Any suggestions to develop a learning pathway for myself to present to my team lead for approval?

[Ayesha Ibrahim]

Hi, 

I have been a Jira user for almost a year now. I can set up multi-sprint boards, and run sprints, currently working on some automated project documentation using jql and Confluence features. I feel very confident with the sprint documentation process that I have refined over the past 5 months using jql and labels. Now I want to go to the next level and acquire some certifications but the information available online is not very clear so I want to reach out to the community to know more about your experience and what has worked for you all. 

My job role is digital project management, managing teams, tracking work, documentation, implementing processes that break silos, and implementing and administering sprints. So for project/team/work management, we use Jira and for sprint documentation I use Confluence. I still feel my jql skills are at a beginner level. I want to make reporting project dashboards so the management can get a top-down view using any Jira/Confluence/jql and I want to setup Jira issue automation as well. I also can setup some Rich Filter dashboards to view the status of a release. We also have Tempo where I monitor time logged. 

So my questions are: 

• what has worked for you? 
• what according to you is the best order of ACP certifications?
• where can I find the relevant learning materials? People have been complaining that the material freely available and the list provided by Atlassian does not fully cover the intensity or nature of the exams. 

Would appreciate the experienced Jira admins, PMs and Scrum Masters feedback. Thank you all in advance and stay awesome :) 

[Valerie Knapp]

Hi @Ayesha Ibrahim , thanks for your question.

I'm currently an Atlassian Consultant but I started using the Atlassian suite in 2012 /2013 when I worked in the higher education sector, mainly Confluence, for project documentation.

When I changed jobs in 2015, to another university, I learned about Jira (software) for the first time. Then, when I changed again to a third university (I know), I became the lead training person to onboard people into Jira.

Then, in 2019, I moved countries and having Jira on my resume got me a job! I worked in a company as a Jira admin, setting up new users, doing customizations and creating 'knowledge pills' to train end users on how to do things like logging hours in tasks.

Eventually, in 2021, I got a job as a consultant, where my employer set me a goal of getting two certifications in my probation period (so within 6 months). I was able to do this but I don't agree in principle with this approach as the certifications are HARD.

My pathway to Atlassian Certified Expert was this -

Fall 2021

ACP-610 / 600 Managing Jira projects for server / data center - I did this one first because, at that time, it was the system I had used the longest. However! This is also one of the older exams and therefore the questions (in my opinion / experience) are still written in the old style (before Atlassian put a lot of time and resources into improving the exams). I failed the first attempt, which was at least partially due to some internet connectivity problems, but I passed on the second attempt.

ACP-620 Managing Jira projects for cloud - I did this one second because of having had less experience in cloud. The preparation for the 610 gave me a good headstart and having had some experience also with the exam portal, I managed to pass the first time.

In general, for the 600 level exams / certs, you need to know absolutely everything about a smaller area / more concentrated list of topics.

For the 100 / 120 exams, you need to know less about more different areas, as a question could be on any part of Jira, instead of only being focussed on projects.

Fall 2022

ACP-120 Jira Administration for cloud - Having worked as an Atlassian Consultant for a year and a bit, I felt more confident about doing this cert. By this point, I had also learned the "trick" to do the practice exam questions first, from the prep course, and then from that, I built a customized learning pathway based on where I was weak.

Here is a post mortem I wrote up for work -

Notes from Valerie Christine Knapp , exam passed succesfully on 31-ott-2022 

To prepare for the ACP-120, I studied every day after work for one hour and a few hours at the weekend for at least 8 weeks before attempting the exam. I also already had the certifications for ACP-610 and ACP-620.

My advice is to make regular time to study every day and then, as you get closer to the exam, to try to find as many exam questions as possible and take the practice exams over and over again until you get a perfect score.

If at all possible, that you should try to take the exam in person. The online exam proctoring is always a nightmare. It takes forever to check-in, so you start the exam late, and it just adds unnecessary stress to a test which is already difficult.

Also, only use Atlassian practice exam questions. There are many other resources, like exam dumps, Udemy and study sites, but they tend to have mistakes or errors and it will not help you to learn the incorrect answers, again, for an already difficult exam. Atlassian make the product so they are the only ones who can guarantee the questions are accurate, up-to-date and in the same style as the exam.

