#JiraCustomerTemplates: How Code.org uses Atlassian software to further their mission

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#JiraCustomerTemplates: How Code.org uses Atlassian software to further their mission

At Atlassian we take great pride in the success our customers achieve when they use our products. #JiraCustomerTemplates is a monthly spotlight series where we share customer solutions using Jira, including easy-to-install template bundles based on their workflows.

Who is Code.org?

Code.org® is a nonprofit dedicated to the vision that every student in every school has the opportunity to learn computer science as part of their core K-12 education. They expand access to computer science in schools, with a focus on increasing participation by young women and students from other underrepresented groups.

(Stats via Code.org)

Bryan Djunaedi, Product Manager, walks us through how Code.org's globally distributed software development team collaborates in Jira Software to create localized courses in over 67 languages and support the education of young learners in over 180 countries.

(Watch Bryan Djunaedi, Product Manager, walk us through his team's workflow)

What was the challenge being solved?

Over 40% of Code.org’s web traffic comes from outside of the United States, and that number continues to climb. In order to meet demand from outside the US, the Code.org team works closely with over 100 international partners. They help partners promote the Hour of Code, advocate for policy changes, and train educators.

Videos are an important part of Code.org’s curricula, as they:

• Showcase inspirational figures in computer science

• Give students a preview of the tools they’ll be using

• Highlight diverse presenters that help all students see themselves belonging in the CS classroom

(Code.org’s video library)

What does this mean for product and engineering at Code.org? Over the past four years, Bryan Djunaedi’s team has achieved some of their most critical initiatives using Jira Software to build robust solutions that support learners across multiple languages. One of those initiatives was a project to enable fully localized videos.

How did Code.org build their solution?

Bryan’s team had support to handle localization of Code.org’s website copy, but to serve up dozens of localized videos they needed to set up their workflow in a way that made the most sense for video projects, kept the team aligned, and was visible to stakeholders. Once they had identified their solution, they turned to Jira to scale their workflow. That workflow includes:

One video per epic. “I really love epics,” Bryan says. “For a project like a localized video player, I can take all my related tickets and just drag them over so they all appear with the epic tag. As a PM, I can edit the tickets to have the right acceptance criteria, background information, and details the team needs.”

Defined sprints. Bryan’s team uses story points to estimate the approximate time it will take to complete work on a ticket, which lets them further estimate the amount of work they can commit to in a two-week sprint. “For a team of 5, we can realistically take on about 25 story points, and Jira makes it really easy to visually see that.”

Integrations. The team also uses integrations to keep everyone aligned during a sprint:

• Slack. When someone creates or comments on a ticket, the team is notified immediately in Slack, the channel they’re most likely to see it in.

• GitHub. The team links tickets with GitHub pull requests, for an end-to-end process that engineers can use to make sure their code changes are linked up to a ticket with requirements and acceptance criteria.

What was the outcome?

After successfully launching their feature, Code.org now has over 60 fully localized videos in their elementary school courses. The videos were re-shot and re-produced by international partners collaborating with the team, and the team’s feature allowed Code.org to show the right video to students depending on their selected locale on the learning platform.

“At the end of the day, we ultimately care about the success of our teachers and students around the world, and there’s a huge amount of collaboration that goes into making this dream a reality,” Bryan says. “As a product manager, I rely on Jira Software to help my team ship valuable customer-focused experiences on time, and meet our stakeholder’s most important needs. It’s been a critical tool for us to collaborate and communicate effectively on our most important work.” 

Interested in trying Code.org’s workflow for yourself?

You can use the same process as Code.org with their template bundle (or modify it for your own needs). This bundle includes:

• Jira Software and Confluence

• 1 pre-configured, customizable Jira Software project template

• 2 third-party integrations: GitHub and Slack

Get the template bundle!

[Noushin Kananian]

Good information. Thanks for sharing your invaluable knowledge and experience.