Jira Sandbox and Test Environment Options

It’s shocking, but many organizations don’t have a test environment! I didn’t have one when I first started out either. But I quickly saw how important it was to be able to experiment and learn without impacting production data. You need a place to see how your changes work with real-life scenarios. Here are some options, depending on whether you have Jira Cloud, Jira Server, or Jira Data Center.

Contents:

Options for Jira Cloud

Here are some test environment options for Cloud customers using the Atlassian hosted environment.

Sandbox

In Cloud, visit: admin.atlassian.com > Products > Sandbox

There’s a sandbox option built into all Premium and Enterprise plans. This is an isolated environment where you can test and experiment without impacting production. The application has the same user limit as the production application it’s linked to. The sandbox application will has its own URL which is similar to the production URL.

Read more: https://support.atlassian.com/organization-administration/docs/manage-product-sandboxes

Dev Instance

If you’re an Atlassian Marketplace developer, you can sign up for a free development instance. Developer assets are subject to the Atlassian Developer Terms, which are additional to the regular terms of service. This licenses comes with a limited number of users for test purposes. For example, you can only have 1 JSM agent user and 5 Jira Software users.

Read more: https://developer.atlassian.com/platform/marketplace/getting-started

Free Version

There’s also a free version of Cloud. It’s like the paid version, except it includes less features. For example, it doesn’t include project or issue permissions. It won’t help you test those areas. That’s why I prefer the previous ideas.

Read more: https://www.atlassian.com/software/free

Other Ideas

Another option is to get a second application instance and pay for just a few users.

You can also start a new free trial. This might be helpful if you’re testing the features of a different Cloud plan and don’t wish to upgrade or downgrade production.

Finally, if you have no better option, create a test project in your production application.

Options for Jira Server

Atlassian stopped selling new licenses of Server products in February 2021 and support ended in February 2024. But I know some of you are still using Server right now and for a variety of reasons, will continue to use it for some time.

Luckily, the installation process for Server is the same as Data Center. The difference is licensing and of course, Data Center has additional features for enterprise environments. If you still have a working server license, simply follow the instructions in my “How to Install Jira on Windows” article.

Options for Jira Data Center

Here are some test environment options for Data Center customers hosting their own software:

Per Atlassian: “Atlassian supplies “developer” licenses that can be used by existing commercial license holders who wish to deploy non-production installations of our software to use in QA/staging environments.

Read more: https://confluence.atlassian.com/jirakb/get-a-developer-license-for-jira-server-744526918.html

my.atlassian.com

There’s also a 30-day free trial available. Visit my.atlassian.com and click the “New Trial License” link.

If you have no better option, create a test project in prod.

Regardless of the method you choose, make sure you have a place to test your changes before you unleash them on your users! 

Always make sure your test environment settings match your production environment as much as possible. Don’t forget to include any reverse proxies, SSL, or load balancer settings.

How to Install Jira on Windows

A test environment is a vital asset for any Jira administrator. It’s easy to create your own Jira Server or Data Center sandbox for experimentation. You can install Jira on a proper server or on an old laptop under your desk. Here’s how.

Contents:


Note: Atlassian stopped selling new licenses of Server products in February 2021 and support ended in February 2024. But I know some of you are still using Server right now and for a variety of reasons, will continue to use it for some time. Luckily, the installation process for Server is the same as Data Center. The difference is licensing and of course, Data Center has additional features for enterprise environments.


Step 1: Download Installer

Download the desired Jira Software version from: https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/update

Atlassian offers installer files for OS X, Linux, and Windows. There are also TAR.GZ and a ZIP archive formats.

Tips:

  • There’s no specific installer for the Data Center deployment type. Simply install the Server type and add a Data Center license key to unlock Data Center capabilities.
  • Atlassian supplies “developer” licenses for non-production installations.

Step 2: Run Installer and Select Options

The installation wizard offers “Express Install” and “Custom Install” options.

Here’s a quick demo of installing Jira on a Windows computer with the default “Express Install” settings. I recorded this so you could see the wizard’s steps before running it yourself.

