Rachel Wright, Author at Strategy for Jira®

Day 1-2: Boondocking with Jira and Confluence

Menu: Intro | Day 1-2 | Day 3-4 | Day 5-7 | Retrospective

We’re “Boondocking with Jira and Confluence“!
Enjoy $10 off your order at the Strategy for Jira Store
Code: BOONDOCKING Shop Now
Valid: July 8-15, 2018

As previously announced in Boondocking with Jira and Confluence, this week, we’re “off the grid” in our travel trailer. We’re boondocking which means camping without hookups to city power, water, and sewer systems. We’ll provide our own resources which includes enough power and internet to connect to Jira and Confluence – vital resources for our long-term RV trip.

We’re also attending a “convergence” which is like a conference with fellow digital nomads. We’ve all parked together in the same place. If we fail at boondocking, we’ll do it surrounded by experienced campers.

Week Before

The week before our trip, we further tested our preparations. We were at a campground with full hookups, but instead of plugging in, we tested how long we’d last with conservative use of battery power and stored water.

I quickly discovered a problem recharging the computers. My 12 volt inverter charger works perfectly in a (running, and therefore full battery) truck, but not so well on a dwindling trailer battery. Its 75 watt output could handle the Chromebooks and phones but couldn’t recharge my HP laptop. Also, it only has one outlet, which is inconvenient. I immediately upgraded to a 2,000 watt device with 3 AC and 4 USB outlets. Right now I only have a WiFi booster plugged in and its internal fan is running more often than I’d like. We’ll see if it works long-term.

Week Before Test Results:

Item	Measure	Notes
Battery	Full battery: 13.09 volts After 48 hours: 11.63 volts	We’ll need to charge our trailer battery every day or every other day, to sustain the 12 volt system and recharge electronics.
Electronics	Battery time with heavy use: HP laptop: 6 hours Chromebooks: 8+ hours Phone 1: 10+ hours Phone 2: 5+ hours WiFi 1 (Verizon): Requires phone use, needs boosting WiFi 2 (Sprint): Lasts day however, unusable due to proximity to tower WiFi 3 (Sky Roam): 4 hours, dupe of Verizon signal	While boondocking, we can only use the 12 volt system, which powers the lights, water pump, and fire and carbon monoxide detection systems. It also generates the spark for propane appliances, like the fridge, stove, and oven. We won’t be able to use luxuries like the microwave, coffee maker, or air conditioner. When the trailer is briefly connected to the generator, we’ll be able to use the wall outlets to charge electronics.
Water & Sewer	Tank capacity: Fresh tank: 46 gallons (+6 gallons from hot water heater) Grey tank: 33 gallons Black tank: 33	Our fresh water lasted 4 days with moderate use and 4 showers. We can easily extend that with conservation, including less dish washing and fewer showers. Our grey water tank lasted only 3 days. Storage of used water is an issue. We can extend capabilities by limiting how much water goes down the drain. Next week, we’ll need to use the outside shower and wash dishes outside to avoid storing excess water. Our black tank is never an issue. We can go a week or two without dumping it.

Day 1

We woke up, made a quick breakfast, and completed tasks from our Confluence “moving day” checklist. There are 32 things I do the day before any move like: verify our route, fuel the tow vehicle, and check the pressure on all tires. (The correct pressure is CRITICAL for trailer tires!) On moving day, there are another 52 items to complete like: draining all tanks, turning off the electric and propane systems, and properly coupling the tow vehicle to the trailer. My Confluence checklist is vital to the moving process. Missing any item could put us, others, or our property in danger while rolling down the road.

We completed our standard checklist but this time one thing was different. We filled our fresh water tank, otherwise, we’d have no water at our next destination. We’ve never traveled with a full tank before. Water is heavy and the extra 450 pounds means extra risk and even less gas mileage. Luckily our off-grid destination was only 10 miles away.

We arrived and parking was much easier than usual. Usually you have to line up very carefully, so all your connections reach and you fit in the spot. But with boondocking, there are no connections to worry about. We simply parked, drove up on leveling blocks, detached the tow vehicle, and opened our slides and awning. Voila – we’re camping!

