A poorly tuned Jira is a daily struggle for Agile teams. Inconsistencies in Jira usage and configurations produce unreliable data that limit an organization’s ability to properly manage Agile projects from the team level to the executive level. Lacking an appropriate level of investment and understanding, Jira can become little more than an expensive task tracking tool, rather than something that can help catalyze improvements and drive organizational change. In order to derive the maximum possible benefit from their investment in Atlassian products, organizations must appreciate the complexity and sophistication of these tools and assign an appropriate level of investment – both initial and on an ongoing basis. This involves three main pieces: (1) design a set of initial templates, taxonomies, configurations, and reporting metrics, (2) establish roles and responsibilities for jira administration, (3) and initiate a process of continuous improvement that welcomes configuration changes rather than discourages them.

1. https://www.arielpartners.com/capabilities-statement/

2. § Software Development since 1988
§ Large Commercial & Government Projects
§ Kanban Coach / DevOps Engineer
§ Kanban Trainer / SpecFlow Trainer
§ Performance & Scalability Architect
§ Certified Ethical Hacker
§ New York & Washington DC Area
CTO, Ariel Partners
AKT, KCP, KMP, CSM, CSP, CSPO,
ITILv3, PMI-ACP, PMP, CLP, SPC,
ICP-ACC, ICP-ATF, PSM-II, PSK
CEH, ACP-JSW, AC-JPA, ACP-MJCP
Craeg Strong
https://www.linkedin.com/in/cstrong
cstrong@arielpartners.com
@ckstrong1

3. Highlights of our Demonstration
1. Supercharging Standups with Agile Board Design
2. Balancing Flexibility with Governance in your Workflows
3. Improving Backlog Refinement with a Linked Discovery
Board
4. Supercharging Planning Meetings with User Story Mapping
5. Lightweight Scaling to Support Larger Projects
6. Coordinating Dependencies Across Multiple Teams
3/30/22
Confidential © Copyright Ariel Partners 2020
3

4. Curated Configurations
3/30/22
Confidential © Copyright Ariel Partners 2022
4
Atlassian
Jira Data Center
Atlassian
Jira Cloud
Atlassian
Product
Free Vendor
Plugin
Paid Vendor
Plugin
Atlassian
Plugin
LEGEND
Atlassian
Automation For Jira
EasyKAD Kanban
Boards
Adaptavist
ScriptRunner
Hero Coders
Checklist Pro
Easy Agile User
Story Maps
Actionable Agile
Analytics
ALM Works
Structure
ALM Works
Structure.Gantt
Fine Software
JXL
Appfire JSU Jira
Suite Utilities
Atlassian
Automation For Jira
Ascend
Color Cards
Adaptavist
ScriptRunner
Hero Coders
Checklist Pro
Easy Agile User
Story Maps
Appfire JSU Jira
Suite Utilities
ALM Works
Structure
Actionable Agile
Analytics
ALM Works
Structure.Gantt
Fine Software
JXL

5. 1. Supercharge Your Standups

6. Recommended Strategy
• Link the two issues with a blocks link Type
• Mark the issue with flag=Impediment
• Add a comment explaining the impediment is due to the blocking issue
• ”Watch” the blocking issue to be notified when the blocking issue is finished
Inter-Team Dependencies
6
Team cannot complete (or not even start) a work item until another team finishes a separate work item
Gathering firewood
Troop A
Building a campfire
Troop B
blocks
ABSS-130: DnD
Fails in Container
AFEMS-33:
Drag and Drop
blocks >
< blocked by

7. Computed Fields via ScriptRunner Plugin
7

8. 2. Enforcing Governance, Enabling Flexibility
READY
OPEN IN PROGRESS APPROVED
Approved
CLOSED
All All All All
Closed In
Error
Closed
Normally
Abandoned
Approved In
Error

9. 3. Discovery Board

10. User Story Mapping

11. 4. Lightweight Scaling With Structure
Epic
User
Story
Epic
Link
Capability
Implements
is
Implemented
by
1 Sprint
1 Release
Multiple
Releases
Function ?
Implements
is
Implemented
by
Possible Jira
Issue Type Hierarchy
SAFe
Issue Type Hierarchy
Epic
Capability
Feature
User
Story
1 Sprint
1 PI
One Team
1 PI
Multiple
Teams
Multiple
PIs
Epic
User
Story
Epic
Link
1 Sprint
Built-In Jira
Issue Type Hierarchy

12. Lightweight Scaling With Structure

13. Boards versus Projects
1:1 One Project, One Board
Confidential © Copyright Ariel Partners 2020
13 3/30/22
ABSS
Project
(Scrum)
ABSS Team Board
n:1 Multiple Projects One
Board
AFGIS
Dev
(Scrum)
AFGIS
Support
(Kanban)
AFGIS Team Board
1:n One Project Multiple
Boards
DMAPS
Project
(Scaled)
DIFMS Team Board
TAA Team Board
DMAPS Coordination Board

14. 14
Coordinating Dependencies with Program Board

15. 15
JXL for Bulk Changes

16. Examples we Demonstrated Today
3/30/22
Confidential © Copyright Ariel Partners 2022
16
No Demonstration Jira Features and Plugins
1 Supercharging Standups
with Agile board Design
Quick Filter buttons, Custom Fields, Dependency
Links, Card Colors, Script Runner Plugin, Color
Cards Plugin
2 Balancing Flexibility with
Governance in your
Workflows
Workflow design, Standard Transitions, Global
Transitions, Validators & Post Functions,
Transition Screens, JSU Plugin
3 Improving Backlog
Refinement
Multiple Boards Per Project, “Double Loop”
Scrum, Color Cards Plugin
4 Lightweight Scaling Issue Type Customization, Structure for Jira
Plugin, Multi-Project Program Board, JXL Plugin

17. Ariel Atlassian Services
3/30/22
Confidential © Copyright Ariel Partners 2022
17
Ariel offers training on all
Atlassian products both on-site
and virtually, for private groups
and the general public.
Training
As an Atlassian Verified
Government Partner we can fulfill
all customers’ licensing needs
while aligning divergent license
periods
Licensing
Ariel offers a bundled set of
services including installation,
migration, integration,
configuration and training to get
organizations up and running
quickly
JumpStart
Ariel provides Agile coaching for
teams using popular Agile
methods such as Scrum, Kanban,
SAFe, and Flight Levels helping
them to utilize Jira to help drive
continuous improvements
Coaching

18. https://www.arielpartners.com/capabilities-statement/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/cstrong/
cstrong@arielpartners.com