Course Taxonomy: Atlassian

Jira Administration Part 2

1. Mapping Your Business into Jira

  • Importance of business analysis before configuration
  • Goals: reduce rework, improve efficiency, encourage adoption
  • Approach: Discover → Map → Implement
  • Stakeholder engagement: interviews, MoSCoW prioritization, process diagrams
  • Case study: Teams in Space – cleanup and standardization of messy Jira instance

Lab 1 – Mapping Business Requirements into Jira

  • Cloud: View Teams in Space requirements (5 min)
  • Data Center: Start lab VM & view requirements (5 min)

2. Assigning Project Roles & Sharing Schemes

  • Identifying Scrum vs. business team roles
  • Jira roles: Administrators, Project Lead, Default Assignee, Board Administrators
  • Mapping team roles to Jira roles & permissions
  • Teams in Space case: restricting developer admin rights, designating Scrum Master as Lead
  • Shared schemes: benefits (consistency, reduced admin overhead, performance) vs. drawbacks (less flexibility, stakeholder involvement)

Lab 2 – Assigning Roles & Sharing Schemes

  • Assign project roles (40–50 min)
  • Create a standard project as a baseline
  • Share schemes across projects

3. Configuring Work/Issue Types, Fields & Screens

  • Creating work/issue types and custom fields
  • Best practices: reuse fields, avoid unnecessary customization
  • Screen schemes and field configurations
  • Mapping screens to operations (Create/Edit/View)
  • Case study application: aligning Teams in Space work types to new schemes

Lab 3 – Configuring Work/Issue Types, Fields & Screens

  • Cloud: 1h 20m
  • Data Center: 2h 10m
  • Create fields, configure screen schemes, apply field configurations

4. Configuring Screens & Schemes (Cloud only)

  • Field configuration schemes
  • Workflow schemes
  • Notification & permission schemes
  • Work item/issue security schemes

Lab 4 – Configuring Screens & Schemes (1h, Cloud only)

5. Creating & Configuring Workflows

  • Workflow elements: statuses, transitions, conditions, validators, post functions
  • Workflow schemes: associating workflows with work/issue types
  • Best practices: keep workflows simple, avoid over-engineering, encourage reuse

Lab 5 – Creating & Configuring Workflows

  • Cloud: 1h 15m
  • Data Center: 1h 25m
  • Build workflows for bugs, stories, and other issue types; implement workflow schemes

6. Configuring Board & Sprint Permissions

  • Role of board administrators
  • Configuring permissions for Scrum Masters vs. team members
  • Aligning permissions with Teams in Space governance model

Lab 6 – Configuring Board & Sprint Permissions

  • Cloud: 40 min
  • Data Center: 1h

7. Configuring Email Notifications (Cloud only)

  • Notification schemes overview
  • Mapping project roles to notifications
  • Balancing notification overload vs. missing key updates

Lab 7 – Configuring Email Notifications (25 min, Cloud only)

8. Applying New Configurations to Projects

  • Applying schemes to new projects
  • Migrating existing projects to new standardized schemes
  • Cleaning up unused schemes
  • Teams in Space: enforcing standardization going forward

Lab 8 – Applying New Configurations to Projects

  • Cloud: 1h
  • Data Center: 55 min

Jira Administration Part 1

1. Course Overview

  • Learning objectives:
    • Hierarchy of cloud administration
    • Configure Jira settings
    • Global permissions
    • Company-managed projects
    • Jira schemes basics
    • Project permissions and roles
  • Prerequisites (Jira Essentials with Agile Mindset or equivalent)
  • Course schedule (4 hours total)

2. Configuring Jira

  • Jira administration hierarchy (Org, Site, User, Product Admin roles)
  • Key admin tasks:
    • Integrating products & apps
    • Branding look & feel
    • Setting default language
    • Time tracking configuration
    • Audit log configuration

Lab 2 – Configuring Jira (20 min)

  • Exercise 1: Explore application links & apps
  • Exercise 2: Brand Jira
  • Exercise 3: Configure auditing
  • Optional Exercise 4: Explore configuration settings