This night we met our fellow convergence attendees and cooked dinner together on many grills. There’s a fire ban in this part of Colorado, so only propane grills are allowed.

Day 2

So far so good! I’m able to launch Jira, Confluence, and other web apps, but only through my phone’s hotspot and only when the cell booster is on. Both are a constant draw on the battery. Our electronics are running low and we’ll need to charge the battery tomorrow.

We spent the morning re-reading the generator manual and filling it with gas, fuel stabilizer, and oil for the first time. We only broke one plastic piece doing this. We turned on the generator and tested it with a cheap appliance. It worked as expected and the generator was quieter than anticipated. Tomorrow we hook it up to our entire rig.

Today we took a group hike to Treasure Falls, saw part of the continental divide, and drove a dirt road up a mountain for a beautiful view of the area. I’m looking forward to charging everything tomorrow and possibly a soak in the natural hot springs!

9 Tips for Getting Action in Jira

A Jira issue was created, but its been a week and you’ve heard nothing. The issue hasn’t been updated and you can’t tell if anyone’s seen the issue, triaged it, started work, or done “something” to get it addressed in the near future. Does this sound familiar?

When issues stagnate, it may be because the needed expectations haven’t been set. Leadership needs to make sure overall Jira engagement and Project Leads need to play a large role in triaging and managing issues in their individual projects. Here are 9 tips for setting the right expectations and getting users to take action in Jira.

1. All work is logged in Jira

It is hard to track initiatives, capacity, and resource allocation when work is stored in multiple systems. Strive to decommission old systems and banish low tech tracking methods like spreadsheets and Post-it notes. You need “one source of truth” for everything teams are working on.
In meetings, emails, and chats about tasks, encourage users to provide the Jira issue ID for the item they are discussing. Repeat the phrases “Which Jira issue are we talking about?” and “If it’s not in Jira, it’s not real!” it becomes reality.

2. Users login to check their issues at least once a day

A tool is just a tool. It takes human action and engagement to make it work in your organization. If users aren’t regularly logging in, they are missing what is going on around them.
Make sure users are proactively logging into Jira to review issues created and assigned to them. Waiting around for Jira to send email notifications is reactive. Jira info in email quickly becomes out of date. Email should be treated as supplemental information and never be the primary engagement method.

3. The “Assignee” takes action

Each issue has an assignee. The name in that field is the person who needs to take action. If the name is incorrect or reads “Unassigned”, it’s easy to reassign the issue to the correct person.
Other users should feel empowered to update or correct issue data, even if they are not the current assignee.

4. The “Reporter” is ultimately responsible for the issue

You cannot create an issue and walk away, expecting the issue to champion and remedy itself. The “Reporter” is responsible for the issue from conception to completion. If the reporter is no longer the responsible party, it’s easy to update the issue to the correct person. And don’t worry – Jira keeps a record the original creator in a separate field.

5. Share the assignment strategy

There are many ways issues get assigned in Jira. Each project has a default assignee setting. The default assignee can either be the Project Lead, or it can have a value of “Unassigned.” The former is typically used when the team lead will triage issues and assign them to the correct team member. The latter is sometimes used when the whole team is expected to review the issues and assign the ones they can work on to themselves.
Additionally, there’s a third assignment strategy, using Components. Each Component can have its own lead and issues can automatically be assigned to that person. For example, James does all the contract work for the Legal team. When an issue is created in the LEGAL project, any issues where the “Contracts & Agreements” component is selected will be automatically assigned to James.
Finally, avoid the trap of assigning issues to a generic Jira user, like a user named “Legal Team”. It’s often true that if an issue is assigned to everyone, it’s assigned to no one. How are issues assigned in each project in your organization? Make sure users know so they know how to act.

6. Utilize issue views

Jira provides many ways to users to see issues. All users should know how to login and go straight to the Default System Dashboard. This serves as a good starting place to see recent activity and issues assigned. The Jira administration team can further customize the default dashboard to add elements to make it even more useful.
Users can also create their own custom filters, filter subscriptions, dashboards, and boards. Encourage each team or department to have a dashboard or board they share and monitor regularly. Users can bookmark or “favorite” these locations to make them easy to return to.