Custom Installation Options

Choose the “Custom Install” option instead to select the installation directory, storage location for attachments, XML backups, plugins, and indexes, the application shortcut name and location, HTTP and Control ports, and whether to automatically start Jira as a service whenever the computer restarts.

Jira Installation Tips

Previous Installations
If you’ve installed Jira on the same machine before, make sure to remove all previous files and settings to avoid installation errors.

File Access
The default installation directory is C:\Program Files\Atlassian\Jira. The default home directory is: C:\Program Files\Atlassian\Application Data\Jira. You may need to grant yourself access to these folders.

Default Ports
The default TCP ports are 8080 (HTTP) and 8005 (Control). If you’re running other applications (e.g. Confluence), avoid conflicts by selecting unique ports for Jira.

Launch Jira in a Browser
The default Jira application access URL is: http://localhost:port-number. E.g. http://localhost:8080. It may take multiple minutes to load the application the first time is starts and after a restart.

Manage the Service
Stop, start, and restart Jira using the Windows Services utility. Access it by typing Win + R and entering services.msc in the “Run” text box. In the Services window, right click on “Atlassian Jira” to access the options.

Windows Services Utility
Services utility in Windows

You may also have “Access Jira”, “Start Jira Service”, and “Stop Jira Service” shortcuts in your Windows start menu.

Windows Start Menu shortcuts

Jira Issue Types: More than Just Classification

If you’re only using Jira issue types to classify different types of work, you’re missing out! In addition to their organization and classification value, issue types provide many additional useful features. Here’s a brief summary of each:

Icon

Icons serve as visual distinguishers in search results, reports, dashboards, boards, and more.

Tip: Make sure each issue type has a unique icon in each issue type scheme.

In the example scheme, both improvement and story have the same icon. I would change improvement so it has a different image and/or color.

Issue type scheme

Description

Each issue type has a user-facing description. Hover over an issue type’s icon to see it.

Tip: Customize the description field to help users understand the intent of each issue type’s use.

Hierarchy

Issue types create the capability of a parent/child hierarchical relationship. Jira comes with two levels but additional levels can be added with apps or by upgrading to Jira Software Cloud Premium or Enterprise.

Different Settings

And the best part: Issue types allow issues to have different workflows, screens (containing different fields), or both.

For example, a story issue type may have different custom fields or workflow steps than a task issue type in the same Jira project. Issue types and schemes make different procedures and information collection possible.

Read More

Check out my Understanding Jira Issue Types, from Basics to Advanced Hierarchies article on Salto’s website that covers issue type uses, relationships, hierarchy capabilities, and the new “parent” field in Jira Software Cloud.

Connect Slack to Manage Jira Notification Overload

Instructions and tips for using a chat program as a central hub for Atlassian application notifications.

As I mentioned in my last post, one of my 2024 goals is to consolidate tools to improve my focus and automate processes. Here’s an easy win: I’m using my chat program as a “home base” for all alerts and notifications. Here’s how I integrated Jira and Slack which is especially helpful when I’m traveling. I simply launch Slack on my phone or laptop and create, assign, or transition Jira issues as needed. No need to log into multiple apps separately.

Check out my article on Salto’s website for Slack and Jira integration instructions, tips, shortcuts, and time savers.

Jira and Slack Integration for Enhanced Productivity

Read: Jira and Slack Integration for Enhanced Productivity
Discover how to seamlessly integrate Jira and Slack for efficient task management and improved team communication.

Related Goal

Consolidating tools to improve my focus and automate processes

Plans and New Jira Content for 2024

Jira consultant Rachel Wright outlines 2024 goals, including new Jira courses, tool consolidation, community engagement, and website improvements.

As a consultant, I continuously refine my business operations, Jira implementation strategies, and expand my repository of knowledge. The learning journey is endless and there are always opportunities to streamline, automate, and enhance not just my own experience, but also that of my clients. Here’s a peek into my initiatives for early 2024, spotlighting my top three goals.

Top 2024 Goals

1. 🎯 Consolidating tools to improve my focus and automate processes
2. 📣 Re-engaging with the community and improving my response time
3. 🔨 Fixing this broken, outdated, and embarrassing website

New Creating Custom Workflows for Jira Course

My newest course Jira: Managing Custom Workflows just launched on LinkedIn Learning!

