New member introductions to the Agile Community Group

[Michael Davis]

Hi, everyone! My name is Michael Davis and I'm an Agile Project Manager with WP Engine. I've been a PM for over 10 years, across many different business sectors (Gov., Commercial, Non-profit, even as Active Duty military!). I can say without hesitation that no two organizations approached Agile or had a common understanding of what it is - or the value it held for them. :) 

Now, for the questions:

1. What type of team or company do you work for? I work on a cross functional team for a company that leverage the Word Press platform. 
2. What is an antiquated way of working and how would you want to see it change? Meetings upon meetings. Even as a 100% virtual employee, I feel as though all we did was take this amazing technology and apply it to an old business model. We never stopped and thought to actually 'innovate' with it. Why couldn't some meetings be async with video recordings? Or, have remove some meetings and replace them with simple emails or internal comm messages? (yes, I'm talking about the meetings that are only to push out one-way messages - but couldn't we even rethink some of the other meetings and ceremonies we hold?)
3. What do you hope to get out of this group? Ideas, best practices, and support! 
4. What do you hope to bring to this group? A fresh set of eyes and different way of thinking. 
5. What is your favorite Jira configuration tip and why? I like having everyone on my teams with their own swim lanes for tickets to push them through. It makes it even easier to see who has what for me and the rest of the team. 
6. Do you have a hobby or something you enjoy when not working? I love to play tennis, go to Disney with my family, and play with my kids :) 

I look forward to chatting with everyone! 

[Chris Boys]

Hi @Michael Davis nice to meet you!  Looking forward to sharing more along the way.  

[Robert Wen_ReleaseTEAM_]

Welcome!

[Darryl Lee]

Welcome @Michael Davis ! 

[Vicky Jotwani]

Welcome @Michael Davis 

[Mayur Jadhav]

Hello Everyone,

My self Mayur Jadhav, currently working as Atlassian Administrator at Atlassian Platinum Solution Partner( Microgenesis) from last 1 year.  I have wonderful experience on Atlassian tool's. Specially Atlassian Community helps me to learn and know more about Atlassian tools.

Very excited and looking forward for interesting discussion on this group.

Thanks.

[Michael Davis]

Hi, Mayur! Thanks for sharing! 

[Mayur Jadhav]

Thanks @Michael Davis 

[Michael Andolfatto]

Hey everyone, my name is Michael and I'm one of the Atlassian consultants from Valiantys. I've been involved in the configuration of many Agile-tuned Jira projects historically and as of last year I've received my SPC v5 certification and have entered the realm of Agile at Scale.

1. What is your favorite Jira configuration tip and why? 
   Not my favourite per se, but a fan favourite is enabling an In Progress/Ready toggle for Kanban boards that automatically adjusts when a card is pulled to replicate sub-states.
   
   
2. Do you have a hobby or something you enjoy when not working? 
   Many! I've always enjoyed reading and writing but since the initial Covid lockdown I've also been pursuing a bunch of different interests.
   

Great to meet you all!

[Robert Wen_ReleaseTEAM_]

Welcome!

[Michael Davis]

Hi, Michael! And welcome to the group. I'm new as well, but have already found value in connecting with other members. 

I haven't heard of the SPC v5 cert before (so I just looked it up!). What will you do working with Agile at Scale? 

[Michael Andolfatto]

Hey Michael, nice to meet you! I have worked on/am working on a few transformations to get development teams to follow a standard way of working while implementing processes usually in-line with the SAFe framework.

It's a fun challenge to do this for large organizations with many different moving parts. I'm taking a look at learning more about Jira Align as well which is a great tool to support this.

[Kalee Williams]

Welcome to the group, @Michael Andolfatto

I'm looking forward to learning from you. 

[Carrie Bonnell]

Hello.  I'm new here, and grateful to be a member of the community and this group.  I'm Carrie, a Senior PM with SAGE Publishing, publisher of educational materials including digital content, textbooks and journals.

What type of team or company do you work for? 

The teams I work with range between non-technical delivery projects and programs, and technology delivery teams using both hybrid and Agile delivery methods (varies by project need)

What do you hope to get out of this group?

