Help with Jira Software, Jira Service Management & Confluence
Author: Rachel Wright
Rachel Wright is an entrepreneur, Certified Jira Administrator, and author of the Jira Strategy Admin Workbook. She started using Jira in 2011, became a Jira administrator in 2013, and was certified in 2016. She is the owner and founder of Industry Templates, LLC, which helps companies grow, get organized, and develop their processes.
Create custom, reusable screens to simplify the Jira configuration, maintain consistency between projects, and simplify the fields presented to users.
There are Jira screens for creating issues, viewing issues, editing issues (in Jira Server and Data Center), and collecting information during workflow transitions. How many screens does your Jira application have? Probably too many! It’s easy for the options to grow out of control. Before you know it, there are twelve pages of screens, which is probably ten too many!
So what should Jira admins do? I recommend creating one set of custom, reusable, screens for business tasks, development work, and support requests.
Check out my article on Salto’s website for step-by-step instructions and the standard and custom fields I recommend including.
Jira comes with many built-in reports to provide insights into progress, release health, time logged, forecasts, and more. Each Jira application type, deployment type and project type contain different reports however. I’ve compiled a list of the report types and their definitions in Jira Software, so you don’t have to!
Tip: Be sure to consider reporting options when choosing between project types.
Report count: 23 Unique reports: Cycle Time Report, Deployment Frequency Report, and Workload Pie Chart Report
Agile
Burndown Chart – Track the total work remaining and project the likelihood of achieving the sprint goal. This helps your team manage its progress and respond accordingly.
Burnup Chart – Track the total scope independently from the total work done. This helps your team manage its progress and better understand the effect of scope change.
Sprint Report – Understand the work completed or pushed back to the backlog in each sprint. This helps you determine if your team is overcommitting or if there is excessive scope creep.
Velocity Chart – Track the amount of work completed from sprint to sprint. This helps you determine your team’s velocity and estimate the work your team can realistically achieve in future sprints.
Cumulative Flow Diagram – Shows the statuses of issues over time. This helps you identify potential bottlenecks that need to be investigated.
Version Report – Track the projected release date for a version. This helps you monitor whether the version will release on time, so you can take action if work is falling behind.
Epic Report – Understand the progress towards completing an epic over time. This helps you manage your team’s progress by tracking the remaining incomplete/unestimated work.
Control Chart – Shows the cycle time for your product, version or sprint. This helps you identify whether data from the current process can be used to determine future performance.
Epic Burndown – Track the projected number of sprints required to complete the epic (optimized for Scrum). This helps you monitor whether the epic will release on time, so you can take action if work is falling behind.
Release Burndown – Track the projected release date for a version (optimized for Scrum). This helps you monitor whether the version will release on time, so you can take action if work is falling behind.
DevOps
Cycle Time Report– Understand how much time it takes to ship issues through the deployment pipeline and how to deal with outliers.
Deployment Frequency Report – Understand your deployment frequency to understand risk and how often you are shipping value to your customers.
Issue analysis
Average Age Report – Shows the average age of unresolved issues for a project or filter. This helps you see whether your backlog is being kept up to date.
Created vs. Resolved Issues Report – Maps created issues versus resolved issues over a period of time. This can help you understand whether your overall backlog is growing or shrinking.
Pie Chart Report – Shows a pie chart of issues for a project/filter grouped by a specified field. This helps you see the breakdown of a set of issues, at a glance.
Recently Created Issues Report – Shows the number of issues created over a period of time for a project/filter, and how many were resolved. This helps you understand if your team is keeping up with incoming work.
Resolution Time Report – Shows the length of time taken to resolve a set of issues for a project/filter. This helps you identify trends and incidents that you can investigate further.
Single Level Group By Report – Shows issues grouped by a particular field for a filter. This helps you group search results by a field and see the overall status of each group.
Time Since Issues Report – For a date field and project/filter, maps the issues against the date that the field was set. This can help you track how many issues were created, updated, etc, over a period of time.
Forecast & management
Time Tracking Report – Shows the original and current time estimates for issues in the current project. This can help you determine whether work is on track for those issues.
User Workload Report – Shows the time estimates for all unresolved issues assigned to a user across projects. This helps you understand the user’s workload better.