In this course, I provide an in-depth overview of the skills required to design, plan, and build workflows for new and experienced Jira administrators. Discover the features, functions, and my strategies for creating, using, extending, and maintaining custom workflows. Test out your new skills with practice challenges and quizzes. And don’t miss the workflow scavenger hunt to see how many problems or opportunities for improvement you can detect.

Updated “Learning Jira (Server & Data Center Edition)” Course

I’m currently working on a new version of my “Learning Jira” course for Server and Data Center. The updated version includes new live Jira examples, more examples of how Jira is used, a live tour of each Jira application type, more information about project types, a downloadable glossary, additional challenges and solutions, and updated information, screenshots, and quiz questions.

Additional new courses on specific Jira topics are also planned for 2024!

New Course Resources Section

It’s really hard to keep up with software changes. New features are added, moved, or changed all the time. Existing features or even entire products are renamed. And links that worked yesterday are broken today.

That’s why I’ve set up a special place on my website where you can get the latest Jira information. When something impactful in any of my courses changes, I’ll post that information.

Other Projects and Ideas

What additional items or priorities would you like to see me work on in 2024? What are you working on? Leave a comment or idea below!

The Jira Nomad

Chris Lutz and Rachel Wright relaxing on their RV travel adventure

I’m so fortunate to be able to combine my two passions: travel and Jira administration. In 2015, Chris and I started a full-time travel adventure and we haven’t stopped yet. Working on the road is easier and more rewarding than you’d think! If you’re dreaming of a lifestyle change, don’t let work, kids, pets, or anything else deter you from trying it.

Join me and fellow Jira administrator, Łukasz Przybyłowicz from JiraForThePeople.com, as we discuss learning Jira the hard way, life on the road as a digital nomad, and staying out of the “Jira swamp”.

Jira admins Łukasz Przybyłowicz and Rachel Wright

Balancing Chaos and Order

In the video, Łukasz shares his interesting perspective on my life of chaos and order. Łukasz says the Jira content, templates, and worksheets I produce provide order and organization and the constant travel supplies the chaos! (Yep – every time a tire explodes or we have to evacuate to avoid a hurricane there is disorder.) But Jira consulting and travel help balance the “known” and “unknown” aspects of our nomadic lifestyle.

I’ve never considered moving from place to place to be much of a risk, but change is often scary at first. Ultimately for us, the good experiences far outweigh the bad, and life on the road is nothing short of fantastic. Chris and I highly recommend it and encourage you to follow your dreams, no matter where they take you.

Good luck with your Jira journey and I’ll see you online…or on the road!

Advanced Jira Administration: Getting into the Scheme of Things

A practical example for a development project

Let’s say you create specific Jira issue types because you want to collect a different data set for each type, and because want the different issue types to use different workflows. So what do you do next? How do you tell Jira what information to collect for each issue type? Should you create screens or a field configuration scheme first? What’s the difference between an issue type scheme and an issue type screen scheme? How do you associate an issue type with a workflow?

Understanding Jira schemes and how they interact with each other is one of the most important, and most challenging parts of Jira administration. My new Advanced Jira Administration course will help you understand:

  • The nine different Jira schemes and what each one does
  • Where to find the schemes used by a given project
  • The hierarchal relationship between screen schemes and issue type screen schemes
  • The correct order for creating screens, screen schemes and issue type screen schemes
  • How to remove a screen, screen scheme or issue type screen scheme
  • How to share schemes across multiple projects
  • When and how to create custom schemes
  • And much more
The course contains challenges, quizzes, downloadable handouts, and personal stories.

In this course, we’ll discuss real-life Jira scheme examples, areas where it’s easy to go wrong, and best practices for creating and managing schemes. The course includes clear explanations, demonstrations, and challenges (with solutions!) to try in your Jira application.

Once you understand Jira schemes you’ll have the keys to unlock Jira efficiency and scaleability.

Rachel Wright’s Jira Courses on LinkedIn

Not a LinkedIn Learning member yet? Start your 30 day LinkedIn Learning free trial! Access to my courses and others is included with your Premium subscription!