 Some best practice tips, particularly around JIRA ticket structure and workflow supporting Agile delivery methodology.  We are in the process of an Agile transformation, moving all technology delivery teams to Agile or Hybrid, and are also embarking on an Atlassian upgrade from on-prem server to the Cloud.

What do you hope to bring to this group?

Many years experience (we won't say how many!) in the project management and technical implementations.  I'm also a CSM, though not serving in a Scrum Master role currently.  I have been both a heavy JIRA and Confluence user for the last 6 years, and have lots of examples of what NOT to do!

Hobbies:  

I love being outside and love hiking.  My husband and I are planning a trip to hike the Torres del Paine trail.  I also love baking and cake decorating. 

I look forward to partnering with this group! 

[Robert Wen_ReleaseTEAM_]

Welcome!

[Connor]

Hello, I've joined this group to learn about Agile and implement what I learn in my company's Jira instance. 

1. What type of team or company do you work for? Software development company on the IT team.
2. What do you hope to get out of this group? A better understanding of the Agile methodology and how it can be implemented within Jira.

[Kalee Williams]

Welcome, Connor! This is the place to be to learn more about Agile Methodology.

In the meantime, check out the Jira Tutorials: Learn agile with Jira Software. 

https://www.atlassian.com/agile/tutorials

[Craig Nodwell]

Hi everyone, I'm Craig.  I've been doing build and release management now for almost 30 years.  Agile since 2006.
Glad to be here.

[Kalee Williams]

Welcome, Craig! I can't wait to learn from you! 

[Craig Nodwell]

Bet I learn more LOL
I treat all engagements as a learning opportunity, mine your yours matters not.
Thanks for the welcome.

[Brittany Wispell]

Hey all, 

I've worked in the Atlassian suite for about 7 years now. From general Jira Administration of a single company to being a Consultant for an Atlassian partner. 

Jumping right into some of the ice breaker questions...

1. What do you hope to get out of this group?
   • Gain more insight and understanding of how teams are achieving agile and success stories or even pain point stories.
2. What is your favorite Jira configuration tip and why? 
   • More custom fields, does not mean better reporting.

Glad to be here, and excited to learn more! 

-Brittany

[Michael Andolfatto]

Welcome @Brittany Wispell !

[Mayur Jadhav]

Welcome @Brittany Wispell 

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Hey everyone,

I've been in the Atlassian ecosystem for a while now, so a lot of the audience here are thinking/feeling "Oh no, not again", but I realised I've been in this group (and contributing a bit) for ages, seeing new people introduce themselves a lot and not done it myself, which I think is a bit rude.  So:

I was born, grew up, and live, in England.  I've been a London commuter for 25 years, and lived with cats for longer, hence the profile picture of a cat on a railway line (Sorry, I can't stay too late after work, I need to get a train home so I can feed the cat)

I got a bit lucky with my career - I fell into a (proper) job tinkering with computers, which was one of the two things I was thoroughly enjoying doing at the time, and I ran into "Agile" mid-2001, spent 3 years trying to enable and support it, and then shifted into a role which emphasised this new-fangled Jira thing as a way to be a bit more Agile.  It kind of stuck.

[Kalee Williams]

Welcome, Nic!

[Summer_Hogan]

Hi! My name is Summer Hogan and I work for CSAA Insurance Group (AAA Insurance) as a Product Owner. I own a product that sends email and text message communication to CSAA policyholders and my team and I use both JIRA and Confluence heavily! I have a team that consists of 6 developers, 2 QA engineers, and 1 scrum master. We do all of our work in JIRA and document all of our processes, heavy requirements, demo's, meeting notes, etc. in Confluence.

During my personal time, I love to hike, take walks when it's not smoldering hot in AZ, paint, build Legos, do puzzles and I'm a season ticket holder for ASU football. I just don't have enough time in life to do all these things on a consistent basis! 

I am super thankful for this community and happy to be a part of it! 

[Robert Wen_ReleaseTEAM_]

Welcome fellow Arizonan!

[Dave Rosenlund]

Welcome, @Summer_Hogan 👋 Congrats on the new job! 