7. Use statuses, backlogs, versioning, and dates

Statuses, backlogs, versions, and dates all communicate when an issue will be addressed. Each issue’s status must reflect reality. Users need to transition issues forward in the workflow as they work them. Completed issues must reach the “Closed”, “Done” or similar final status.
Every Jira project should have a backlog – a place to put issues not addressed immediately. If a team member finishes work early, encourage them to review the backlog, to see if an issue can be accommodated earlier in the schedule.
If an issue is not in the backlog, it means it is being actively worked. Development teams should utilize the “version” functionality to assign issues to a specific release target. Non dev teams can also leverage versions. Example: A Marketing team has a version called “Q1” representing all the work targeted for January through March.
Used a custom field (Example: Requested Date) to collect the issue’s proposed completion date. Use the “Due Date” field to indicate when an issue will actually be completed or released.

8. Tag users, share issues, and add watchers

To get a user’s attention, tag them in an issue’s “Description” or “Comments” field. Use the “@” symbol to mention a specific user. They will get an email about the mention.
Need to alert someone to an issue? Use the “Share” button at the top right to send them an email.
Add yourself or a colleague to the issue email update notifications by making them a “Watcher” of any issue.
Again, emails are often lost, delayed, or out of date by the time they are read. Users should always login to Jira for real-time information.

9. Check progress in team meetings, standups, and scrums

The key to success is communication. Each team meeting should include a discussion of what’s being worked now and what’s being worked next. Launch Jira in your meeting and review the issues on the team dashboard. Take the time to discuss any unassigned issues in your Jira project and regularly groom your backlog.
Team leads need to regularly monitor their Jira project and follow up on stagnant issues.

The key to Jira success is engagement, setting expectations, and regularly monitoring issues. All users should feel empowered, be proactive, update issues, correct information, and contribute to the health of the application and its data.

What are your tips? Share them in the “Comments” section below.

Boondocking with Jira and Confluence

Menu: Intro | Day 1-2 | Day 3-4 | Day 5-7 | Retrospective

Did you know I’ve worked from the road since 2015? It’s a lot like working from home except when I look out the window of my home on wheels, the scenery is always different! In May 2015, we got rid of most of our stuff, sold our cars, and hit the road in a travel trailer.

Our trip started in Virginia. From there we traveled South through the Eastern states, explored the entire Florida coast, visited 8 Texas cities, stayed a while in Arizona and California, and then went North through Nevada, Utah, and Colorado. This entire time I’ve worked as a Jira administrator, consultant, and speaker on the Strategy for Jira Tour. The tour highlight was speaking at the Atlassian office in Austin, TX and at Summit!

Boondocking

After three years, we’ve decided to add a new element to our mobile lifestyle: boondocking. Boondocking is camping without hookups to city power, water, and sewer systems. We’re used to bringing our own internet connection but until now, we’ve paid a campground to supply the other utilities. It’s a bit limiting though; it means we can only go where others have resources available for us. I’d prefer the ability to go anywhere (anywhere with a usable cell signal, that is.)

So what does all this have to do with Jira and Confluence? Plenty! Throughout my trip, I’ve had to guarantee my access to power and wifi in order to work, support the Jira Strategy Admin Workbook, and participate in the Atlassian Community. I need reliable access to Jira and Confluence for my consulting practice, for my volunteer work, and for my personal life. Without Jira, I can’t access my “to do” list, help Jira administrators clean up too many custom fields, or prepare to merge multiple applications. I track where we go in Jira and record the specific details of each location in Confluence. Now, I’ll need to do all that without the convenience of “full hookups.” We’ll need to bring our own water and store it – before and after we use it. Most importantly, we’ll need to find a way to generate our own power.

Power Options

There are a few power generation options so I used Confluence to research and make the decision. The travel trailer has its own 12 volt battery that’s responsible for the lights, water pump, fire and carbon monoxide detection systems. It also generates the spark for propane appliances, like the fridge, stove, and oven. The battery is constantly recharged when connected to city power but without it, it doesn’t last very long. We need a way to recharge it and heavily researched all the methods including: solar or wind power, gas or propane generator power, disconnecting the battery altogether (not sustainable), and even sacrificing one or a series of $80 batteries (not smart).