New Course – Jira: Advanced Administration

Jira: Advanced Administration with Rachel Wright
Take “Jira: Advanced Administration” with Rachel Wright

Life is short. Jira is complex. There simply isn’t time to make all of the mistakes and learn everything you need to know by trial and error. I’ve compiled over eight years of lessons learned in my Jira Basic and Advanced Administration courses. The advanced course is available now on LinkedIn! It will help you navigate the complexities of Jira and find the right balance between user support and application functionality. Take this course to correctly configure your application and make sure it stays clean, manageable, and flexible.

Course Structure

The Jira: Advanced Administration course picks up where the Jira: Basic Administration course leaves off. The advanced course is designed to help you understand and internalize Jira concepts by including:

  • Real world examples of what to do, and what not to do taken from my personal experience
  • Explanations of the latest Jira jargon (ie. Company-managed projects vs team-managed projects)
  • Tips and best practices
  • Demonstrations
  • Challenges that you can try in your own Jira application
  • Quizzes to ensure understanding and build your confidence
  • Handouts
  • And more

While the examples used in the course are from Jira Software, the lessons can also be applied to Jira Service Management and Jira Work Management projects. All deployment types (Cloud, Server, and Data Center) are included.

Course Content

The course takes a deep dive into topics such as configuring global permissions, understanding scheme hierarchy, creating custom schemes and custom workflows, managing project settings, working with groups and roles, and controlling access to information.  

Your job as a Jira administrator is to give your teams the functionality they need and ensure the long term health of your Jira application. We’ll discuss when and how to make customizations and how to choose from the thousands of available Jira apps and extensions.

Finally, we’ll also look at advanced Jira features such as creating issues from email and issue collectors, importing data into your Jira instance, and streamlining process with automation.

Knowing the best way to solve a problem and how it will impact your application in the future is the difference between a good Jira administrator and a great one. If you’re a newly minted Administrator, an experienced JA looking for guidance on taming an overgrown Jira instance, or a determined perfectionist who’s trying to set things up right the first time – then this course is for you!

Rachel Wright’s Jira Courses on LinkedIn

Not a LinkedIn Learning member yet? Start your 30 day LinkedIn Learning free trial! Access to my courses and others is included with your Premium subscription!

Coming Soon – Jira: Advanced Administration

My new Jira: Advanced Administration course is now available! Take the course on LinkedIn now.

Not a LinkedIn Learning member yet? Start your 30 day LinkedIn Learning free trial! Access to my courses and others is included with your Premium subscription!

About the Course

Jira is the industry standard for tracking work, tasks, and strategic company initiatives.  The software is infinitely flexible and customizable, which is both a blessing and a curse.  The goal of the Jira administrator should be to configure application settings to support the needs of the organization and ensure the health of the application in the future.  This requires an intimate understanding of Jira’s capabilities, global options, and scheme configuration.

In this advanced Jira administration course, you’ll learn:

  • The most important configuration options like general settings and global permissions
  • How schemes work together to power Jira projects
  • How to create custom projects, issue types, workflows, screens, and custom fields
  • How to manage project-specific settings like components and versions
  • Working with groups and roles for easy user management
  • How to restrict access and share information with permission, issue security, and notification schemes
  • Ways to extend Jira with apps, connections, and integrations
  • Advanced features like importing data, creating issues from email, adding custom events, and automation
  • And more

“Knowing the best way to solve a problem and how it will impact your application in the future is the difference between a good administrator and a great one.”
– Rachel Wright

Jira Automation Ideas

In case you need some inspiration, here are 65 ways you can use automation in Jira to make your life easier. You can accomplish all of these with built-in automation, workflow extensions, and scheduling apps!