Version Workload Report – Shows the time estimates for all unresolved issues assigned to a version, broken down by user and issues. This helps you understand the remaining work for the version.
Other
Workload Pie Chart Report – A report showing the issues for a project or filter as a pie chart.
COMPANY-MANAGED KANBAN PROJECT
Company-managed Kanban reports
Report count: 15
Agile
Cumulative Flow Diagram – Shows the statuses of issues over time. This helps you identify potential bottlenecks that need to be investigated.
Control Chart – Shows the cycle time for your product, version or sprint. This helps you identify whether data from the current process can be used to determine future performance.
DevOps
Cycle Time Report – Understand how much time it takes to ship issues through the deployment pipeline and how to deal with outliers.
Deployment Frequency Report – Understand your deployment frequency to understand risk and how often you are shipping value to your customers.
Issue analysis
Average Age Report – Shows the average age of unresolved issues for a project or filter. This helps you see whether your backlog is being kept up to date.
Created vs. Resolved – Issues ReportMaps created issues versus resolved issues over a period of time. This can help you understand whether your overall backlog is growing or shrinking.
Pie Chart Report – Shows a pie chart of issues for a project/filter grouped by a specified field. This helps you see the breakdown of a set of issues, at a glance.
Recently Created Issues Report – Shows the number of issues created over a period of time for a project/filter, and how many were resolved. This helps you understand if your team is keeping up with incoming work.
Resolution Time Report – Shows the length of time taken to resolve a set of issues for a project/filter. This helps you identify trends and incidents that you can investigate further.
Single Level Group By Report – Shows issues grouped by a particular field for a filter. This helps you group search results by a field and see the overall status of each group.
Time Since Issues Report – For a date field and project/filter, maps the issues against the date that the field was set. This can help you track how many issues were created, updated, etc, over a period of time.
Forecast & management
Time Tracking Report – Shows the original and current time estimates for issues in the current project. This can help you determine whether work is on track for those issues.
User Workload Report – Shows the time estimates for all unresolved issues assigned to a user across projects. This helps you understand the user’s workload better.
Version Workload Report – Shows the time estimates for all unresolved issues assigned to a version, broken down by user and issues. This helps you understand the remaining work for the version.
Other
Workload Pie Chart Report – A report showing the issues for a project or filter as a pie chart.
TEAM-MANAGED SCRUM PROJECT
Note: Application and project administrators need to enable this feature at: Project Settings > Features. See screenshot
Team-managed Scrum reports
Burnup report – Visualize a sprint’s completed work and compare it with its total scope. Use these insights to track progress toward sprint completion.
Sprint burndown chart – Track and manage the total work remaining within a sprint. After the sprint, summarize both team and individual performance.
Velocity report – Predict the amount of work your team can commit to in future sprints by seeing and reviewing the amount of value delivered in previous ones.
Note: A completed sprint is required
Cumulative flow diagram – Shows the statuses of your project’s issues over time. See which columns accumulate more issues, and identify bottlenecks in your workflow.
Cycle Time Report – Understand how much time it takes to ship issues through the deployment pipeline and how to deal with outliers.
Deployment Frequency Report – Understand your deployment frequency to understand risk and how often you are shipping value to your customers.
TEAM-MANAGED KANBAN PROJECT
Note: Application and project administrators need to enable this feature at: Project Settings > Features. See screenshot Additionally, some reports require sprints. Enable them on the features page too, if desired.
Team-managed Kanban reports
Same as the team-managed scrum project above.
Jira Software: Server and Data Center
SCRUM PROJECT
Same as the company-managed scrum project above without the following reports: Cycle Time Report, Deployment Frequency Report, and Workload Pie Chart Report
KANBAN PROJECT
Same as the company-managed kanban project above without the following reports: Cycle Time Report, Deployment Frequency Report, and Workload Pie Chart Report
Extending Reporting Capabilities
Most reports are customizable and if you can’t get to the data you’re after, there are plenty of apps available in the Atlassian Marketplace.
Jira has multiple application types and each is built for a specific audience and use. The types are: Jira Work Management (JWM) in Cloud, Jira Software (JSW), Jira Service Management (JSM) and Jira Product Discovery (JPD) in Cloud. All types have the same look and feel but different features. The applications can be used separately or together. For example, your organization might use Jira Work Management and Jira Software but not Jira Service Management.
