Best certification to seek for uniquely custom jira cloud set up

[Lia Mack]

We are looking to fill a position of a production coordinator that also has jira expertise as our jira cloud instance is highly convoluted and unique in it's usage and set up, with little to no documentation as to how it was originally set up. It is integrated via some fields with CatDV.

Other than that, there aren't any other integrations, however all the workflows are very complex, intertwined, and some fields (priorities for example) are being used as something other than priority (custom 'priorities' were added to show the stage via a number or icon of what status the ticket is at).

The team would also like to be able to forecast and do some analysis on the # of subtasks per project and estimate LOE in a totally different way than scrum. 

All projects are kanban at best, although the team doesn't rely on a kanban board but rather a multitude of dashboards and filters, with some outside of Jira estimation charts run via python.

Nothing usual about how the team uses Jira, so wondering just how to hire someone who can best help with such a unique jira instance. 

Thank you!

[Haddon Fisher]

This might be a spicy take but....

The certifications prove that you know what options live where and how they interact at a high level. However, they don't really measure for creativity or problem-solving, which is what it sounds like you really need.

I might look more at the types of roles they've had in the past and keep an eye out for things like "solution architect" or "program operations" which would explicitly require this kind of thinking.

[Denise Prickett]

@Lia Mack lol our Jira setup is the same - "highly convoluted and unique ... with little to no documentation as to how it was originally set up." (I wonder how many companies that's true for...) @Haddon Fisher's reply is spot-on. I'm Senior Program/Project Manager in the Product department at our (smallish) company, but I took over managing our Jira instance when that team member left the company. I love learning new skills, organizing and creating processes, and diving deep to figure out and find solutions for problems. And boy, all that and more has been needed in managing our Jira instance! The Jira Cloud Admin training taught me - as Haddon says - "what options live where and how they interact at a high level." After that, it's all about teasing apart the threads (and sheer perseverance, lol) to figure out why our Jira was set up the way it was, and how it can be improved for our current processes. Good luck in your search!

[Haddon Fisher]

Denise Prickett Lia Mack I feel for the both of you 😂 I've inherited, consulted on, or been asked to look at a lot of Jira instances over the years and this is by far the most common shape I've seen them take.

I think the overarching problem is that Jira just isn't like a lot of other applications...you can't just put it in front of end users and say "go do your thing" or have it supported by a team whose objective is "give the customer what they want". You really need someone who can hold both the application itself and the way your organization works in their heads at once, and see how they map onto each other.

[Denise Prickett]

@Haddon Fisher very good point! At this point (3-4 years in), I know our PRO and DEV Jira projects inside-out. But when another department asks for updates to one of their projects ... it's back to digging in - into both the Jira project itself, and into the department's processes as well as what they expect the project to do. The flexibility and complexity that Jira is capable of is both a blessing and a curse :'D and most end-users have no idea.

[Lia Mack]

Thank you! This is very helpful. 

[Jehan Bhathena]

Hey @Lia Mack ,

I don't have much experience in the recruitment domain, but from what you've mentioned I'd suggest the below skill set:

• Jira Cloud Administration experience, with previous experience in creating an optimizing workflows, custom fields and project settings
• Not sure about CatDV, but if this is a different tool set then this would be a needed skill in an event of debugging
• About this point:

  The team would also like to be able to forecast and do some analysis on the # of subtasks per project and estimate LOE in a totally different way than scrum. : I think this can be adapted by any skilled Admin along with the help of already existing team leads/Managers who have worked with this report before

• All projects are kanban at best, although the team doesn't rely on a kanban board but rather a multitude of dashboards and filters, with some outside of Jira estimation charts run via python : Some with Basic Python skills maybe helpful here in case the script needs to be patched

The main skill you need to be looking out for is PATIENCE, since you've mentioned your site is complex and follows a lot of different customized solutions, the Admin will need to have to be very patient in terms of making any changes or even deal with the day to day tasks.

Hope this help :-)

[Majken Longlade]

When you say the workflows are complex and intertwined, do you mean "Jira Workflows" or "our business processes"? I'd say besides the advice you already have, look for someone who is strong in Confluence as well. You need someone who loves writing good documentation. Someone who has past experience with a Solution Partner should have more experience with a variety of different configurations.

You have me very intrigued about your setup. I think that might be a good trick as well, "we have a very complex, intertwined, undocumented Jira instance" will be catnip to the right person! 

[Matthew Chapman]

Hi Lia, this is a tricky one but a different perspective/approach could be to:

1. review what functionality is in place

2. confirm what is critical/actually being used/adding value, and needs to be retained 

3. strip back the layers/functionalty and move to a more vanilla/cleaner installation 

Often, many 'features' that have been added are nice to haves, and removing some likely won't result in the wheels falling off. The revised installation will be cleaner and more supportable. 

For reporting there are many options including integration to external tools, but I've focused on pushing more complex reports into a JIRA add-on called eazyBI which allows for more flexible dashboards, and complex reports like Project by issue (epic, story etc) planned start/due dates, estimated hours v actual hours in a GANTT chart view with costs. I have saved a huge amount of time by using source data directly in eazyBI, and I've found it be to be very flexible. 

The advantage here is that it uses source data from JIRA with little transformation required, if reporting is an important factor then I'd recommend someone who can work with a comprehensive reporting add-on like this.