Seven Sins of Jira Administration

How not to destroy your Jira

Matthew Cobby

1Thursday, 16 May 13

How to represent the sins?

2Thursday, 16 May 13

Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brueghel_-_Sieben_Laster_-_Disidia.jpg

Seven Vices by Brueghel (1558)

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Dante’s Inferno

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_Comedy

4Thursday, 16 May 13

There must be another way...Modern, loved by millions, colourful?

5Thursday, 16 May 13

SpongeBob Squarepants!

Ref: http://www.toonzone.net/forums/nicktoons/190291-spongebob-7-deadly-sins.html

6Thursday, 16 May 13

Lust

Lust (or Lechery) is seen as sexual wants but it’s original form was desire, desire of money, fame, power.

Spongebob

“Life is as extreme as you wanna make it”

7Thursday, 16 May 13

Marketplace is brilliant!but ask yourself...

Is the plugin maintained?How widely used is it?

Does it have a good reputation?How well does it perform?

Do support questions go answered? Check Atlassian Answers

Do you really need it? How many users will benefit?

Is it worth it's cost? Consider federating your Jira instances to save costs.

I want, I want, I want!Lust

8Thursday, 16 May 13

Press Release upgrades

Beware the Beta

Release early, release often can have drawbacks

Remember you’re there to service a business

Lust Premature Upgrading

9Thursday, 16 May 13

WrathWrath, also known as rage may be described as inordinate and uncontrolled feelings of hatred and anger. In its purest form, presents with self-destructiveness, violence, and hate that may provoke feuds.

Squidward

“That’s not what I meant barnacle

head!”

10Thursday, 16 May 13

Wrath What do you mean, “it’s slow”?

Be proactive with performance measurementKnow your Jira

Listen to the users (anecdotal) but get evidence (empirical)

Know your cache & pool sizesUnderstand the basic of the JVM

Consider a reverse proxy with Apache

11Thursday, 16 May 13

SlothSloth is sometimes defined as physical laziness, spiritual laziness and a failure to do things that one should do and so evil exists when good men fail to act.

Patrick

“To Do List: nothing!”

12Thursday, 16 May 13

Don’t run with the default schemesDecouple your config

Use strong naming conventionsMyIssueTypeScheme,

MyIssueTypeScreenScheme

Set up 4-6 standard project typesNew project request workflow

Have 80% of projects on a standard configurationsCustomizations by exception

Sloth Not setting standards

13Thursday, 16 May 13

Slow death of complexityConfiguration easy to add, hard to take away

Not cleaning up old projectsDo you still need that custom field?

How do you know?

Manage user churnSubscriptions, Filters, Dashboards, Watchers

Forgotten XML backups

Sloth Silent Killers

14Thursday, 16 May 13

GreedGreed, like lust and gluttony, a sin of excess is an inordinate desire to acquire or possess more than one needs, especially with respect to material wealth.

Mr Krabs

“Hello, I like money!”

15Thursday, 16 May 13

Too many administrators Developer administrators

Decentralized administrators & centralized configuration

Delegate via roles

Lack of documentation! Have a deployment methodology

Change management processApprove & document changes

Source Control

Greed Can I just have..?

16Thursday, 16 May 13

EnvyLike greed and lust, is characterized by an insatiable desire. Envy is similar to jealousy in that they both feel discontent towards someone's traits, status, abilities, or rewards. The difference is the envious also desire the entity and covet it.

Plankton

“I will rule the world!”

17Thursday, 16 May 13

One Jira to rule them all!Envy

Know Jira’s limitations

Jira will grow & grow fast!Maintain service levels

Be wary of taking on too much too fast

18Thursday, 16 May 13

PridePride (or hubris in greek) is the original and most serious of the seven deadly sins, and the source of the others. It is identified as a desire to be more important or attractive than others, failing to acknowledge the good work of others, and excessive love of self

Sandy

“I’m hotter than a hickory smoked

sausage!”

19Thursday, 16 May 13

Practising in production

If the worst happens:Do you know your backups work?

Database, Attachments & customizations

Run the integrity checker, mistakes do happen

...and who put the delete project button next to the browse?

Nothing can go wrong!Pride

20Thursday, 16 May 13

GluttonyGluttony is the over-indulgence and over-consumption of anything to the point of waste. It can be be interpreted as essentially placing concern with one's own interests above the well-being or interests of others

Gary

“meow”

21Thursday, 16 May 13

Custom fieldsPush back & reuse

Beware field configuration schemesDon't overload the existing core field behaviour

Jira Field Helper is available

Simple workflows are best Do you really need..?

GluttonyJust because you can...

22Thursday, 16 May 13

@mcobby

Matthew Cobby

mcobby@gmail.com

mcobby

matt@andamooka.com

matthew-cobby

Thank you!

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