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.

The course is designed for individuals or teams who are new to Jira and agile methodologies. No prior experience with Jira or agile is required, and there is no pre-work needed before attending. It’s ideal for beginners looking to understand both the tool and the mindset behind agile practices.

After this course, your team will be able to:

• Use Jira to organize, find, and report their work
• Apply agile principles and methodologies
• Configure Jira to match agile processes