3. Configuring Global Permissions

  • Difference between global vs. project permissions
  • Global permissions overview:
    • Administer Jira
    • Browse users & groups
    • Share dashboards & filters
    • Manage group filter subscriptions
    • Make bulk changes
    • Create team-managed projects
  • Assigning/removing permissions from groups
  • Risks of assigning to "Public"

Lab 3 – Configuring Global Permissions (15 min)

  • Exercise 1: Removing and adding global permissions

4. Jira Projects Overview

  • Company-managed vs. team-managed projects
  • Project templates (software, business, service management)
  • Jira project concepts:
    • Work items & types (bug, task, story, epic, sub-task)
    • Work item fields
    • Workflows & boards
    • Project categories
    • Project trash & archiving

5. Creating & Configuring Company-Managed Projects

  • Creating projects (templates, naming, categories, shared configs)
  • Project workflows (simplified vs. complex)
  • Fields and screens (adding, editing, layouts)
  • Schemes overview (workflow schemes, reusability, project association)

Lab 5 – Creating & Configuring Company-Managed Projects (35 min)

  • Exercise 1: Create a project
  • Exercise 2: Edit project details
  • Exercise 3: Update workflow
  • Exercise 4: Update fields and screens
  • Exercise 5: Add work type

6. Configuring Company-Managed Project Permissions

  • Permission types (project, work items, comments, attachments, time tracking, etc.)
  • Permission schemes: structure, reuse, examples
  • Default permission schemes (software, business)
  • Open vs. restricted schemes
  • Public permissions considerations

Lab 6 – Configuring Project Permissions (30 min)

  • Exercise: Create and edit a permission scheme

7. Configuring Company-Managed Project Roles

  • Understanding roles (administrators, project leads, users, custom roles)
  • Role-based permission assignment
  • Best practices for managing roles across projects

Lab 7 – Configuring Project Roles (30 min)

  • Exercise: Add/remove project roles
  • Exercise: Assign permissions to roles

Jira and Confluence Together

1. Course Overview

What you will learn

  • Value of using Jira and Confluence together
  • Integration methods: Jira in Confluence and Confluence in Jira

Prerequisites

  • Basic understanding of Jira (work items, boards, JQL helpful)
  • Basic understanding of Confluence (pages, macros)

Course Modules

  • Using Jira and Confluence together
  • Linking work items and pages
  • Creating work items in Confluence
  • Product Requirements Blueprint
  • Reporting Jira information in Confluence
  • Designing new Confluence templates

Lab 1: Starting your lab environment (5–10 min)

2. Using Jira and Confluence Together

Jira overview

  • Manage, report, and collaborate on work items

Confluence overview

  • Content creation, documentation, collaboration, and knowledge base

Benefits of integration

  • Single source of project knowledge
  • Improved shared understanding & productivity
  • Traceability and agile support (templates, project plan, sprint planning, retrospectives)

Permissions and access

  • Jira: work items in projects, project-level permissions
  • Confluence: pages in spaces, space-level permissions

Shortcuts and linking

  • Project shortcuts (linking Confluence pages in Jira)
  • Space shortcuts (linking Jira or external content in Confluence)

Lab 2: Jira and Confluence together (25 min)

3. Linking Jira Work Items and Confluence Pages

Linking Confluence from Jira

  • Add Confluence page links to Jira work items
  • Automatic updates to linked content

Linking Jira from Confluence

  • Use Jira Work Items macro
  • Auto-convert Jira links into smart links

Smart Links

  • Display options: URL, Inline, Card, Embed
  • Embed for full editing capabilities

Lab 3: Linking work items and pages (20 min)

4. Creating Jira Work Items Using Confluence

Create Jira issues from Confluence

  • Create Jira Issue macro

Create multiple issues at once

  • Highlight text or tables to create multiple issues in Jira

Insert dynamic Jira lists in Confluence

  • Jira Work Items macro with Basic search or JQL
  • Display results dynamically and configure columns

Lab 4: Creating work items in Confluence (20 min)

5. Product Requirements Blueprint

What are Blueprints and Templates?