Additionally, each Jira application type contains different project types. Each has special features not available in other project types. Here are the major differences and how to select the best project type for your team’s needs.
Project Types in Jira Cloud
Jira Work Management
Jira Work Management contains all the main Jira features like projects, issues, workflows, and users. You can think of it as providing the core functions of Jira. In fact, it was previously named “Jira Core”. Atlassian added some new and interesting features before renaming it in April 2021. This application type has business projects, templates, and features.
This project type is best for teams like marketing, finance, legal, sales, human resources, and more. Its commonly used for managing projects, processes, and tasks.
Jira Work Management is only available in Cloud and there are two plans: free and standard. Jira Work Management is included with every Jira Cloud license. In Jira Server, the application is still called Jira Core. In Jira Data Center, there’s no such application.
Business Project Features
Business projects in Jira Cloud have some additional views that aren’t available in other project types. The features noted below are fairly new and will continue to be improved over time.
LIST VIEW
The list feature displays parent and child issues in a expandable list format. It’s similar to the format presented after searching or viewing filter results but there’s no JQL query to construct. Instead, all issues in the project are displayed and there’s an easy menu to filter issues by assignee, component, issue type, labels, priority, reporter, and status. You can also filter by issues “due this week”. This feature is a quick and easy way to view issues in a project without needing any query skills.
The best part of this view is that parent issues can be expanded or collapsed to show or hide child issues. This hierarchy capability is highly desired but missing in other areas of Jira. In the example screenshot, the task PMO-1 is expanded to show it has four sub-tasks.
List view in a Jira Cloud business project
Good to Know
The epic issue type does not display as part of the hierarchy in list view. I suspect that this is because epics are a software project concept, not a business project concept. Jira Cloud has many business templates, but none of them include the epic issue type by default. I manually added it to the sample project in the screenshot above because I like how epics help categorize work. To see an expandable view of epics and parent issues (but not child issues) use the roadmap feature in a software-type project.
CALENDAR VIEW
Jira Issues Calendar
Until now, the only way to view issues in calendar format was by adding the “Jira Issues Calendar” macro to a dashboard. The functionality is basic. Issues are displayed based on a Jira project (or JQL filter) and a single date field. The total number of issues associated with a specific day are summed.
In the screenshot, there’s one issue due on October 27 and one due on October 30. The colored boxes represent different workflow statuses. In Jira, hover over the colored boxes to see issue details or click the box to view individual issue details. Fix versions can also be displayed. Finally, you can also export the data to iCal format.
The new calendar view in Jira Cloud business projects is not part of a dashboard and includes some useful additions. The display accommodates start and end dates, assuming you utilize the standard Jira “start date” and “due date” fields. This view also shows the issue type, key, summary, and assignee. The filtering capabilities work the same as described in the “list” view.
Calendar view in Jira Cloud business projects
Again, notice that parent and child issues are displayed but not epics.
TIMELINE VIEW
The timeline view is similar to the roadmap view in a software-type project. This display includes a Gantt-type chart where issues duration is represented by colored bars. Start dates, end dates, and assignees are displayed. Dependencies are created using the standard linked issues feature and indicated using curved red lines. (Not pictured.) The same filtering abilities in the other views are present as well.
Timeline view in Jira Cloud business projects
FORMS
The final new feature for business projects in Jira Cloud is forms. Use a form to collect additional information without adding new Jira issue types or custom fields. Currently, you can create one simple form per Jira business project. The form has a unique URL that can be shared with any licensed Jira user. A Jira issue is automatically created after any form submission.
Jira Work Management users are not able to use agile or software development features in software projects or support features in service management projects. Access to business projects is available to all types of licensed Jira users. Read more
A JWM user license is less expensive than a JSW user license. When choosing between application and project types, it’s important to compare pricing, project access, and feature differences.
See Atlassian’s JWM product page and the table on the pricing page for additional feature information.
Jira Software
The next application type is Jira Software. This type is designed for development teams. Although any software development methodology is supported (including Agile, waterfall, or even no methodology or framework) this project type caters to teams using Scrum or Kanban.
Jira Software is available in Cloud, Server, and Data Center. In Cloud, there are four plans: free, standard, premium, and enterprise.
