JIRA is a Bug and Issue tracker.  It has been designed:

• for Bug tracking
• aid in Project Management
• enable Agile Development

There is a connection tool to Eclipse that allows you to manage tasks, issues, builds, and code reviews directly in your integrated development environment.

Setting up the application on my localhost was pretty easy. 

1. Download the archive of the application and unpack it.
2. I put it in my MAMP folder – however, you probably don’t need to put it there.  However, this keeps all the software that I’ve been playing with in a single place.  
3. You then need to fire up a terminal window and change the directory to the /bin directory.  In my case that had me entering cd /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/atlassian-jira-enterprise-3.13.3-standalone/bin
4. You then need to start the application.  Type ./startup.sh in the terminal window
5. Go to http://localhost:8080
6. Scroll to bottom of page and click on generate an evaluation key
7. Copy/Paste key into the license key area on this page
8. Add an index path, I used /applications/MAMP/htdocs/atlassian-jira-enterprise-3.13.3-standalone/index
9. Add an attachment path, I used /applications/MAMP/htdocs/atlassian-jira-enterprise-3.13.3-standalone/attach
10. I disabled Backups – I’m only evaluating the product and click Next
11. This brings you to a page to create your admin account – add the appropriate information and click Next
12. I disabled email notifications for the purpose of evaluation of the product
13. It then provided me with a link to log into JIRA

After logging in I created a new project – the process was simple – added tasks, and created components.  I assigned tasks to components and the reviewed the issue queue in a variety of ways.  When you are ready to work on an issue, you click “Start Progress”.  The button changes to read “Stop Progress” and creates a history audit trail.  By activating time tracking and logging your time, you can create a time tracking report that allows you to look at the original estimate, the estimated time remaining, and the time spent.  You can export the report to excel if you’d like.

Each ticket gives you a visual representation of your original estimate and how much time you’ve taken as bar graphs extending from opposite ends.

The tool seems pretty easy to use.