  • Templates: predefined layouts
  • Blueprints: templates with added functionality (e.g., automatic index pages)

Product Requirements Blueprint

  • Sections: page properties, requirements list
  • Link to epics and Jira work items
  • Automatic index page generation

Lab 5: Product requirements blueprint (15 min)

6. Reporting Jira Information in Confluence

Jira Charts Macro

  • Insert pie charts or two-dimensional tables
  • Display work distribution by field (e.g., status, assignee)

Jira Report Blueprint

  • Create status or change log reports
  • Configure using projects or advanced JQL

Lab 6: Reporting Jira information in Confluence (20 min)

7. Designing New Confluence Templates

Space Templates and Blueprints

  • Manage templates at space and global levels
  • Modify or promote templates

Creating/Editing Templates

  • Tools: placeholders, instructional text, variables, labels

Page Properties Report Macro

  • Display aggregated information from multiple pages

Create from Template Macro

  • Add a button to generate pages from templates

Lab 7: Designing new Confluence templates (20 min)

Jira Essentials with Agile Mindset

1. Agile & Jira Foundations

  • Agile concepts: Agile as a mindset, iterative planning, continuous improvement, and team empowerment.
  • Jira basics: Explanation of projects, work items, boards, and key user roles (administrators, project admins, and team members).
  • Key takeaway: Jira is a flexible tool that aligns with agile principles to help teams visualize, plan, and track work effectively.

2. Visualizing and Managing Work

  • Boards and workflows: Boards represent the workflow, with columns tied to statuses (e.g., To Do, In Progress, Done).
  • Work item movement: Changing columns updates a work item’s status, keeping progress transparent.
  • Reports and dashboards: Dashboards and reports are introduced for visibility into progress and bottlenecks.

3. Enriching Work Items

  • Adding detail: Use labels, attachments, time logging, estimates, and comments to provide context.
  • Work types: Stories, tasks, bugs, epics, and subtasks, including hierarchy and when to use each.
  • Developer integration: Linking commits, branches, and builds to work items for better traceability.

4. Kanban Method

  • Flow and WIP limits: Limiting work in progress improves focus and identifies bottlenecks.
  • Pull vs. push: Pull systems empower teams to choose work as capacity allows.
  • Continuous prioritization: Kanban supports steady delivery and incremental improvement.

5. Scrum Method

  • Artifacts: Product backlog, sprint backlog, and increments for managing scope and progress.
  • Sprints and velocity: Time-boxed work, story point estimation, and using velocity for planning.
  • Roles and events: Responsibilities of product owners, scrum masters, and teams; ceremonies like sprint planning, daily standups, reviews, and retrospectives.

6. Searching and Filtering

  • Quick and basic search: Searching by keywords or fields to locate work items quickly.
  • Filters and quick filters: Saved searches to personalize views or refine boards and reports.
  • Bulk actions: Performing changes on multiple items simultaneously for efficiency.

7. Working with Epics

  • Organizing work: Grouping related work items under a higher-level epic.
  • Tracking progress: Epic panels, swimlanes, and reporting help visualize epic completion.
  • Managing relationships: Using the “Parent” field to link related items.

8. Dashboards and Reporting

  • Custom dashboards: Configurable views for projects, teams, or individuals.
  • Gadgets: Adding charts, lists, and other components to track KPIs.
  • Sharing dashboards: Personal vs. shared dashboards to support collaboration.

9. Lean and Agile Principles

  • Toyota Production System: Roots of lean thinking, kanban, and continuous improvement.
  • Lean principles: Limiting WIP, mapping value streams, eliminating waste, and building quality in.
  • Agile Manifesto alignment: Empowering teams, embracing change, delivering incrementally, and maintaining sustainable pace.
  • Combined mindset: Lean provides the foundation; agile builds on it to handle complexity and rapid change.

10. Capstone & Integration

  • Hands-on exercises: Practice applying principles by configuring projects and workflows.
  • Jira family overview: Brief orientation on Jira Software, Jira Service Management, and Product Discovery.
  • Key outcome: Confidence to adapt Jira setups to unique team processes while maintaining agile and lean alignment.