We really love the idea of solar, and want to have it one day, but it’s not simple (or cheap) to set it up correctly. And, it’s not fool-proof. For example, what if it’s a cloudy day? “Sorry, Jira, there’s no power to launch your URL today!” 🙁

For our first foray into boondocking, we purchased a small gas inverter generator. Our $500 unit won’t provide luxury. We won’t be able to use the microwave, air conditioning, or coffee maker. But doesn’t a coffee press make better coffee better anyway? It’s enough to periodically charge the 12 volt battery however so we can run a minimum amount of electronics. We’ll limit ourselves to the really important things: 2 cell phones, 2 laptops, and one wireless internet router for WiFi. We’ll open the windows if it’s hot, light a lantern if it’s dark, and generally try to live even more simply than before. It will be less “glamping” and more “camping.” I do hope we’ll have enough battery power to run a small fan though. We’ll see.

We’ve been researching and learning about volts, amps and watts. I estimate it takes 65 watts to access a local Jira instance and 71 watts (computer + router) for a Cloud instance. I’m new to these calculations though and my estimates could be way off. Time will tell!

Official Test

Starting July 8, we’re “cutting the RV cord”. We’re going to the middle of a field in Pagosa Springs, CO to test our setup and spend a whole week “off the grid.” If all goes as planned, I’ll be doing all my favorite Jira and Confluence activities like always. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Have you boondocked, dry camped, or gone “off grid”? Share your stories and tips in the Comments section below.

Jira Strategy Admin Workbook Kindle Edition

The Jira Strategy Admin Workbook is available in Kindle format! Now you can set up, clean up, and maintain Jira on the bus or on the beach! No need to carry a heavy, 296 page, textbook around.

Get the Jira Strategy Admin Workbook in three formats:

What Kindle versions are supported?
You can see the list of supported devices on the Amazon product page. Visit https://amzn.to/2Ffv0qv and click the “Available on these devices” link below the product description. Also see Amazon’s list of compatible Kindle Cloud Reader browsers.

No Kindle device? Have the print and want the digital too? Add the digital version for $2.99.

Steps to Redeem:

Email a photo of you and the print book to: info@jirastrategy.com. Bonus points for photo creativity! We’ll email you a code to discount the digital version to $2.99.

How to Conduct a New Jira Project Team Interview

The best way to understand how a team operates and plans to use Jira is by interviewing the team lead. Here’s how to conduct a good initial interview.

Interview Objectives

The application administrator should uncover and understand the following:

Is a new project needed or can an existing project be leveraged?
- Example: The Email Marketing Team wants to use Jira. Can they use the existing Marketing Team’s project or do they need a separate project (special configuration) of their own?
What are the reporting requirements? What data points are important to track?
Are new schemes or assets needed? (Ex: a new custom workflow, a custom field, etc.)
Who will maintain the project-level settings, serve as the primary contact for all project related questions, triage and monitor issues, and groom the backlog?

The requestor or team lead should:

Understand, at a high level, the type of problems Jira can solve
Receive answers to any “can Jira do X” questions
Provide an example of a common request and how the team completes work

Best Practices

Keep the conversation high-level. This is an info collection meeting, not a Jira demo.
Listen more than you talk
Learn the team’s process for a typical initiative
Collect team reporting goals and specific data to track
Choose terminology wisely. For example, a “project” is a collection of issues to a Jira administrator, but a “project” is something to work on to a team lead.

DON’T

Demo Jira. This is a fact finding session. Concentrate on listening, not clicking around Jira or hosting a “show and tell.”
Lose focus or discuss low level topics. This is not the time to ask: What is your version number format? What board column will status X map to?
Use industry or “Jira jargon” that’s unfamiliar to your audience
Discuss methodology. Jira can support any or no methodology.
Click around the Jira application admin area. This is confusing and extraneous info for non application admins.

Interview Questions

Download the “Worksheet: Jira New Project Interview” at: jirastrategy.com/link/project-interview.

