Five Tips to Help Project Managers Become Jira Jedis

Are you a Project Manager with a secondary role as a Jira administrator? In my previous life as a PM, I found myself in this position often, and I think it's a common scenario. If you find yourself in this situation, you'll not only need to be able to manage teams and projects in Jira, you'll need to pull fancy reports and create beautiful dashboards to ensure everything is on track.

In this blog post, I'm going to share a few tips and tricks that will help you master the skills you need to become a Jira Jedi.

1. The Atlassian Community is your friend!

Whatever question you’re thinking of, chances are it’s been asked in the Atlassian Community. It's a great place to quickly find the answers you’re looking for, and you can sort through them for the most relevant ones by looking for the answers with the most votes and/or seeing which answer was accepted. 

2. Join your local Atlassian Community Event (ACE)

Many major cities already have an ACE group underway, and they are a great way to network and ask questions pertaining to all things Atlassian. Often, there are great speakers that share valuable information. Maybe you have been trying to wrap your head around how to use Advanced Roadmaps, or which test management app is right for your organization. ACE is a great place to ask those questions. If you don’t have an ACE in your area, consider starting your own by requesting it through Atlassian. You don’t have to be a Jira Jedi to be a community leader. You just have to be willing to organize the events!

3. Watch Atlassian webinars

Sign up for Atlassian webinars or check out solution partners like Isos Technology that also provide helpful webinars. Most of these webinars are free to participate in and you’ll come away with some really great information. If you sign up for email notifications, you’ll get notified of upcoming webinars so you won’t miss any great content.

4. Play around in the sandbox.

Don’t be afraid to create a test project or request a sandbox instance to play in. Often, when I’m trying to build a new project or test new features, I’ll try things out in a sandbox or test project to ensure my changes are isolated. It’s also a great way to demo something new before rolling it out to your designated projects.

5. Roll out pilot projects to save time and prevent rework. 

When creating new initiatives, I recommend doing a pilot with a small sample size and timeboxing it. Don’t be afraid to recruit help to roll out these new initiatives. If you have a project that you’d like to recreate, remember that when you create a new project, you  can share configurations with the project you want to replicate. And if you find yourself overwhelmed with all the schemas, just go to your project settings and view the Summary. Think of the Summary section as a treasure map that shows you all the configurations you have set up for that project. It’s a great starting point and can serve as a roadmap. 

Hopefully, I have provided you with a great starter toolbox to get you going in the right direction as a Jira Admin. If you could still use extra help, don’t hesitate to reach out to an Atlassian Platinum Solution Partner like Isos Technology to help guide you in the right direction. Trust me, with time you’ll only get better!