Managing Jira Service Projects

Course Introduction

  • Course Goals and Learning Objectives
  • Prerequisites and Success Guidelines
  • Course Schedule and Structure
  •  Lab 1 – Logging into your site

Creating a Service Project

  • Overview of Jira Service Management
  • Service Project Use Cases (IT, HR, Internal Teams)
  • Jira Roles and Responsibilities (Admins, Agents, Customers)
  • Creating and Configuring a Service Project
  • Lab 2 – Creating a Service Project

Requests and Queues

  • Setting Up and Customizing Request Types
  • Forms and Field Customization
  • Customizing Workflow Statuses
  • Creating and Managing Queues
  • Best Practices for Portal Usability
  • Exercise 1 – Setting Up Request Types
  • Exercise 2 – Creating & Managing Queues
  • Lab 3 – Requests & Queues

Configuring SLAs

  • SLA Components (Metrics, Goals, Timeframes)
  • Preconfigured and Custom SLA Examples
  • SLA Calendars and Global Support Models
  • Monitoring SLAs with Reports, JQL, and Dashboards
  • Exercise 1 – Configuring SLAs
  • Exercise 2 – Creating an SLA Monitoring Dashboard
  • Lab 4 – Configuring SLAs

Using a Knowledge Base

  • Benefits of a Knowledge Base for Customers and Agents
  • Integrating Confluence with Jira
  • Configuring Article Suggestions and Access
  • Creating and Sharing Knowledge Base Articles
  • Exercise 1 – Using a Knowledge Base
  • Lab 5 – Using a Knowledge Base

Customizing Email Channel & Customer Portal

  • Setting Up and Customizing the Email Channel
  • Customizing Notifications and Request Type Mapping
  • Branding the Customer Portal
  • Branding the Global Help Center
  • Exercise 1 – Branding Your Customer Portal
  • Optional Exercise 2 – Branding Your Help Center
  • Optional Exercise 3 – Changing Your Project Logo
  • Lab 6 – Branding Your Customer Portal

Adding Users to Your Service Project

  • Adding and Managing Agents
  • Adding Customers and Customer Organizations
  • Configuring Customer Permissions
  • Involving Jira Users in the Workflow
  • Exercise 1 – Adding Users to Your Service Project
  • Exercise 2 – Adding Customers to Your Service Project
  • Lab 7 – Adding Users to Your Service Project

Automating Your Service Project

  • Overview of Jira Automation and Its Benefits
  • Building Automation Rules (Triggers, Conditions, Actions)
  • Using Smart Values and Rule Testing
  • Jira Service Management Template Rules and Advanced Triggers
  • Exercise 1 – View Jira Service Management Automation
  • Exercise 2 – Create a New Jira Service Management Automation Rule
  • Exercise 3 – Setting Up a New Preset Automation Rule
  • Exercise 4 – Troubleshooting Automation Rules & SLAs
  • Lab 8 – Automating Your Service Project

BigPicture Training and Implementation Bundle

Option 1 – BigPicture Express Launch Bundle (5 Days)

  • System implementation
    • Training (2 days)
    • Collecting requirements
    • Environment configuration
      • Building templates (Box and Task templates)
      • Configuration of reports in Big Picture
    • Supplementary training for "Core users"
  • Deliverables after implementation:
    • List of best practices
    • Training recording
  • Regular open meetings for our Clients
  • Certificate after training

Option 2 – BigPicture Excellence Implementation Bundle (12 Days)

  • System implementation
    • Training (3 days)
    • Collecting requirements
    • Tool configuration
      • Building templates (Box and Task templates)
      • Configuration of reports in Big Picture + custom reports
      • Automation
    • Supplementary training for "Core users"
    • Training for "Basic users"
  • Assistance 4 weeks after implementation
  • Deliverables after implementation:
    • List of best practices
    • Training recording
  • Regular open meetings for our Clients
  • Training for the Top management
  • Certificate after training
  • Support in Migration and Integration

Option 3 – BigPicture Premium Bundle (26 Days)

  • System implementation
    • Training (3 days)
    • Collecting requirements
    • Tool configuration
      • Building templates (Box and Task templates)
      • Configuration of reports in Big Picture + custom reports
      • Automation
    • Supplementary training for "Core users"
    • Training for "Basic users"
  • Assistance 4 weeks after implementation
  • Long-term support after implementation for the stabilization period of 3 months
  • Deliverables after implementation:
    • Deployment configuration documentation
    • List of best practices
    • Training recording
  • Individual consultations for selected PMs or Teams
  • Regular open meetings for our Clients
  • Training for the Top management
  • Training for Project Managers
  • Certificate after the training
  • Support in Integration and Data Migration