(We "met" {virtually} during the Team '20 event. You have a memorable name.)

[Summer_Hogan]

@Dave Rosenlund Oh yeah, I remember you as well! Hope all is well with you! Thanks for the comment! Hope to "see" you again soon! 

[Dave Rosenlund]

Who knows, maybe even in person at Team '23 in Las Vegas. 

[Summer_Hogan]

I really hope so! I hope my company opens travel back up soon. 

[Alex Waite]

Hey all! I'm Alex, I work at Atlassian within our support team for Trello. My hobbies outside of work include gym, gaming, going to gigs (metal specifically), and travelling! 

[Okan Erdogan]

Hi everyone!

I'm a Salesforce Administrator & Product Manager working with a nonprofit based in Boston. I manage a team of Salesforce admins and developers. As soon as I joined the nonprofit team, I started creating our Jira projects and inviting my team. I was confident that Atlassian Suite would give us the platform to manage our tasks effectively and be productive at all times!

I would love to learn more and answer questions if we have new admins who might need some tips to get started with Jira. We will undoubtedly benefit from each other's experiences and implement helpful strategies for ultimate success! 

My favorite configuration is the one I recently created. It's escalation automation of an issue with escalation reason. My users have to indicate a reason for escalation (custom field) when they try to move the issue to Escalated (custom stage). It gives me an insight into what went wrong and why they needed to escalate the issue in the first place.

[Kalee Williams]

Welcome and thanks for sharing, @Okan Erdogan

[Rilwan Ahmed]

Hi All,

My Name is Rilwan and I work for Netcracker. My company is into Telecom domain

I am a Jira and confluence admin here. Even though I am a jira admin, I lack knowledge in Agile methodologies as this is done mostly by project admins :D. Hoping to gain it from this group within Jira aspects. 

I love playing cricket. I am an off spin bowler and a mid order batsman. 
Also I am an good Kho Kho player. 

[Kalee Williams]

Welcome, @Rilwan Ahmed

[Summer_Hogan]

Welcome @Rilwan Ahmed 

[Robert Wen_ReleaseTEAM_]

Welcome!

[Jonathan V.]

Hey everyone, my name is Jonathan and I'm a Change Management Manager for a Broker/Dealer (Finance Industry) located in Miami Florida.

We're a small to medium-sized company with a parent company based out of Switzerland.

I am a Scrum.org Professional Scrum Product Owner (Level II) and Professional Scrum Master (Level II).

I am slowly trying to adapt our institution to Agile and the wonderful benefits it brings.

I'm honestly hoping to see how others have been able to leverage Atlassian tools and Agile in their organizations and how they've been able to adapt and get business buy-in.

Hopefully my experiences will help some others too. :)

[Robert Wen_ReleaseTEAM_]

welcome!

[Jonathan V.]

Thanks

[Heather Ronnebeck]

Hi all!

My name is Heather and I'm one of the Community Leaders in Canada. I've played a variety of roles in the Atlassian ecosystem ranging from customer to partner and everything in between. 

I'm also a PMP and Certified Scrum Master within the IT industry, and most of the companies I've done heavy agile with are in the media industry. My teams practice a lot of the scrum ceremonies and are pushing at the moment to really move the agile envelope to the next level. 

I would like to see from this group tips and tricks to help marry the two areas together (Agile and Atlassian Products) in a way that makes sense for end users like devs and project managers in the the more daily lifecycle of work. 

My personal hobby is actually using Lego. I enjoy making things to scale with the bricks, and when I can't do that (because my kid's claimed the entire collection) I also like to knit and crochet. 

[Johanna Pichotka_APTIS_]

Hey everyone, 

I am Johanna and I work in a diverse product team with developers and supporters. We're a Marketplace Partner based near the Dutch border in Germany. 

An antiquated way of working is putting everything in a Google doc. It's messy and you can't find the things you're looking for even if you've linked everything or you have to scroll down ten pages to find the right link. I get that Google docs are a very good way to share work and collaborate but there are so many tools better than this (my favorite still being Jira). 

What do you hope to get out of this group?

I've only just recently been introduced to Agile so I'm really curious to learn more. 

