2

From Grassroots to Enterprise-wide

2

Kim PeppersVerisign

10 Tips for Growing JIRA from 5 Users to 800+

3

What Are We Talking About?

3

• How JIRA Grew at Verisign

• Challenges We Faced

• Tips & Lessons Learned

4

About Verisign

4

• The trusted provider of Internet infrastructure services for the networked world.

• Manages 2 of the world's 13 Internet root servers, - a.root-servers.net and j.root-servers.net

• 1100 People world-wide

• ~50 Products

5

I became JIRA Admin

StarTeam Migration Complete

Bugzilla Migration Complete

6

Challenge: Implement Everything

6

• Migrate existing issues from Bugzilla – 35 Projects

• Status and Metrics live in Confluence

• Integrate with Fisheye/Crucible

• Train 75 people

7

Lesson: Don’t Create Utopia

7

• Set manageable milestones for implementation

• Get a subset working

• The team will be excited to see things moving and working in JIRA

• Simplify – start small and build on it

8

Challenge: Manage the Change

8

• Questions, Questions, Questions

• How to determine what to change and when?

9

Tip: Create a Steering Committee

• Size = 5 People

• Representatives from Dev & QA

• Met weekly

9

10

Challenge: Who Knows Best?

• Admins know the tool thoroughly

• Best implementation practices

• What to avoid10

11

Lesson Learned: Know Your Users

11

• Learn how previous tool worked

• Meet with Dev Leads

• Configure JIRA to match

• Permissions, Workflows

• Let users get comfortable

12

Challenge: Teach the People

12

• 75 new people need to learn the tool quickly

13

Tip: Lots of Training Classes

13

• Keep them short (1 hour or less)

• Different classes for different audiences

• JIRA Intro/On-boarding

• Specific Topics• Filters & Dashboards• UI Navigation Tips & Tricks• Searching with JQL

14

Challenge: A State for Every Step

14

• Overly complicated workflows

• Tightly controlled transitions

• Not enough transitions

15

Tip: Simple & Standard Workflows

• As few states as possible

• Fewer restrictions on Transitions

• Reuse

• Standard workflow for Bugs & Enhancements

15

Simple & OpenComplex & Restricted

17

Challenge: Long Lists

17

• Workflows, Screens, Schemes

• Hard to scroll and find one

18

Tip: Standard Naming Conventions

• Prefix with Category Name

• Include Object Type

• “PPD Create Bug & Enhancement Screen”• “Naming Edit Story Test Screen”

• Use Version Numbers18

19

Tip: Standard Naming Conventions

19

20

Challenge: We Want More!

• People want more, more, more

• How to add functionality without changing code?

20

21

Tip: Empower with Plugins

21

• Easy to increase functionality

• 100s available

• Is it supported?

22

Plugins We Love• CustomWare Traffic Lights

22

23

Plugins We Love

• JIRA SU (Switch User)

• JQL Enhancement Functions

• VersionList

23

24

Challenge: JIRA 24x7

24

• With users across the world, availability is critical

• Downtime has to be minimal

25

Sys Admin Tips

25

• Test EVERYTHING

• 1 Test Server – 2 JIRA Instances

• Link is published to users

• Solid Backup/Recovery Process

• Syncs to Test Server, including Attachments

26

Sys Admin Tips

26

• Planned Maintenance Window

27

Challenge: Reading Minds

27

• How is it working?

• Are they using the cool features of the tool?

28

Tip: Survey Users

28

• Keep it short – 10 questions or less

• Specific questions focus on user experience

• Permissions, Notifications, Workflows, Reporting, Integrations

• Follow-up with answers & solutions

29

Survey Questions

29

30

User Survey: 3 Things We Learned

30

• #1 - No consensus on how much email is enough

• Custom Notification Schemes – Small, Medium, Large

• Size determined how much email was generated

• Project Team could choose

31

31

• #2 - Create Screen = Simple, Edit Screen = Everything

User Survey: 3 Things We Learned

32

Simple isBetter!

32

33

33

• #3 - Different filter results in bug scrubs

• Defined Standard Filter Templates & Shared Dashboards

User Survey: 3 Things We Learned

34

Sample Filter Template #1

34

• PPD All Open Bugs per Project

• Filter Fields:

• Project: < >

• Issue Type: Bug

• Affects Versions: Any

• Status: Open, Pending, Deferred, Working and Testing

35

Sample Filter Template #2

35

• PPD Open Bugs by Release

• Filter Fields:

• Project: < >

• Issue Type: Bug

• Affects Versions: <x.1, x.2 …>

• Status: Open, Pending, Deferred, Working and Testing  

36

Challenge: You Want to Track What in JIRA?

36

• Easy for everyone to use

• As JIRA’s popularity grew, so did creativity

37

Tip: Push the Envelope – JIRA Isn’t Just for Bugs

37

• Corporate Marketing Projects

• Sys Admin Support Requests

• Change Control Board Issues

38

Our Star - Tracking Project Status

38

• Replaced 100 weekly emails!

39

Recap of 10 Tips

• 1. Don’t Create Utopia

• 2. JIRA Steering Committee

• 3. Training Classes

• 4. Know Your Users

• 5. Simple & Standard Workflows

• 6. Standard Naming Conventions

• 7. Empower with Plugins

• 8. Test Everything

• 9. Survey Users

• 10. Push the Envelope

39

#atlassiansummit#summit11

40

Go home and create a JIRA Steering

Committee and survey your users, even if

you’ve been using JIRA for years.

“”