Next Steps

Identify a team to onboard to Jira.
Interview the team lead to see how Jira might help them track their work and automate manual tasks.
Create a basic Jira project to get the team started. The project can be enhanced or further customized as the need arises.

Application Review: WatchTower

Imagine being able to view issues from multiple Jira applications on one board. WatchTower does that easily. You can view issues and use familiar board features (swimlanes, JQL, and dragging issues to update status) without logging in to multiple Jira applications. I wish I had know about this add-on sooner!

Author	Rozdoum
Marketplace URL	https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1217469/watchtower-one-board-for-multiple-jiras
Compatibility	Server and Cloud
Version Tested	Version 1.2.2, Released 2018-05-08
Tested With	Jira Server 7.7.1, Jira Server 7.9.2, and Jira Cloud
Test Date	May 23, 2018

First I installed the application in my Server instance. It was very easy to install and configure. In minutes I created a new WatchTower board and saw issues from my Cloud instance from inside my Server instance. From the board, I was able to launch an issue in its source application and update it. Then, I refreshed the board and the changes were visible immediately.

In the example screenshot, there are two issues from the “HR” project in my Server instance, and 5 issues from the “DEMO” project in my Cloud instance.

It’s easy to create a new board and add a remote source. Simply enter a source name and any display preferences. Then enter your source URL, credentials, and a JQL query to pull the desired data. Use the handy “Test Connection” button at the bottom to verify your credentials are correct and issue data was found. Read more

I also installed the application in my Cloud instance to test another scenario. I added the current Cloud instance as a source and also a different remote Cloud instance. Everything worked as expected from within Cloud.

In the example screenshot, issues are displayed from a Cloud instance named “DEMO” and another Cloud instance named “JA.” You can name the instances anything you’d like.

I love that you can display issues from only remote sources or from both remote sources and the application you’re using. It’s great to see a subset of data, a full picture, or to do a comparison.

The add-on is fully documented, but unless you’re new to boards in general, you probably won’t need much configuration or use help.

Use Cases

Here are some ways the add-on helps:

Companies with Multiple Instances

How does a company end up with multiple Jira applications? Actually, it happens more often than you’d think. Consider the following:

A company acquires another company that has their own set of Atlassian tools
A team decides “try out” Jira not knowing other teams already use it
One team needs a public instance for customer support, however, other teams need their data inside the firewall

I once worked with a company that had 4 instances! The goal was to eventually merge them together, but that’s never a quick task. So how do you give users visibility while waiting? Whether your end goal is to merge or not merge, having a tool that can help you connect instances is a big help.

Migration Testing

Let’s say you’re working on a Jira merge. This plugin can help you verify that the data you expect from the source application actually exists in the destination application. Simply create one board and query for the same data in both applications.

Consultants

This functionality is especially useful for consultants, like me, who regularly work in multiple Jira instances at once. For example, I track most of my work in my own Jira instance. Sometimes a company I’m helping assigns an issue to me in their Jira instance, which is perfectly understandable. Now, I can see all my issues in one place.

Additionally, I store my work tasks in a Server instance and my personal tasks in a Cloud instance. I do this to separate my different roles and also because it forces me to be aware of changes in each application type. Now I won’t have to log in to my secondary Cloud instance as often.

Impressions

The WatchTower boards don’t have the Atlassian board feature where you click an issue and details appear to the right of the board. See screenshot. But to be honest, I never loved that abbreviated display. If I want to see issue details I prefer to open the normal issue view page. That’s the way WatchTower handles it. Click on an issue ID and the issue opens immediately in a new window. You can log work on a remote issue directly from the WatchTower board however.

There are three sharing permissions. “Browse Board” allows the listed users to view the board and do nothing else. “Work on Issues” allows users to view the board, log work, and add a work description. “Transition Issues” allows users to do everything previously mentioned plus change issue status. This additive behavior was confusing to me at first, but once you know that “Transition Issues” includes the permissions from other levels, it makes sense. It doesn’t appear that you can grant sharing permissions to groups of users.

One thing to be aware of: any actions will be logged in the remote system as performed by board owner.