What do you hope to bring to this group? 

As I don't have much prior experience with the concept I hope that I'm able to bring a fresh experience from a complete new perspective to the table. 

What is your favorite Jira configuration tip and why?

I've shared this recently under the Jira July configuration post and it's configuring a Kanban-Board for all your work. As I also have some other tasks than marketing ones I have everything in one place and don't need to look into three different places. And it helps me plan and prioritize easily. 

Do you have a hobby or something you enjoy when not working? 

I love to plan things outside of work as well including trips. And I really love gaming with friends (anything except video games is awesome). 

[Sue Wilson]

Good afternoon from sunny, hot, and humid Pennsylvania!

My name is Susan and I've been a JIRA/Confluence Admin for almost 15 years now.

1. What type of team or company do you work for?
 I work for Visual Lease, a small, lease accounting software company.  They were contracting out their JIRA Admin work until they decided to hire an in house admin....me!  :-)

2. What is an antiquated way of working and how would you want to see it change?
Taking notes on paper, then transferring them to a 'recap' email, confluence page, etc.  It would be so great for those who say they want to collaborate to open a meeting page in confluence and update as the meeting progresses.  I introduced this at my last job and people were surprised at how easy it was and the time saved.

3. What do you hope to get out of this group?
I'm always learning so any conversations, insights, q&a that gives me more nuggets of knowledge to keep the learning process going are always appreciated.

4. What do you hope to bring to this group?
I hope to be able to meet people throughout the community, interact when we all just need a break, and be able to answer questions as well as asking them.  

5. What is your favorite Jira configuration tip and why?
Favorite JIRA config tip:  configure smarter, not harder.  I worked for a large organization with many projects and new clients coming in very often.  They were transitioning from waterfall to agile and wanted a way to spin up new projects quickly and effectively with each following same guidelines, at lease as far as processing tickets and providing reports went.  So, I developed a base Project with repeatable configurations, so Copy Project could be used with minimal adjustments to the new project to change names and access.  Took project start up from 1 week to ~4 hours when all was said and done.  Also, alleviated a TON of maintenance nightmares for the JIRA Admin (ME!).  :-D

6. Do you have a hobby or something you enjoy when not working?
I like to DIY...put together furniture, redo rooms, make my own cleaning & HBA products.  I also love to quill & cross stitch when I find the time.  Training and loving on a 4 month old puppy has reduced my down time significantly over the last 2 months!  LOL  But, I'm loving every minute!

[Kalee Williams]

@swilson Welcome to the group! We're happy you're here. Love you configuration tip!

[Summer_Hogan]

@swilson welcome to the group! We are happy to have you! 

[Robert Wen_ReleaseTEAM_]

Welcome!

[Rama krishna]

Hi All,

Myself working as Jira admin almost from 5 years. Where I will work closely with Agile coaches and Scrum Masters. Happy to join this group.

[Gabriela Costa {Appfire}]

Hey everyone,

Just joined the group! I have been working with Appfire for more than a year and, just recently, have been more active in Atlassian Community.

I am based in Portugal. You might know us for the beaches or Cristiano Ronaldo, or even fado :)

I love to paint, although it has been hard to find the time lately, to play video games, bake and cook, and go on long walks.

Please feel free to comment on your favorite activities outside of work :) 

[Jonathan V.]

Welcome @Gabriela Costa {Appfire} 

[Jonathan V.]

Portugal is a beautiful city. I was able to see it (barely lol) during a layover I had on my way to Switzerland.

I would love to really be able to visit it and truly enjoy it for what it's worth.

[Robert Wen_ReleaseTEAM_]

Welcome, @Gabriela Costa {Appfire} !

Are fado those incredible egg custard tarts?

[Summer_Hogan]

Welcome @Gabriela Costa {Appfire} 

[Sakina]

Hello Everyone,  i am jira administrator and my team is moving from waterfall to agile. Join this group to gain more knowledge of Agile.

[Mayur Jadhav]

Welcome to this group @Sakina 

[Robert Wen_ReleaseTEAM_]

Welcome!

[Valerie Knapp]

Hello all, I'm Valerie and I am an Atlassian Consultant for atSistemas, based in Italy.

