloud Retrospective Apps on the Atlassian marketplace, as well as other retro tools with Jira Retrospective Plugin. The following comparison shows the best retrospective tool in Jira.
| Evaluation criteria | Echometer | Jira & Confluence | Team Retro | FunRetro former EasyRetro Board | MetroRetro Board |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Integration with Jira | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes | ❌ No |
| Jira Retro App available (Atlassian Marketplace) | ❌ No | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | ❌ No |
| Interactive online retrospectives | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | ⚠️ Partially | ❌ No | ✅ Yes |
| Templates for every level of team maturity | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | ⚠️ Partially | ❌ No | ❌ No |
| Continuous tracking of measures (Retro to Retro) | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Partially | ⚠️ Partially | ❌ No | ❌ No |
| Team development measured over time | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | ❌ No |
| Collecting feedback before retros (optional) | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Partially | ❌ No | ❌ No | ❌ No |
| Organizational Health Checks | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | ❌ No | ❌ No | ❌ No |
| Health Check Item Pool with Nudges (Food for Thought) | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | ❌ No | ❌ No | ❌ No |
| Mobile Device Support for On-site Retros | ✅ Yes | ⚠️ Partially | ❌ No | ❌ No | ❌ No |
| Integrated Online-Whiteboard | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | ❌ No | ❌ No | ✅ Yes |
| Data protection (developed and hosted in Germany) | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | ❌ No | ❌ No | ❌ No |
| Free version (after trial) | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes | ❌ No | ✅ Yes | ✅ Yes |
You would like to include other retro tools in your comparison?
Incl. brief introduction with screenshots & pro-contra list
The integration of Echometer to Jira can be easily set up. You simply enter the Jira workspace via link in Echometer (see "Integrations" and "Jira").
As soon as the Echometer workspace is linked to your Jira account, you can, for example, create action items as a Jira issue.
As soon as the Echometer workspace is linked to your Jira account, you can, for example, create action items as a Jira issue.
Looking for a Jira Retro tool? Simply start a retro in Echometer and set up the integration to Jira:
Echometer addresses Jira's weaknesses as a retrospective tool. Compared to other Jira retrospective tools, it focuses entirely on science-based team development - keeping it fun and easy.
“Many Agile Coaches & Scrum Masters are going around in circles. They fix superficial symptoms. It's time to use psychology and address the mindset directly - with the Echometer Retro Tool.”
"Echometer is like a combination of Miro and a clever Retro Board. It even provides KPIs on the impact of my coaching and makes it easy to spot trends in team development. I love this tool and recommend it to anyone who wants to make their retros even more effective!"
Duane Hill
Scrum Master
Join thousands of Team Leads & Agile Coaches in making team development more engaging - and measurable!
The following questions will help you choose the right online retro board software.
If an agile team does not yet have much experience with retrospectives, a tool that effectively guides you through the retrospective and offers many templates is recommended:
This makes Echometer the best software recommendation for beginners with agile retrospectives or Scrum beginners. By the way, you can try out Echometer for free without logging in: Echometer Try out the retro tool
Echometer is the best software tool for retrospectives compared to alternative retrospective software tools such as Retrium, EasyRetro, Reetro, Neetro and TeamRetro for three reasons:
Users of Echometer particularly appreciate the unique function of Echometer to insert Health Checks into their agile retrospectives: These agile Health Checks make a massive contribution to stimulating team reflection and actively involving every team member in the retrospective.
To summarize, even alternative retrospective software tools such as Parabol do not have the unique features of the Echometer retrospective tool, which are both simple and effective. Therefore, it can be said that Echometer is the best software app for conducting agile sprint retrospective meetings.
The greatest strengths of the Echometer retrospective tool are its impact on time savings, participant engagement and productivity.
Combined with the unique features of the agile Health Checks and flexible whiteboards, Echometer is one of the best, if not the best, retrospective tool on the market, even better than the better-known Parabol retrospective tool.
