The JIRA issue-tracking system has been around for seven years
and has proved popular in commercial as well as open-source
environments owing to its licensing arrangements (free of charge to
certain classes of organizations, and source code available to
developers). The release of v.4 in 2009 (now at 4.4) brought some
major changes to the UI and searching, a new plugin architecture,
and the ability to share project dashboards outside the system.
Patrick Li's JIRA 4 Essentials is a comprehensive guide to the
interface and facilities that both presents the material
straighforwardly and avoids the trap of just being a guide to the
menus. Although it is aimed mainly at the administrator, it will
also be useful for the desktop user wanting a standalone system.