Performance

The WatchTower boards are a little slow to load, but so are regular Jira Scrum and Kanban boards. Atlassian is making incremental performance improvements on their end.

TIP: Speed up your boards by limiting their scope. Use JQL to pull in just the relevant issues, not all project issues. Definitely filter out issues in “Closed” or “Done” status.

Since performance of any type of board is typically slow, I conducted the following unscientific test. I created a test Jira Software project and loaded it with sample Jira data, which included a 4 column Kanban board and 10 issues. I created a WatchTower board to show the exact same data. Then I used the Chrome browser’s developer tools to compare load times. Results:

Board	Source	Results
Atlassian Kanban	Jira Server	88 requests, 27.7 KB transferred, Finish: 8:06 seconds
WatchTower	Jira Server	57 requests, 42.9 KB transferred, Finish: 2:78 seconds

The WatchTower board contains less UI elements to load and therefore, with the same data set, in the same instance, loaded faster. The Atlassian board loads an additional left navigation bar and a lot of javascript, presumably for the right side issue details display feature, which the WatchTower board doesn’t have. But what happens when you use the power of WatchTower to add a second data source? I added an additional connection to a Jira Cloud instance, pulling the exact same amount and type of sample data. Results:

Board	Source	Results
WatchTower	Jira Server	57 requests, 42.9 KB transferred, Finish: 2:78 seconds (Example from above)
WatchTower	Jira Server + Jira Cloud	83 requests, 44.4 KB transferred, Finish: 3:05 seconds

Adding a second, external Jira source didn’t create a huge delay. Of course my test was with only 10 issues. Don’t expect hundreds of issues to display quickly in any board type! And of course, if any remote instance is already slow or down, you’ll have expected loading issues. At one point, the connection to one of my sources broke. It was a quick fix though. When I loaded the WatchTower board, it alerted me to the problem, and where to fix it.

Bottom line: Any loading slowness caused by many sources and many issues is easily outweighed by the ability to see all your issues in one view.

Q&A

I talked with Andrey Dekhtyar, CEO at Rozdoum who answered all my questions. They were:

How many instances can you connect?
There’s currently no limit although in the future the number of instances may be driven by pricing tier. You only need a license for one instance, not a license for each remote instance you’re connecting to.

What if the instances have different users? Example: My username is “rachelw” in app 1 and “rwright” in app 2.
It’s no problem; each user authenticates with their specific system credentials. TIP: Avoid using “currentUser()” in your source JQL queries if you have different usernames.

How do you handle different statuses per instance?
Map statuses to columns like you would for a Scrum or Kanban board. Differing statuses are handled the same way as different statuses between projects in a single instance. You can also not map certain statuses. A WatchTower board alerts you if there’s a status not mapped to a column.

What happens when source data changes?
Simply refresh and updated data will be pulled from the source(s). At this time, there’s no automatic prompt to refresh.

How is security handled?
Account credentials are used once to access the source application and are then stored in a token. Jira’s built in security mechanisms are respected. To see issue data you need an authenticated account in the source application. You cannot view issues you don’t already have permission to see.

What are you working on for the future?
Performance, the ability to display custom fields, and the ability connect to other applications. Imagine viewing your Jira data alongside your Salesforce or Trello data, for example. There may also be instance connection issues (like getting through a firewall) and two factor authentication issues to tackle in the future. Read more

For Users & Board Admins

Look for a new menu, in the main navigation, labeled WatchTower. All remote boards are in this area. Scrum and Kanban boards remain under the “Boards” nav link.

For Application Admins

This plugin is installed from System > Add-ons > Manage add-ons like other plugins. There’s only one configuration option for application admins. It’s located at: Admin > Add-ons > Configure. Look for the left sidebar link under the “WatchTower” heading.

Conclusion

This plugin is simple but powerful! If you have more than one Jira application at work, a work and personal instance, a side Jira administrator gig, or are a consultant, WatchTower can help you quickly and easily view all your issues in one place. I’m looking forward to not logging into my Cloud instance as often.