Jira and Agile Projects

Part 1 – JIRA Fundamentals

  1. Using JIRA
  • The JIRA workspace
  • Mapping JIRA features to common agile & scrum practices
  • Tickets in JIRA
  1. Team roles and JIRA
  • Review: Agile and Scrum basics
  • Team members
  • ScrumMasters & Product Owners
  • JIRA features for supporting Agile teams
  1. JIRA issues and Agile Projects
  • What’s possible with JIRA
  • Navigating JIRA
  • Creating, editing and transitioning issues
  • Types of issues
  • JIRA’s standard hierarchy
  • Stories, prioritizing & estimating
  • Managing backlogs in JIRA

Hands-On Exercise: Using issues to track, link, and cross-reference agile projects

  1. JIRA workflows
  • Project roles & permissions
  • Components
  • Releases
  • Projects to products
  • Views of projects within JIRA
  1. Search and Exploring Data
  • Prioritizing & searching JIRA issues
  • Views & options for meaningful results
  • Using filters
  • Using JIRA Query Language (JQL)
  • Saved searches and re-use
  • Using dashboards & subscriptions

Hands-On Exercise: Defining search criteria and using JQL, detail view, list view, filters & subscriptions

Part 2 – Applying JIRA to Enterprise Work

  1. Managing agile & kanban boards in JIRA
  • Aligning agile boards with team needs
  • Scrum vs. Kanban boards
  • Using Kanban boards
  • Typical team member duties in JIRA
  • Supporting sprint planning and resource assignments
  • Managing your backlog efficiently with JIRA
  • Epics, stories, and sub-tasks
  • Releases and release reporting
  1. Sprints in JIRA
  • Starting a sprint
  • Active sprints
  • Quick filters for managing work
  • Swimlanes
  • Closing a sprint

Demo – Using Agile Boards for backlogs and sprints

During this in-depth demonstration, we will show you how to use JIRA for some of the most common agile project needs. This demo will cover:

  1. Agile Board Navigation
  2. Compare Scrum and Kanban boards
  3. Using Backlog mode
  4. Filtering the Backlog
  5. Planning a Sprint
  6. Starting a Sprint
  7. Managing Work in an Active Sprint
  8. Closing a Sprint
  1. Analyzing reports in JIRA
  • Built-in JIRA reports and their benefits
  • Analyzing reports
  • Using information in JIRA to make decisions
  1. JIRA scrum boards and agile reports
  • Burndown Charts
  • Sprint Report
  • Epic Burndown
  • Release Burndown
  • Velocity Charts
  • Control Charts
  • Cumulative Flow Diagram
  1. JIRA Kanban Board reports
  • Control Charts
  • Cumulative Flow Diagrams
  • Work in Progress (WiP) and JIRA

Part 3 – Scaling JIRA enablement

  1. Using JIRA to enable Agile projects at scale
  • Managing multiple projects in JIRA
  • Cross-referencing and linking issues
  • Portfolio and program support with JIRA
  • Managing releases
  • Reporting
  • JIRA plugins
  1. Building Dashboards in JIRA
  • Creating, editing, and sharing dashboards
  • Dashboard gadgets to present information
  • Where do gadgets get their data?
  • Configure dashboard gadgets with project data and/or filtered data
  • Dashboard layouts
  • Dashboard troubleshooting
  1. Course conclusion: charting your path
  • Discussion: Top three opportunities for improvement using JIRA
  • Immediate next steps for your team
  • Expert Q and A

BigPicture for Teams

Part 1: BigPicture Basics

  • The building blocks of BigPicture
  • Best practices for navigating the BigPicture UI
  • Real-time synchronization between BigPicture and Jira
  • Getting comfortable with Boxes

Part 2: Fundamentals of BigPicture Gantt

  • Navigation
  • Scope
  • Column
  • Views
  • Populating the chart
  • Task Templates
  • Planning and Execution
  • Dependencies and Scheduling Modes
  • Milestones
  • Critical Path and Baseline
  • Aggregation on column views
  • Filtering and Sharing
  • Grouping

