Featured image displaying the logos of Jira and Asana in Unito's guide to setting up a simple Two-Way Sync

How to Quickly Sync Jira Issues and Asana Tasks with 2-way Updates

Published in Apps on , last updated .

This walkthrough will show you how to connect Jira with Asana with automated 2-way updates to keep your issues and tasks in sync. Unito’s simple no-code integration enables anyone on your team to quickly set up a workflow that turns newly created issues into tasks and vice versa with a range of options in between.

Similar steps and principles will apply to many other Jira integrations with project management tools including ClickUp, monday.com, Wrike or Trello. We also have a guide on how to sync Jira epics to Asana.

This Unito integration for Asana Jira has two goals:

  • Automatically create new Jira issues based on specified Asana tasks and vice versa.
  • Maintain a live, bidirectional sync between tasks and issues so that everyone has visibility over the latest dev work in real-time without needing to manually share or request information. 

Watch as our team walks you through this flow from start to finish:

In this article:

Specific requirements for syncing Jira and Asana with Unito’s integration:

Jira profile page to change email contact visibility
Changing your Jira contact email visibility enables Unito to discover your account and sync Jira issues to Trello.

Step 1.  Connect Asana and Jira to Unito

  • Navigate to the Unito App or access Unito from Jira and select +Create Flow.
  • Select Start Here to connect Asana and Jira.
  • Choose the accounts you want connected to Unito.

In this walkthrough, we’ll select Asana on the left-hand side, and then Jira on the right. You’ll need to specify which account for each tool you wish to connect through Unito, as well as the project names you wish to sync.

Connect Asana and Jira to Unito Two Way Sync

When you’re ready, click Confirm.

Step 2. Tell Unito where to automatically create Asana tasks or Jira issues

Flow direction determines where your manually created tasks or issues get automatically created by Unito. You can either set a one-way or a two-way flow direction. In a one-way flow, there is a source and destination tool.

Manually created tasks or issues in the source tool will be automatically created by Unito. Since our goal is to sync project information, we’ll choose a bidirectional, or two-way flow.

Set a two-way flow direction between Jira and Asana Unito sync

Click Confirm when you’ve chosen a flow direction. 

Step 3. Pick rules to specify Jira and Asana tasks to sync

Now we can set up rules to determine which trigger events will send data between our tools. Select Add a new trigger to establish your rules for each directional flow.

In the example below, you’ll see a complete set of rules for a sync between Asana and Jira. We’ve told the system to create an issue in Jira for every open task in the Asana Product roadmap project. 

Set up rules to filter data between Jira and Asana Unito two-way sync

NOTE: These triggers are intended to help you keep only the most relevant information in sync to avoid oversharing unnecessary details. You can apply custom labels to your issues or tasks to be even more precise about what kind of data is shared.

Similarly, in the next example, we’ve set rules to create a new task in Asana for every open issue in the Jira project named “Asana Development.”

Find out more about setting rules.

Step 4. Set relationships between fields in Asana and Jira

While rules are intended to set triggers for when data should be synced, field mappings determines what information is synced between your tools.

When you first open this screen, you’ll be presented with two options. If you select Auto-map, Unito will pre-populate a list of suggested field mappings which you can then adjust. If you know exactly how you want your fields mapped, Start from scratch.

Learn more about field mappings between Asana and Jira.

Your fields will be automatically mapped for two-way updates, but you can adjust them as needed. With a one-way sync between fields, only the destination field will update automatically when you make changes in the source field.

Click + Add mapping to add additional fields to be synced.

Then, Select a field for each tool, and find the appropriate field to map.

After you’ve chosen a field in one tool, Unito will suggest compatible matches in the second tool when you click on the other drop-down menu. See below for an example:

Choose fields to map between Asana tasks and Jira issues Unito two-way sync

Selecting the gear icon beside a field will allow you to customize the values or statuses within those fields to further customize your flow.

In the example below, we have told the system to match priority levels between tools. The field mapped is Priority Level, while the values within are Medium, Low, and High, each in their respective tool.

Screenshot of field mappings table in Unito to sync Jira and Asana fields together

Click Confirm when you’re satisfied with your field mappings to proceed.

Find out more about setting field mappings.

Save and launch your new Jira Asana integration

And that’s it! You’ve just completed a flow between Asana and Jira. Congratulations!

If you’ve followed the steps above, your flow will now: 

  • Create an issue in Jira for every task in our specified Asana project
  • Create a task in Asana for every issue in our specified Jira project.
  • Allow teams to collaborate between both tools without needing to leave their preferred interface, copy-paste data manually, or request information from the other team about these projects.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out and let us know. Our live support team is ready to jump in and lend a hand to make sure your flows always function as intended.

What’s next after syncing Jira Asana with Unito’s automated integration?

Examples of custom field mappings between Jira and Asana

Here’s a closer look at a more complex set of field mappings between an Asana and Jira project. In this example, the Jira project has several custom fields synced one-way to Asana so the team in Asana can stay up to date on information from Jira.

Syncing Asana and Jira to manage product launches

The Asana project is part of a go-live initiative for a product launch. With this workflow, both teams will be on top of any issues that need to be resolved before the launch happens. The “Jira next point of contact” custom field is used by this team to indicate who’s responsible for the next step in each process.

Screenshot of complex workflows in Unito syncing Asana and Jira.

Each field with a blue question mark indicates a custom field synced by Unito. This is where the power of 2-way sync truly shines – by enabling you to sync any fields you can create to match your use case.

Clicking on the gear icon shows the variety of values that can be paired within each set of linked fields:

In this example, the team has synced a custom “NetSuite Process” field one-way from Asana to Jira to ensure that teams in Jira are kept in the loop about which NetSuite process each task pertains to.

The flow direction for this field is one-way only because the team in Asana is the primary team working on these processes and they want to maintain control over the status and categorization of tasks. This kind of transparency can help teams coordinate their efforts and avoid duplicating work.

Why sync Jira issues with Asana tasks?

Break your teams out of data silos easily

There are countless ways to benefit from connecting Jira with Asana. To keep things simple, we’ll only describe a few use cases here that are by no means the limit of what can be achieved by connecting Asana tasks with Jira issues.

Perhaps a team of developers or scrum masters in Jira need to plan sprints for the upcoming quarter. They might receive work from a team using a different project management tool (in this case, Asana). Management might want to have everyone on the same tool for simplicity, but that’s not always the most practical solution if the goal is to optimize efficiency.

Collaboration through smooth automation

The team in Jira and the team in Asana both need to collaborate with the rest of the organization to provide timelines and report on progress to stakeholders. Syncing these tools with Unito cuts out the friction and enables everyone to stay in their preferred interface without compromise or requiring one team member to copy-paste data back and forth between tools.

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