Resources

Vendor: https://rozdoum.com
Marketplace URL: https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1217469/watchtower-one-board-for-multiple-jiras
Documentation: https://docs.rozdoum.com/display/WFJD
Support: support@rozdoum.com
Usage Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aadyppPz7l4

Add-on Vetting
The Jira Strategy Admin Workbook helps you review and vet apps!

There are a plethora of plugins and add-on features available in the Atlassian Marketplace. But haphazard installs and free trials can leave behind remnants that negatively impact the system after the trial ends. You should develop specific procedures for handling add-ons and customization requests. Use our plugin vetting worksheets to craft your procedure.

Reviews

I regularly review applications, add-ons, or plugins that I like! Have an app users should know about? Tell me about it at: info@jirastrategy.com.

Baseline Jira Fields List

Jira comes with standard, built-in fields, like “Summary”, “Description”, and “Components” but you can also create additional Custom Fields to track more data.

Your instance starts out with 8-30 fields, on the “Custom Fields” page, depending on whether you have Cloud or Server. For example, Jira Server 7.7.1 comes with 8 custom fields. Installing Jira Service Desk on top of Jira Server adds 6 additional fields. More fields can be created by Jira, by application administrators, or by add-ons, plugins, and applications.

So how do you distinguish the standard fields from the ones created by applications and admins? Use this baseline list from a clean Jira install.

Standard Jira Fields

Default Fields & Functions

Project (On the “Create” screen)
Issue Type
Summary
Epic Name (For Epics)
Epic Link (For issues related to Epics)
Description
Component/s
Priority
Linked Issues
Attachment
Labels
Time Tracking (Includes Original Estimate and Remaining Estimate fields)
Log Work
Assignee
Reporter
Comments
Affects Version
Fix Version
Story Points
Sprint
Status (A workflow step)
Resolution
Created
Updated
Due Date

Default Fields on the “Custom Fields” Admin Page

From Jira Server 7.1.1

From Jira Cloud

From Jira Service Desk 3.12.2

The following fields are added when you create a support-type project and use the “Create sample data” option:

Approvals (Locked)
Approvers
CAB (Description: Change Advisory Board members)
Change completion date
Change managers
Change reason
Change risk
Change start date
Change type
Customer Request Type (Locked)
Flagged
Impact
Investigation reason
Operational categorization
Organizations (Locked)
Parent Link
Pending reason
Product categorization
Request participants (Locked)
Root cause
Satisfaction (Locked)
Team (Locked)
Time to approve normal change (Locked)
Time to close after resolution (Locked)
Time to first response (Locked)
Time to resolution (Locked)
Satisfaction date (Locked)
Urgency
Workaround

Clean Instance Worksheet

Use this default Jira setup worksheet to compare settings in your application and see how far you’ve strayed from the default. Use this template to document defaults in other versions.

Free Worksheet: jirastrategy.com/link/clean-instance

Custom Field Clean Up

Have a lot of custom fields? Learn how to safely remove them with the Jira Custom Fields & Field Clean Up online course!

How to Extend your Jira Administrator Certification

In my previous How to Study for Jira Administrator Certification article I shared my tips for preparing for and taking the Jira Certification exam. Now that you’ve passed the exam, you might be asking, what’s next? The initial exam is only the first step in your Jira learning journey! You’ll need to take additional exams or skills challenges to keep your certification alive.

After earning the initial certification, Atlassian has two ways to maintain it: Certified Badges and Skills Badges. As shown below, for ACP-100, there’s an “Advanced Jira Workflows” (ACB-100) Badge, an “Email in Jira” (ASB-112) Skills Badge, and additional options on the way.

Atlassian Certified Badges and Skills Badges

See the extension options for all certifications in the table at the bottom of: atlassian.com/university/certification

Certification vs Badge vs Skills Badge

As you remember, the initial certification exam is long, moderately expensive, and requires you to physically appear at a testing center. Not so with the “Advanced Jira Workflows” Badge exam! You can take it online from your home or office, there are fewer questions, and the test is also less expensive. For this exam type, you’ll need a reliable internet connection, a web cam, a microphone, and to install required testing software. An online proctor monitors your movements and biometrics are used for authentication. But what if your web cam is broken or you have an unsupported Chrome OS laptop? Simply go back to your local testing center and complete the exam there.