What do you hope to get out of this group?

I would like to hear all of the tips and tricks to try to support people to make changes to become more Agile. It can sometimes feel like the transition from Waterfall (or working in a spreadsheet / piece of paper / what have you) to Agile is a big jump, so I am all about helping people remove their barriers to success.

My Favourite Jira configuration tip and why?

It's not really a configuration tip but I know for me something that really made a difference was getting training and eventually certification on project administration. Like many of you, I'm sure, I started out as a Jira admin in a company because I had used it in a previous role. Jira's flexibility is great most of the time but it can cause the type of situation where, like me, in trying to be nice, you may have accidentally tied yourself in a knot. Getting some training helped me get a better overview of the impact "just one tiny change" was having cumulatively. Also understanding the product better means you can offer other suggestions or workarounds to avoid always having to change the configuration of a project or the system.

Do you have a hobby or something you enjoy when not working? 

I like to read, the cinema, to visit with friends and family, cycle, take care of my terrace garden and to cook, so a little bit of everything!

[vikram]

Hi Everyone, 

I am Vikram, from land of culture and heritage - India, having 13+ years of experience in DevOps tools, working for Health Care Organization.

I installed, configured and amanging Jira DC, Bitbucket DC and Confluence DC with 4 node cluster.

and also supporting Jira & Confluence SaaS verison. 

Vikram P 

[Vicky Jotwani]

---

Hi @vikram welcome 

[Peter Van de Voorde]

Hey all,

I'm Peter, I'm a developer relations and community leader with a passion for helping people in the tech world excel at what they do. 

I've been part of the old school Atlassian Answers crowd for years but haven't been able to be very active in the last couple of years due to a professional shift to the world outside of Atlassian. But now I'm back and I would love to learn from all of you and help you excel. 

I've been passionated about agile for well over a decade now, I've spoken at developer conferences on topics like "The 7 evil, err Agile things you need to succeed", "A brief history of Agile" and other similar topics. 

I strongly believe that Agile should be focussed on the people, not products or processes. 

I'm also an AFOL (Adult fan of Lego) and a Boardgamegeek (with over 200 boardgames in my collection). And I also have a massive Atlassian t-shirt collection (including: Karma King, Atlassian Dragon Slayer, Jira Junior, and Angry Nerds). 

I look forward to connecting with all of you.

Cheers,

Peter

[Mirek]

Oh wow Peter, welcome back! I remember you back from Atlassian Answers :) . Nice to see that you are back to business.

P.s. Dragon Slayer is no longer maintained and a t-shirt is a relict now.. I also have it others that you mentioned including Karma King that live also somewhere in my wardrobe. Good to see more people from "old times" :) Cheers!

[Peter Van de Voorde]

Hi @Mirek ,

It's always good to see a familiar name. 
I'm pretty sure I have a lot of really old Atlassian swag lying around that would now be considered a relic :) That's what happens when you've been a fan for such a long time.

It feels good to be back :)  

[John Funk]

Well, there's being fashionably late as they say, and down right no excuse late. That's me for this group!

I'm John Funk and recently set out on my own as an independent consultant for all things Jira. And now working with Fringe Technologies, a Gold Solutions Partner. 

Kanban is my main forte in the Agile world, though pretty much all of it is better than waterfall. (Send your letters to Jack Brickey if you disagree). Anyway, happy to be a part of the group!

[Robert Wen_ReleaseTEAM_]

Always great to see you, @John Funk !

[Steven Mustari]

Hello all,

I'm Steven an engineering lead at an enterprise solutions partner deploying, maintaining and working daily with the Atlassian stack.

I see so many cases of antiquated process in client environments. I think the biggest challenge is having people open their minds to change, and embracing moving towards what could be a better daily life. I guess you can look around and see that everywhere not just in business.

I love to see all the insights others provide, and am here to share my own experiences to help make anyones experience with Atlassian a better one.

I love spending time with my wife, mixing music, playing video games, and enjoying the outdoors.

Nice to meet everyone!

[Robert Wen_ReleaseTEAM_]

Welcome!

[John Funk]

Welcome, Steven!!