ACA-905 Jira Software Board Config certified! - thoughts on the cert & join me to study!

[#1]

Thrilled to share I'm now ACA-905 Jira Software Board Configuration certified!

This particular certification focuses on how to setup and manage boards in Jira - both of the scrum and kanban variety. Like many things this is something I originally learned by doing... which meant I had a TON of gaps in my knowledge!

Things that I found particularly interesting:

1. Quick filters - set these up to let your team focus on specific types of work items (e.g. just high priority, or just theirs). I've used these in the past and they're incredibly helpful to getting folks to actually use boards (e.g. instead of looking through every ticket they can click one button and get what they need).

2. Kanban column colors - Work in progress (WIP) limits help the team see if they're over or under subscribed in a particular state (red = over, yellow = under). As a project manager this helps me keep an eye on our bottlenecks (or flagging areas we can do more in). The simple color coding also makes it easy for my team to quickly identify areas that they can help with.

3. Access - boards are driven by filters... can't see the board? likely the filter isn't shared with you.... This one drives me nuts! (Atlassian - any way to give board admins a permission analyzer for this kind of thing? or at least one-screen text indicating this could be the issue?). It bugs me because it's unexpected - e.g. if I'm on the board I should see things (plus if the work items have their own security I can't see them anyway... why can filters be hidden!?). (ok, rant over).

This cert is good for anyone who uses Jira boards, but folks like scrum masters, project managers, coordinators, etc. will get extra value out of it since they're typically expected to manage boards. Other team members (like developers) will also benefit since they'll understand how the board works and can either help fix things or at least call them out.

Definitely check this certification out if you use Jira boards and check out my upcoming live learning sessions on the ACA-905 over on Youtube!

Sessions start on August 22nd and run every Friday until September 19th. Sessions begin at 6 AM PST - but will be saved to Youtube. Links directly to the sessions are below, you can also signup here:

1. Session 1 - Board types & concepts
2. Session 2 - Permissions & filters
3. Session 3 - Columns & Swimlanes
4. Session 4 - Appearance & Estimation
5. Session 5 - Review!

[Frank Reitel]

congratulations @Robert Hean 

[Anwesha Pan (TCS)]

That's great! Congratulations @Robert Hean 👏

I wish I was able to join the sessions :( may be in the future some better timing will work out for me. Thanks for sharing!