Part 3: Advanced Features of BigPicture Gantt

  • Importing and cloning data
  • Basic tasks
  • Resources
  • Infobar
  • Scenarios
  • Hierarchy builders

Part 4: Working with Teams

Part 5: Exploring the features of Teams and Resources

  • Working with BigPicture's Teams
  • Clear overview of a Resources workload
  • Allocation constraints in Resources
  • Optimizing and managing Resources
  • Skill-based planning
  • Workload and Holiday plans
  • Five ways of changing capacity

Part 6: Portfolio overview and Objectives

  • BigPicture Roadmap Fundamentals
  • Objective-driven planning

Part 7: Risk Management, Calendar Planning, and Backlog Grooming

  • Defining and managing risks
  • Using the calendar mode
  • Using the Scope module for backlog grooming

Part 8: Using Board 2.0 to scale Agile

  • Agile approach with multi-team capabilities
    • Planning
    • Execution
    • Team Capacities
    • Board Reports
    • Dependencies

Part 9: Reports and Administration

  • Security
  • Budgeting
  • Reports in BigPicture
  • Gadgets
  • Administration Features

 

Using Jira Align to Implement SAFe

Section 1: Introduction to Jira Align for SAFe Organizations

The opening section will set the groundwork for SAFe and Jira Aligns support of the framework. 

Section 2: Portfolio Management

In this section we will review LPM concepts and practices from the perspective of Agile Portfolio Operations and Lean Governance as described by SAFe. Starting with a demonstration of Strategy & Investment Funding, we will look at how strategic goals and their alignment to Strategic Themes help the APMO/LACe and train leaders make decisions.

The participants will then complete the following guided exercises to understand Lean Portfolio Management concepts and how Jira Align supports each.

  • Create Portfolio Epics and associate them to (pre-created) Themes
    • Allocate portioned theme budgets to Portfolio Epics.
  • Manage Intake using the Portfolio Kanban Board
    • Students will move their Epic through the Portfolio Kanban, ensuring exit criteria Is met
  • Use the backlog to prioritize and rank Portfolio Epics – pulling rank from Themes and modifying the ranking of the Epics In the UI
  • 'Create' Roadmaps
    • Calendar View -aka 'planning view'
      • View Planned & Unplanned work, modify the views
      • Students will adjust epics and sync to the backlog
    • PI View – aka "health & reporting view' Students will
      • Update Health
      • Add Milestones
      • View by Product
      • Briefings views by customer

Section 3: Program/ART Management

In this section, we will cover the 'heart' of SAFe. Connecting strategy to execution begins with prioritized set of portfolio epics, from there our architects and product managers create the execution plans. Participants will:

  • Decompose Portfolio Epics Into Features
  • Use backlog to rank Features (Jira Epics) Pulling rank from Epics –
    • Align features to Jira Projects for the train.
    • Watch as the feature syncs to Jira
  • Backlog Management
    • Ranking – Pull rank from the Epics, Prioritize the backlog and push the new rank to Jira
    • Orphan objects – using the orphan functionality to ensure all work is estimated and aligned to a parent
    • Estimation
    • Kanban column view – pull top features – to get to "close velocity"

Section 4: PI Simulations

  • Prepare for & conduct MOCK PI Planning
    • Select top 10 most Important features (pre-defined list)
    • Program Board – Pre PI Load by PM/RTE role
  • Integration to /from Jira
    • The proper set up of Jira for SAFe
      • Class participants will be able to see stories from Jira Align, write to Jira
      • Class participants creating Feature (Jira Epics) or Stories in Jira
      • Dependencies – 2 per team
      • Risks – 1 per team
      • Objectives
        • Associate 1 to OKR (pre-existing)
        • Program Board View
        • Program Room
      • Monitor PI Progress using the Program Board
        • Show program board In flight – how to resolve problems

Section 5: Report on progress throughout the PI and across the portfolio

  • Work Tree
  • WIP
  • PIP
  • Scope Change
  • Risk report
  • Objective Report/tree
  • PI Progress Report
  • PI Clean up Report
  • Roadmaps
  • INv V Actuals
  • Investment Theme
  • OKR
  • Work Tree Strategy View