Black belt tips
for JIRA Software
NICK PELLOW | DEV MANAGER | @NIICK
Photo of the JIRA Software Team
Esther Asenjo
Atlassian Purchasing
Andy Drizen
JIRA Cloud Mobile
Michael Tokar
JIRA
Edward Zhang
JIRA Service Desk
Some assumptions first
A software team
You’ve worked with
JIRA Software
before
Some form of ‘Agile’
team
Before we begin
Identify risks early with a pre-mortem
Esther Asenjo
Atlassian Purchasing
Andy Drizen
JIRA Cloud Mobile
Michael Tokar
JIRA
Edward Zhang
JIRA Service Desk
Esther Asenjo
Team lead
Separate estimation from planning
Time to go into detail
Separate estimation session
Identify blockersFocused
Photo of team doing
planning. Someone is
looking out the
window, bored
Epics and quick filters to focus the content
Voiceover
points only
Point 1
Point 2
Point 3
Point 4
Epic panel
Voiceover
points only
Point 1
Point 2
Point 3
Point 4
Click to filter
Talking point
Supporting text should be brief 

and no longer than 4 lines. Limit one
talking point and image per slide.
Voiceover
points only
Point 1
Point 2
Point 3
Point 4
Quick filters
“Story Points” is EMPTY
Status in ("To Do", "Ready for Dev”)
labels = squirtle-squad
Quick filter JQL
Unestimated
Not Started
Sub team
Voiceover
points only
Point 1
Point 2
Point 3
Point 4
Issue detail
panel
Customise your board’s issue detail view
Photo of the meeting
with someone saying
that we need a new
issue
Voiceover
points only
Point 1
Point 2
Point 3
Point 4
Create issue
Voiceover
points only
Point 1
Point 2
Point 3
Point 4
Create issue in
epic
Inline issue create
Voiceover
points only
Point 1
Point 2
Point 3
Point 4
Create issue
inline
Epic
Label
Sprint
Version
Component
And more..Project
Assignee
Populates fields based on filters
The keyboard shortcuts to success
Assign Assign to me Send top Send bottom
Key shortcuts
+ +
Use the dot
The dot dialog
Photo of team
interested and
engaged
Esther Asenjo
Atlassian Purchasing
Andy Drizen
JIRA Cloud Mobile
Michael Tokar
JIRA
Edward Zhang
JIRA Service Desk
Andy Drizen
JIRA Mobile
Estimation
SO KEEP IT FRESH!
PLANNING POKER
SOME > NONE
Sometimes so hard, plenty of teams
skip it entirely…
Can often seem very arbitrary.
Hard to calibrate a team on story
points
Low engagement == low
commitment
Relative estimation
Order cards
Planning prep
Assign story pointsPlanning prep
Rough set of stories
for sprint.
Prints the agile cards.
From simplest to most
complex
Start with simplest
set: 1s
Then next simplest
set: 3s, etc etc
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SIMPLE
COMPLEX
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Blank with titleNew story!
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1s
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1s
3s
Blank with title
1s
3s
5s
Blank with title
1s
3s
5s
8s
13s?
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3s
1s
5s
8s
Some > none
The art of estimation itself
is often the value, not the
estimate.
More
involvement
Tangible cards on the
table is fun. No laptops!
Easier to
estimate
Much faster comparing 2
stories, than all stories!
Relative Estimations
Esther Asenjo
Atlassian Purchasing
Andy Drizen
JIRA Cloud Mobile
Michael Tokar
JIRA
Edward Zhang
JIRA Service Desk
Michael Tokar
JIRA Platform
“Tokes”
Automated workflow triggers
Use an open
workflow
Issues can move to

any status
ADDING THE TRIGGER
TRIGGERS
Branch created
Pull request
merged
Deployment
successful
Type your annotation here,

the dotted line can be
moved and/or re-sized.
TRIGGERS
Branch created
Pull request
merged
Deployment
successful
Type your annotation here,

the dotted line can be
moved and/or re-sized.
Branch naming conventions
feature/JSW-3429_editable_issue_details
<prefix>/<issue-key>_<description>
TRIGGERS
Branch created
Pull request
merged
Deployment
successful
Type your annotation here,

the dotted line can be
moved and/or re-sized.
DONE means
deployed
On pull request merged
‘Awaiting
deployment’ as a
holding ground
Master means
customers
TRIGGERS
Branch created
Pull request
merged
Deployment
successful
Type your annotation here,

the dotted line can be
moved and/or re-sized.
Headline 3
Subtext type size is
optimized at 36 pt.
Rehearse
Rely on rehearsing
your voiceover rather
than writing.
Branch 

created
No worries
It’s OK if the subtext
lengths differ.
Pull request
merged
Deployment
successful
Branch
created
One pull request per issue
Progress
>> perfection
Perfection is not
necessary to make an
impact
Each team is
different
Find what works for you
Experiment
Introduce slowly, allow for
critique
Triggers
Esther Asenjo
Atlassian Purchasing
Andy Drizen
JIRA Cloud Mobile
Michael Tokar
JIRA
Edward Zhang
JIRA Service Desk
JIRA Service Desk
Ed Zhang
Lack of progress
Lack of focus
Quality of demos
Sprints are
tough…
Are we there yet ?
Many, unrelated streams of work in
flight
Bad reflection on the team
Bad vibe in the team
Sprint goals
Demo driven
Sprint goals
MeasurableDecide as a team
With input from PM,
however team needs
buy-in & commitment
During pre-planning,
imagine what the
demo will be like
Be specific.
Build your
measurement first!
D3 conversion demoable and
the dashboard performance
improved by 10% on 9 August
ServiceDesk #SprintGOAL
Build measurement first
Can be used
as pro/con,
hypothesis/
finding, etc.
Use when
explaining
two sides of
a point.
ONE SIDE THE OTHER SIDE
Can be used
as pro/con,
hypothesis/
finding, etc.
Use when
explaining
two sides of
a point.
ONE SIDE THE OTHER SIDE
Can be used
as pro/con,
hypothesis/
finding, etc.
Use when
explaining
two sides of
a point.
ONE SIDE THE OTHER SIDE
Applause
Standups!
Task centric standups
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Build a standup board
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Participants
only
Only active participants
will talk
Less waffle
Use this time wisely to
discuss what’s important -
the actual work!
Leaner
“Cut our standup time in
half!”
Task centric standups
Black Belt tips for JIRA Software
Separate estimation sessions
Epics and quick filters
Create issues inline
Automatic workflow triggers
Use the dot
Relative estimation
Sprint goals
Task centric standups
Applause
Bonus JQL Quiz!
JIRA Query Language is the key to JIRA mastery
In which version of JIRA was JQL
introduced?
4.0
What JQL allows you to find all issues
created in the past 2 weeks?
created > -14d
Find all issues in an open sprint?
Sprint in openSprints()
Select all issues where the label ‘foo’ does
NOT exist?
Blank with title
labels != “foo” OR labels is EMPTY
Show all issues referencing a Pull Request
that is still open?
development[pullrequests].open > 0
Thank you
NICK PELLOW | DEV MANAGER | @NIICK

Black Belt Tips for JIRA Software