Complete newby here :)

[Lisa Perry]

I've been using Jira for maybe 5 minutes now - just trying to get a feel for the product, how it works, and visualize how we can use it for our organization. Ours is a research-based nonprofit engaged in public health and safety research projects. If anyone has recommendations for someone just starting this journey, please pass them along. Thanks!

[Chris Tetzlaff]

Hi Lisa,  Jira Software is primarily focused on Projects that create and delivery automated process software. It sounds like your projects are more business functional research activities. Either Jira Software or Jira Work Management should help you manage the research process activities. A good starting point is to search YouTube and Google for Jira related content for your areas of interest. (getting started, what is ..., how to ..., etc.) I hope this helps some. 

[Jimmy Seddon]

Hi @Lisa Perry,

Welcome to the Community!

I would highly recommend checking out the free Jira Fundamentals course on the Atlassian University.

https://university.atlassian.com/student/path/815443-jira-fundamentals

This course is designed for people who are just starting out with Jira.

-Jimmy

[Yves Gagnon]

Hi Lisa, and welcome.  Usually I try to respond to these messages and end up rambling on and on, and just abandon the response instead of posting.  This time I'll keep it quick with 2 points:

1. Consult the Community often.  If you run into a problem in need of a solution, odds are someone else has too.  I've been able to get around nearly everything I've encountered with quick searches.
2. Be skeptical of requested changes to workflow and forms. This might not apply right off the bat, but in a lot of situations, you'll get requests for new fields, or new values in curated fields (Components is a big one).  A lot of the value in a consistent setup can go away if there are special fields for every purpose, and additional Components for everything anyone can think of.  So if anyone asks for a change to those areas, consider what's already there, and whether the purpose is already achieved in a different way.  Single-use changes can make any system unusable.

On that second one I started to ramble again, so I'm cutting it off here!

[Josh Costella]

Hi @Lisa Perry

Everything already mentioned I also recommend. Especially all the free courses on Atlassian University.

In terms of managing Jira:

• Keep it simple, always.
• Keep it organized. Come up with a good naming convention for screens, schemes, workflows, and groups. 
• Try to keep custom fields to a minimum and as generically named as possible. Your future self will thank you.
• Don't be afraid to say no. Jira can do so many awesome things. But that doesn't mean you should do them.
• If a team has a process for completing a "thing," it can be put in Jira. Regardless of what kind of team it is. Jira is not just for technical teams.
• Create a project for managing requests for Jira changes. 
• Always assign groups and individual users to project roles when all possible. Use project roles in the project permission schemes. 
• Don't give tons of people full Jira admin access. Should only be a very small trusted and knowledgeable group. And definitely limit who can delete tickets! Once they are gone, they are gone forever.
• I would also suggest creating a Confluence site and integrating with Jira. Having a centralized location for documentation and collaboration is vital.

I have probably 2000 more things but this is a good start. Feel free to reach out any time! 

[Taranjeet Singh]

Welcome to the group and the community, @Lisa Perry !

I see that @Jimmy Seddon and @Josh Costella have already directed you to the right path for a new Jira admin/user.

I would suggest you to go through that "Jira Fundamentals" course and always feel free to ask any questions in the relevant community collections/groups so that our community members can pick them up and respond with their suggestions/solutions.

Hope you have a great Jira learning experience!

[Lisa Perry]

Thanks everyone for the quick and helpful advice! I'll get right to that Jira Fundamentals course before trying to tackle anything else.

[Kirsten Dalton]

My suggestion is do not allow too many Administrators :)

[Curt Holley]

Getting to know Jira Software - YouTube and the Atlassian youtube channel in general is a great resource to get you started.

[Ed Parker]

Hi,

Completely agree with all of the above answers.  I haven't been using Jira long but the courses are really useful.  The real eye opener for me when it came to organising projects were these articles  and their comments
Best Practices: Strategies for Defining your JIRA ... - Atlassian Community

Project structure in Jira Software | Atlassian Support | Atlassian Documentation

Also, do some investigation into how project boards work.  They don't need to be assigned to just one project, they can have many. This makes them really powerful and dynamic