Rachel Wright Community Champion

Mistake 12 How many application administrators should an application have? At one company, there were 132! There were no procedures to determine who was eligible for application-level admin access. It didn't matter if you were a technical development team manager or a non-technical project manager. It didn't matter if you…

Mistake 6 “Someone get this kid admin access!” - Rachel Wright with her Commodore 64 My first admin experience was on the day I was made an application administrator! (Not ideal!) I had a very good user-level knowledge of Jira, but understanding how to use it verses how to configure and manage it are very different things!…

Mistake 8 Sometimes workflows break or develop conflicts due to administrative actions in other areas of Jira. In Server and Data Center, the built-in Integrity Checker function can sometimes detect and resolve these issues. But other times, and in Cloud, your users are the first to report a missing transition, a visual…

Mistake 9 I know I’m not the only one who’s made this mistake! I once changed a status in the “diagram” workflow editor. I thought I was swapping one status for another and that the change would only apply to that one workflow. Instead, I changed the name of the original status in all of Jira! The status name change was…

Mistake 7 Do your users keep Jira issue status in sync with reality? In my experience, they do not. Issues are often forgotten about in certain statuses. Does this happen in your application? Then, read on! Admin > Issues > StatusesStatus Categories In Jira, statuses are classified into one of three categories: “To Do”,…

Mistake 4 It’s shocking, but many organizations don’t have a test environment! I didn’t have one when I first started out either. But I quickly saw how important it was to be able to experiment and learn without impacting production data. You need a place to see how your changes work with real-life scenarios. Options for…

Mistake 1 One of the worst workflows I’ve seen is unfortunately, one I built. We were having process problems and thought a comprehensive Jira workflow would solve them. But I’ve since learned that if you’re having process problems outside of Jira, Jira will not magically solve them. The revamped process itself was great,…

Mistake 10 When you’re wading through mucky configurations, you never know what is lurking underneath. Seemingly simple clean up activities are more complex or dangerous then they initially seem. It’s important to know exactly how each clean-up activity impacts other areas of the application. Admin > Issues > Issue…

Tackling Imposter Syndrome Finally, I want to talk about a feeling that can sometimes stand in the way of success. It’s a term called “imposter syndrome” and it’s defined as doubting your abilities or feeling like a fraud. I have this feeling from time to time. Sometimes I question my skills, talents, or accomplishments. I…

Multiple Revenue Streams In 2020, LinkedIn Learning invited me to produce Jira and Confluence courses for their content library. I recorded the first of many courses in their California studios. I also worked with a solution partner to write the Ultimate Guide to Jira Migrations. It’s a free, 210-page, guide to help…

Getting Additional Clients In 2018 I started working with Atlassian Solution Partners. I’ve co-hosted events, written app reviews, completed consulting projects, and created content like use cases, documentation, and explainer videos. Here’s me signing books after delivering a workshop for a solution partner’s clients. In…

Increase Professionalism Do you have? ✅ A portfolio ✅ A professional bio and photo ✅ A branded email address ✅ Professional materials and collateral One way for independent consultants to compete with bigger firms is to increase professionalism. You could have all the knowledge in the world but look less competent because…

Grow Your Network In 2017 and 2019, I accomplished a personal goal. I spoke at the Atlassian user conference. Attending Atlassian events is a great way to meet new contacts and grow your network. In between events, you can also leverage social media and your own website. Make sure that your website has a way to capture…

Establish Yourself as an Expert 2016 was a big year! I was one of the first Jira admins to get certified, I started my current consulting company, and I published my first book, the Jira Strategy Admin Workbook. I wrote the book because I knew I wasn’t the only admin to inherit a messy configuration. The book is not…

Hello Community! My name is Rachel Wright and I am a certified Jira administrator, author of The Jira Strategy Admin Workbook, and an Atlassian Community Leader. In this video, I'll talk about the importance of getting certified: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCBMWhjYegE Be sure to check out the next video in my 7 part…

This is a different kind of series. It’s part story and part strategy. My goal for this series is for you to leverage your existing skills, grow your network and influence, and create a thriving consulting business. So, relax, pour your favorite beverage and join me on this 12-year Atlassian journey. In this series: * Part…

Archival Workaround What if you don’t have archival capabilities? Here are a few alternate ideas to try: 1. Flag content and restrict editing Add a banner or some visual indicator to old pages. Then remove editing capabilities so no further updates are made. (I usually do both.) 2. Export and remove content Backup or…

Archiving Content What happens when a page or an entire space is no longer needed? Don’t delete it, archive it instead! By archiving, the organization retains the information for legal and historical purposes. Plus there’s less overall clutter. Archiving a Page The page in the screenshot is outdated and customers have all…

Do What You Love I can trace my interest in technology back to two key events. First was when I got my first computer, a Commodore 64, in the 1980s. I loved playing games and learning DOS commands. The second event was thanks to my fear of calculus in high school. I’m horrible at math so I asked if there was a different…

Set Your Ideal Schedule Remember I previously told you about my worst software decision? Here’s my best and it helped me with work-life balance. I took my own advice and I outsourced meeting scheduling. Using a service where clients schedule their own meetings changed my life in two ways. First, there are no more back and…

Stop Being Normal OK, back to my timeline and story. In 2015, my life’s trajectory drastically changed again. My partner Chris and I wanted to live somewhere else but didn’t know where. We decided to sell our stuff, buy a truck and a travel trailer, and travel the United States. We’re digital nomads. Wikipedia defines this…

Engage the Community The next pivotal events in my journey were when I was given application admin permissions, when I attended my first Atlassian User Conference, and when I became an Atlassian Community Leader. I was slowly leaving web development behind to focus on Jira administration instead. At the Atlassian user…

Choose the Right Tools As I mentioned, I thought I’d be a web developer forever. Then, in 2011, everything changed. I fell in love with Jira and my life would never be the same. I was using a bug tracker that only ran in an obsolete browser version and regularly corrupted data. But Jira seemed so much better! I was…

Many Ways to Consult Alright, back to my story. Before I even started college, I was building websites for local organizations. I started a company and completed 150 web projects to help clients automate business tasks, communicate with customers, and close sales online. I was fully invested in web development and was sure…

What Do You Need? Now that you know what skills you have, figure out what skills you need. For example, my background was Jira Server, so when Cloud came around, I had to learn how to be comfortable in that environment too. Next, determine your financial needs. Are you simply trying to add a little more to your monthly…

Why This Topic? If you’re a solution partner, there’s an official Atlassian partner program to help you grow your business and get customers. But for small independent consultants like me, there are very few resources available. Most of us have technical skills but maybe not as many business skills. I believe this audience…

Global Permissions - Confluence Global permissions page in Confluence CloudConfluence Cloud, Server, and Data Center have the following global permissions. * In Cloud there are organization level, site level, application level, and space level administrators. * Server and Data Center have system level, application level,…

Global Permissions - Jira Jira Cloud, Server, and Data Center have the following global permissions. While the naming (and capitalization) between deployment types differs slightly, the capabilities are the same. Jira Cloud Name Jira Server and Data Center Name 1 n/a Jira System Administrators 2 Administer Jira Jira…

Global Permissions While we’re talking about admins and user types, let’s also briefly discuss the highest permission level. Note: Cloud free plan users will need to upgrade to leverage permission features. Global permissions are application-wide settings that influence user and individual project and space abilities. Here…

Who does what? (continued again) Project and Space Administrators In addition to system/application admins, individual Jira projects and Confluence spaces can have one or more administrators. People project admin page in Jira Cloud Example responsibilities: * Set and maintain components, versions, and other project and…