Software Project Features
Jira Software includes the following additional development-specific features:
Project templates for Scrum, Kanban, and bug tracking
Scrum boards for teams that plan in chunks of work called “sprints”
Kanban boards, for teams with less structured delivery schedules
Sprints to manage iterations or scheduled work
Sprint capacity planning (in Jira Cloud Premium and Enterprise) to avoid over or under resource utilization
Story points for relative effort estimation (time-based estimation is also available)
Backlog functionality to help teams prioritize future work
Release tracking functionality to manage deployments
Fix versions to schedule work and affected versions to manage code changes
Release tracks (in Jira Cloud Premium and Enterprise) to manage when and how software changes are released
Roadmaps to view work in a Gantt-type format
Additional built-in reports to track burndown and burnup, velocity, epics, releases, and more
Integration with code and deployment tools like Bamboo, Bitbucket, and Opsgenie
Only Jira Software users can leverage development specific features.
See Atlassian’s JSW product page and the table on the pricing page for additional feature information.
Learn more about the software development life cycle (SDLC) and using Atlassian applications to plan, develop, test, and release software with my Planning and Releasing Software with Jira course.
Jira Service Management
The final application type helps support teams of all types manage their requests. Atlassian created JSM in 2013 after noticing that 40% of customers had adapted Jira to handle service requests.
JSM is for tracking changes to systems, processes, or applications, resolving incidents and problems like an outage or security breach, fulfilling service requests like a password reset, new hardware, or issuing a mobile device, managing approvals of all kinds, and helping internal or external customers with whatever they need.
Business teams can take advantage of JSM features too. For example, the HR team can collect benefits questions and reimbursement requests, the facilities team can receive requests for new desks and chairs, and the legal team can process contract review requests.
Sometimes teams have more than one project like a service-type project to support their “customers” and another business-type project to manage all their internal “to do” items. For example, the finance team can have a service project that every employee has access to. This project is used to collect employee reimbursement and purchase requests. They can also have a business project that only finance team members have access to. This project is used for tracking team tasks like maintaining reports and adding new employees to the payroll system.
As always, keep the long term health of the application in mind by not creating more Jira projects, settings, and schemes than you truly need.
JSM is available in Cloud, Server, and Data Center. In Cloud, there are four plans: free, standard, premium, and enterprise. Jira Service Management was previously called Jira Service Desk.
Service Project Features
While you can certainly use other Jira application types for support, Jira Service Management takes support to the next level.
JSM includes the following additional support-specific features:
Project templates for ITSM, customer service, and other support type teams (in Jira Cloud)
Dedicated queues to organize and categorize requests (in addition to standard JQL filtering capabilities)
Request categories for segmenting service requests, changes, problems, and incidents (found in the Jira Cloud “IT service management” project template)
Service Level Agreements (SLAs) to define goals and measure metrics like response or completion time
A simple customer portal (aka “help center”) featuring a streamlined interface and slightly customizable display
Integration with Confluence as a self-service knowledge base
Asset and configuration management (in Jira Cloud Premium and Enterprise)
Built-in reports for tracking agent workload, customer feedback, and requests deflected by self-help articles
Better support for creating issues via email (and from non Jira users)
An embeddable widget (in JSM Cloud) to create issues from other web pages or applications
Customizable notifications for customers
Permission schemes allowing customer access
A simple customer survey to collect customer feedback (CSAT)
Integration with monitoring, alert, and notification tools like Opsgenie
The ability to automatically create issues in software projects from events in service projects without impacting automation rule execution limits
The licensing model is different in this application type. Jira Service Management has two additional types of users: agents and customers.
An agent is anyone providing support, managing the support team, or monitoring support team effectiveness. The agent is the technician who solves a problem or provides the requested help. An agent does all their work in Jira and requires a JSM license to use service features.
A customer is anyone who requests support. Customers can include internal users, external users, employees, vendors, contractors, and anyone else who needs help. These users file support requests and view progress in a simplified interface called the customer portal or help center. Customers generally don’t access the area of Jira that agents use to fulfill requests.
See Atlassian’s JSM product page and the table on the pricing page for additional feature information.
There’s also a newer project type is called Product Discovery and it’s intended for product managers. This application helps product and pipeline owners collect ideas, assess and prioritize them, and track them through delivery.
