Telefónica Germany is one of the largest integrated telecommunication operators in the world with over 21 million customers in Germany. It has been using JIRA since 2004 with over 450 users currently. As the user base grows, they need to consider how to scale JIRA administration by potentially increasing the number of administrators or setting natural boundaries between different parts of the company using separate JIRA instances.

1. Worldwide and throughout Germany
Telefónica Germany is part of Telefónica S.A.,
one of the largest integrated telecommunication
operators in the world.
Roughly
21 million customers
More than 1,000 o2 shops and
o2 partner shops
Over €5 billion
revenue in 2011
Scalability of JIRA @ Telefónica Aidan Johnstone 1

2. Scaling JIRA in Agile enterprise software
development
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3. It’s not about Scrum in the enterprise
Agile Project Setup: Coordination & Synchronisation:
Team Team Team Team
Shop VVL/CSC Login CMS
Backlog Backlog Backlog Backlog
Content Information
Architecture
Team Team
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4. It’s not about Greenhopper
Shop Team Facts: Managing Cross Team Impact (Shop Backlog in JIRA)
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5. What then?
It’s a real life example
It’s about the administration
of JIRA…
...and about how JIRA scales.
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6. Background information
What do we use JIRA for?
§ Everything! Bugs, Projects, Tasks
Who uses JIRA?
§ Development, Business, Agencies
Many other tools used within Telefónica
Most of company doesn’t use JIRA
Only 1 of several JIRA instances
in the company
Back-up every 24hrs
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7. Statistics
Telefonica’s o2 Telefonica Hansenet
JIRA instances Germany Germany (Alice)
Since § 2004 § 2010 § 2006
Users
(incl. inactive)
§ 461 (1036) § 224 (224) § 1142* (1142)
Administrators § 12 § 27 § 2
Projects
(incl. inactive)
§ 54 (155) § 27 § 70*
Permission
Schemes
§ 46 § 16 § 70
Custom fields § 181 § 8 § 187
License Type § Unlimited § Unlimited § Unlimited
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8. Principles
Agility Empowerment
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9. Keeping it flexible
Keep administrators near
to users
Increase the number of
administrators proportionally
with users
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10. Where are the boundaries?
1. 450 users and going strong
2. Every company is different
• Size
• Usage patterns
3. Ask yourself 2 questions:
• Can you keep adding administrators?
• Are there natural system boundaries?
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11. Can you keep adding administrators?
Decentralised administration
leads to housekeeping problems
Unclear responsibility
Less time spent finding solutions
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12. Are there natural system boundaries?
Features are grouped together
1:N Projects à
Users
Settings
Schemes
Fields
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13. Next steps
Help enable others in the
company to set up their
own JIRA instances, so
that JIRA remains the
popular and useful tools
that it currently is.
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14. Summary
Started small
Going strong
Need a plan going forward
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