Here are some of sample questions I used to prepare myself:
Managing Permissions in Jira Cloud: https://university.atlassian.com/student/path/904496/activity/1163740
JQL for Admins: https://university.atlassian.com/student/path/1006524/activity/1314419
Jira Administration for Cloud Certification Prep (ACP-120): https://university.atlassian.com/student/path/838340/activity/1054385

These are all of the courses I completed to prepare myself:

Jira Administration Part 1 : Atlassian

Jira Administration Part 2 : Atlassian

Managing Permissions in Jira Cloud : Atlassian

Jira Automation for Admins : Atlassian

JQL for Admins : Atlassian

Customizing Jira Workflows : Atlassian

Atlassian Certification: 5 Insider Tips for Success : Atlassian

Jira Automation in Jira Software Premium : Atlassian

3 Jira Experts on the Mistakes that Still Haunt Them : Atlassian

Managing Agile Boards and Reports : Atlassian

Jira Administration for Cloud Certification Prep (ACP-120) : Atlassian

In the actual exam, I felt prepared for most questions. However, they asked a lot of questions about Team-Managed projects. For example, how you can customise the workflow and just lots of questions about the different possibilities that are available. By my calculations, as you cannot see your exam result, I felt I missed the most number of questions related to team-managed projects. I will include my breakdown if it can helpful. There are also, in the preparation courses, many more questions about the administration at organization level of the Cloud. I think in the near future, these will be transferred to the new qualification they are launching - ACP-AOA Atlassian Certified Organization Administrator (Coming early 2023).

Your score:??81%

Content Breakdown:

1.0??Access, Permissions, Security:?88%

2.0??General Project Configuration:?75%

3.0??Issue Types, Fields, Screens:?75%

4.0??Workflows and Automation:?77%

5.0??Notifications:?80%

6.0??Advanced User Features:?87%

7.0??System Administration / Administering Jira:?83%

I would be happy to talk about my experience or if you would like some assistance about how to get started or making a study plan, please reach out.

Fall 2023

ACP-520 Atlassion Cloud Organization Admin - Also here, having recently done several server to cloud migrations, I felt prepared to do this cert right after the prep course. Here is my post mortem from work-

Notes from Valerie Christine Knapp 

I prepared for the ACP-520 following this guide - https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Training-Certification-articles/How-to-prepare-for-ACP-520-Atlassian-Cloud-Organization-Admin/ba-p/2441713

I would recommend to at least read this page as it has links to all of the documentation for the exam topics, which, in the pdf from the course, the links don't work, it's just a list of topics (Atlassian Cloud Organization Admin Certification : Atlassian)

I also completed these courses, basically following the Learning Path here - Atlassian Cloud Organization Admin : Atlassian

Atlassian Cloud Organization Admin Certification : Atlassian

Atlassian Access Administration : Atlassian

In the test, I scored like this -

Your score:??84%

Content Breakdown:

1.0??Atlassian Organizations:?85%
2.0??Users and Groups:?75%
3.0??Admin Roles:?100%
4.0??Advanced features:?87%

I would tend to agree with a colleague that many of the questions concentrate on practical scenarios dealing with users / groups / product roles. I think you could do the certification course and, if you have a lot of experience working at the organization / site level, that the questions from the course are a good preparation. I did read the documentation from the list of exam topics, but if it helped me, it was just to consolidate what I had already gained from the course.

A typical question would be -

A user group is deleted from the organization, which problems could this cause in Jira?

or this user appears like this in the directoy, what can you tell about them from this current status?

The certfication preparation course is very well structured, with lots of opportunities to practice test questions within each chapter or section of the guide. However, I would say the course and the questions rely on you having previous experience configuring Jira and Confluence in the cloud, so I would recommend at least the ACP-620 before you try this, if not also the ACP-120.

I also used the app, Quizlet, where I found a set of flashcards for the ACP-520 which were helpful -Flashcard Atlassian ACP 520 - Atlassian Cloud Organization Admin Certification | Quizlet

[Valerie Knapp]

Anyway, I hope this helps you a bit. If you have any questions or doubts, please post again here. Good luck to you!

[Ayesha Ibrahim]

Thanks Valerie, this is really helpful and detailed. Some links seem to have expired, so I'll search for them separately. Thank you for taking the time out, you have lots of experience in Jira, I also want to get to an advanced level. I have helped my team lead in setting some project documents using JQL on Confluence and am super excited for this next phase.