This type is great for product teams managing strategic company priorities, a portfolio, or a product catalog. It has special features for tracking goals, roadmap management, and insights from customer relationship management applications.
As you can see, there’s a lot to consider when selecting a Jira application type and project type. While it’s easy to switch between Jira project types in Server and Data Center, it’s a more involved process in Cloud.
Potential reasons to choose a business project type:
Easier to use and navigate for less technical Jira users
Cheaper user license fees
All issue types can leverage the same workflow
The new list, calendar, and timeline views are easy to use and don’t require JQL
I’d like to make one field dependent on the data in another field. How do I do that in Jira?
Answer
Basic Example
Types of selection fields
In addition to single or multi-select lists, Jira also a cascading selection type.
The cascading field type has two drop down menus. The options in the second menu are determined by the selection in the first menu.
This field works well for grouping work by two levels like category and sub-category. Sometimes this field is useful and other times, two separate fields are used instead. It all depends on whether one selection must be dependent on another and your reporting needs.
Here’s another view of the same cascading field from the example above. This how it looks when you edit it in Cloud. The first selection is on the top and the second selection is on the bottom.
REPORTING
I find cascading select fields hard for end users to query. The JQL for this field type is a little daunting. Here’s the format to use and an example in Cloud.
JQL format: customfield in cascadeOption(parentOption,childOption)
JQL example: “Operational categorization[Select List (cascading)]” in cascadeOption(“Server Change”,”Storage”)
Use this to query the standard field called “Operational categorization” in Jira Service Management.
Advanced Example
Another method to limit selections is using the Jira Miscellaneous Workflow Extensions app from the Atlassian Marketplace. Here’s an advanced use case I built for one of my Jira Server clients.
The client wanted to better classify the type of support they provide for internal applications. They wanted to limit the selections in a drop-down field based on component selection.
For example, if the component is “Microsoft Excel” allow “Functional” and “Technical” as support selections but not “Security”. In the screenshot, “Security” was selected, so an error message is displayed at the top of the overlay.
Custom scripted workflow validator
This was easy to do with Jira Miscellaneous Workflow Extensions. I added a “Build your own” scripted validator, to a workflow transition, and used a little bit of code to limit the custom field selections.
For additional help with fields and related topics, take my Jira: Advanced Administration course on LinkedIn Learning.
Have a Question?
Use the “Ask a Question” form on the top right and we’ll answer it in a future post.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.“
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.
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.
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.
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.
“Custom Install” options
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.
Services utility in Windows
You may also have “Access Jira”, “Start Jira Service”, and “Stop Jira Service” shortcuts in your Windows start menu.
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.
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.
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 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
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.
Jira Service Management (JSM) includes a variety of features beyond what is available in Jira Software or Jira Work Management. One of the most powerful features is the ability to require an approval on any request. You can even require that a request be approved before an issue shows up in the service team’s queue.
Approvals are useful for traditional ITSM processes – think of change management – but are also one of the key features that makes JSM a great solution for non-tech teams. Consider how many HR or Finance processes need to be approved before they can be carried out. Understanding (and being able to demonstrate) how approvals work helps promote Jira adoption by other service teams across the organization.
What types of requests typically require an approval
How approval requirements impact your Jira workflow
How to control who can approve a request
How to set up multiple layers of approvals
Licensing requirements for approvers in Jira
How to notify approvers that there is a request they need to act on
What happens to requests that don’t get approved
JSM issues and requests have multiple approval states
And who are these “approvers” anyway? We’ll also look at the various ways to define who can approve a request (by request type, change advisory board (CAB) membership, user input etc.)
Adding approval to a JSM workflow
After examining scenarios that typically require an approval, we’ll go through the set up process step by step – from adding the appropriate transitions to your workflow, to customizing your approver notification email message. Then we’ll dig into some of the more advanced features – like forcing an approval or allowing agents to cancel the request. Finally, we’ll use JQL to search for requests that are pending an approval.
The course is designed with precise explanations and real world examples. I also include quizzes and challenges (with solutions) that you can try in your own Jira application to cement your learning. Once you understand how approvals work in Jira, you’ll have a firm foundation for implementing JSM for any service team in your organization.
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Rachel Wright’s Jira and Confluence Admin and User Courses on LinkedIn