The “Email in Jira” Skills Badge exam is even easier to take! With this exam format, you watch a webinar, take notes, complete self-study homework, and then take an “online assessment” (quiz). This exam is non-proctored, has the least amount of questions, and is the lowest price.

“Email in Jira” Skills Badge

I really enjoyed the Skills Badge format and the “Email in Jira” webinar in general! How often do you connect Jira to a mail server? For most of us the answer is: once or never! For me, it was all already setup and functional when I inherited my application. But I often troubleshoot email related issues, so understanding more about how mail works in the background is very useful.

The webinar told me just how much I didn’t know about Jira email! For example, did you know Jira will try to send a notification message 10 times? I didn’t! As soon as I learned that, I searched for any active service accounts with bogus user email addresses and found many! I cleaned those up immediately, so Jira wouldn’t try and try and try to send messages to accounts like “former-employee@domain.com” and “blah@blah.com.” (Shame on the admin that entered the bogus addresses in the first place!) No more slow mail queue for me!

As a nervous test taker, this “webinar then quiz” format was much easier to accomplish. I love that I learned new things as part of the certification extension process. It was training and validation all in one! I hope Atlassian adds many more badges in this format. Earning this badge was a very valuable experience – one I’d recommend even if I didn’t need to extend my cert.

Materials

This skills badge includes:

an online course delivered by pros Alex Ho (ServiceRocket) and Matt Doar (previously ServiceRocket, now LinkedIn),
4 pages of downloadable questions to consider during the webinar,
2 pages for note taking to compare incoming to outgoing mail, and
a 60 minute online quiz.

Note: You must watch the webinar in its entirety and complete the quiz to earn the badge.

Study Tips

In addition to my original tips, I recommend:

read all the available incoming and outgoing email documentation,
review the email related settings in your own instance – multiple pages in the Admin > System area, the “Events” admin page, a Notification Scheme, and also end-user, dashboard, and profile features related to “watching”,
block off time and block out distractions so you can focus on the webinar content,
pause the webinar to answer the provided sample questions, and
actually complete the homework – take some time to think about the email problems you’ve experienced and their cause.

Atlassian recommends allowing a half-day to complete the entire process. The webinar took me a while to complete because I stopped to take notes, answer questions, and play back some sections. It was worth it and now I feel like I know a lot about Jira email! There was plenty of time to complete the final quiz.

Final Thought

As always, remember that whether you pass or fail, certifications are a learning process! If you’ve learned something new from the experience, you’ve already won!

Rachel Wright, Certified JIRA Administrator

Sample Chapter: Chinese and English

More than one Jira administrator has approached me about translating the Jira Strategy Admin Workbook into another language. But I only speak English and Jira Query Language! Enter wonderful Kerwin Chung, a Senior DevOps Consultant in China, who’s up to the task.

Kerwin’s translated the sample “Projects” chapter from Jira Strategy Admin Workbook into Chinese! You can download both the English and Chinese sample chapters for free. If you’re interested in a full Chinese or other language translation, let us know below! If there’s enough interest, we’ll translate the whole book!

About the Translator

Kerwin Chung, ACP-SW, ACP-JA
Atlassian DevOps Senior Consultant at Cenoq in China

The reason why I love Jira is its expandability.

It is the best tool for the DevOps toolchain. Lots of companies in China use a lot of open source tools but they use only one commercial tool, which is Jira.

I am proud of being a Jira evangelist. I enjoyed using Jira to organize my own job and am very happy to introduce Jira to my customers and friends. Everyone loves it.

Learn About Jira on Skillshare

Where can you learn about Jira, improve your coding skills, and grow your business all in one place? At Skillshare! Skillshare is an online learning community with thousands of classes on design, business, technology – and now, Jira! It’s the Netflix of learning.

Rachel Wright teamed up with Skillshare to create “Jira Workflows for Business Teams” to help you build smart workflows that your business teams will actually use!

This course is available now to all Skillshare members! Don’t have an account? Sign up to enroll in Rachel’s class, access all the other classes, and receive a one-month free trial.