Communicate Information

Send additional notifications

  • Notify the project manager when an initiative is approved
  • Notify customers when their feedback or bug is addressed
  • Alert the legal and customer service teams when a new product launches
  • Use an integration or a webhook to notify your team’s chat room of certain Jira events

Send weekly updates

  • Send a report of all the issues you worked on this week

Show instructions

  • Provide an on-screen message, after a workflow transition, to remind a user to perform a task they frequently forget to do

Automatically create issues

  • When product features change, automatically create an issue for the legal team to revise the terms of service
  • When there’s an outage, automatically notify customer service so they can be ready to address trouble reports
  • If a customer support request requires development work, auto create the issue and assign it to the right team lead

Add watchers

  • Automatically add previous assignees as watchers

Add comments

  • Add a comment to any automatically closed issues, explaining why and how to reopen issues if needed
  • Add a canned response based on a label

Communicate requirements

  • Require users to link issues to their related initiative
  • Automatically remind business owners to attach project requirements

Update Information

Automatically update issues based on certain criteria

  • Assign issues based on custom field data like a certain skill needed or a specific office location
  • Automatically assign issues to users in a list
  • Add high priority bugs to the “Next unreleased version”
  • Set a due date based on a creation date
  • Update issues based on a JQL result
  • Automatically log work on a workflow transition
  • Update information in a child issue with information from the parent
  • Automatically update the due date for all linked issues

Automatically transition issues

  • If a code review is rejected in Crucible, automatically transition the Jira issue back to “To Do” status and notify the developer that there’s a problem
  • If a code branch is created in Bitbucket, automatically transition the Jira issue from the “To Do” status to the “In Progress” status
  • Automatically reopen a closed issue if a customer adds a comment
  • Close an Epic when it’s Stories are closed
  • Close all Sub-tasks when a Task is abandoned

Conditionally update issues

  • Only update issues with a specific priority level
  • Only update issues with a certain component selected

Log additional details

  • When an approval is given, add the user’s name and the timestamp to custom fields, to easily see and report on that information

Automatically increment a number field each time an event occurs

  • Count how many times an issue went into the “On Hold” status, was reopened, or was reassigned

Repeat Frequent Tasks

Create issues on a specific or recurring schedule

  • Automatically create all scheduled maintenance tasks each quarter
  • Automatically create all regression testing tasks
  • Clone an issue each week for the next two years

Create issues based on components

  • For each new hire, automatically create an issue for each application or resource the user needs
  • For each new product, automatically create all the marketing tasks

Create reminders

  • Create sub-tasks to remind yourself to log time at the end of each week
  • Remind the customer to verify their request is resolved
  • Remind the assignee to review an issue not updated in the last two days

Calculate information

  • Automatically calculate the hardware purchase cost based on quantity
  • Automatically calculate the level of effort based on estimates
  • Automatically calculate the mileage fee based on travel miles
  • Automatically calculate the training cost based on number of requests
  • Sub all logged time for an initiative

Create related issues

  • When a request requires development work, automatically create an issue for the dev team and link it to the customer request

Sync Information

Updated related issues

  • When information changes in a parent task automatically update the child task
  • Use regex to find issues mentioned in other fields and automatically link them together

Sync data between multiple Jira applications

  • Sync information once an hour or once a day

Sync data with other tools

  • When case details are added in Salesforce, automatically provide that information in the related Jira issue
  • Automatically create requests from emails or chat conversations

Perform Maintenance

Delete old data

  • Automatically delete old attachments to free up space or for compliance reasons

Schedule admin tasks

  • Periodically look for changes in the list of users with application administrator access

Close old issues

  • Schedule a JQL query to find all bugs older than 2 years and automatically close them
  • Close all requests not updated by the customer in 7 days

Close duplicate issues

  • When an incomplete issue is linked as a dupe, automatically transition the issue to “Done”

Send Alerts

Meet deadlines

  • Find overdue tasks and alert the project manager
  • Notify agents of approaching SLA deadlines
  • Alert the hiring manager one week before a new hire arrives
  • Send an alert when a project reaches 80% of it’s budget

Manage missing information

  • Alert an employee if their expense reimbursement issue is missing receipt attachments
  • Alert a project manager if an important task is missing approval

Surface high priority information

  • Send alerts for high priority bugs, incidents, or impactful issues
  • Detect and alert users to specific problems or key phrases

Catch undesired behavior

  • Detect the word “password” to make sure a user hasn’t exposed their credentials
  • Catch users skipping the QA test step before work is deployed to production

Have more ideas? Share them in the comments section below!

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