Success journey: ACP-120 Jira Administration for Cloud Certification

[Kavitha Chandrasekaran]

Hi 

Just thought I will share my journey to getting ACP-120 certified. 

Background: I have an extensive hands-on experience in Jira having been a project admin for multiple projects and doing some Jira Admin role. But reading the topics, my experience seems to have like 40-50% coverage of the topics for ACP-120, given the level of detail/depth expected from this cert.

Not to be put off. Atlassian exams are very practical.. they expect a real good hands-on experience and one cannot just study their way to success.. which I think is a good thing.. It tests real experience. 

I have an Atlassian Standard version to practice topics that I am not familiar with.. 

Please feel free to follow/comment so we can help each other! 

Links:

All the information about this exam

https://university.atlassian.com/student/activity/832603-acp-120-jira-administration-for-cloud-exam

Main Study Material:

Use the Exam success material as a primary content..read again and again and take notes. 

ACP-120 Jira Administration for Cloud Exam Success 
https://university.atlassian.com/student/path/1291934-acp-120-jira-administration-for-cloud-exam-success

Kavitha's Miro Board:

This is my board :-) to make some notes of key points mainly from Exam Success content. It is not comprehensive.. but will be a good for quick revision.

If you need edit access, let me know and I will give temporary edit access so you can make a copy of the board and update it for your purposes. 

https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVNVxZtI8=/?share_link_id=233661111653

Atlassian 14 Questions practice test

https://university.atlassian.com/student/activity/853405-acp-120-sample-questions

September update:

Passed the exam on Sep 9th. 

Took about 2+ hours to complete 75 questions. Took the exam at the PSI centre. 

Studying the Atlassian Success Cloud course and other topics linked from the course and doing the sample tests would greatly help.. Practice hands-on activities with as many topics as you can. This will help you remember the details better and easier. 

Any questions/help needed, please feel free to reach out to me.

Thank You All!! All the best!!

================================================================

If you are interested in ACP-520, you can follow me in this thread

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Training-Certification/ACP-520-Atlassian-Cloud-Organization-Admin-Certification-Journey/td-p/2526292

[Kavitha Chandrasekaran]

Aug 9th - Aug 16th - Iteration 1: Went through all topics and sample exams in https://university.atlassian.com/student/path/1291934-acp-120-jira-administration-for-cloud-exam-success. A lot of information to process, went through all the answers in sample questions even when got right.. There is a lot of good stuff in that explanation. You might not remember all the info the first round of reading.. but just go through.

[Kavitha Chandrasekaran]

Aug 17th - Went through in detail the section Access, Permissions, Security in https://university.atlassian.com/student/path/1291934-acp-120-jira-administration-for-cloud-exam-success.

Making notes of differences between Company-Managed and Team-Managed project. 

Taking time and reading the sample questions in detail.

[Vlado Nestorovski]

I tried to take the ACP-120 exam, paid and booked the proctored one, since closest office was few airplane stations away. PSI could not start the exam, then I was ping-ponged back and forth, useless customer service, so far 2 times, once trying to take Azure cert, now Atlassian, so I could not see how much I know or I don't know.

Good luck on your certification journey. Would be good to know if you have a better experience with PCI.

Best regards,

Vlado

[Kavitha Chandrasekaran]

Thanks Vlado.

I used PSI for ACP-620 and passed. I had no issues with the software..I have a Mac Book Air which is about 5 years old. 

[Matias Bolyos]

The PSI worked pretty okay on my DELL while it was running without interruptions, but once I lost the wifi it was really difficult to get back to the session.

Customer service was also very disconnected from the issue, they did not seem to understand the nature of the problem. That being said, after an hour I was able to log back in and finish my exam, and they have paused the clock at least.

[Kavitha Chandrasekaran]

Aug 19-21

Iteration 2: Went through the Sections Notifications and Advanced User Features. 

Did well with the sample questions in Advanced User Functions... because, I have good hands-on experience in JQL and Bulk updates. 

Not that great with Notifications. 

Continuing to take notes of the difference between Company-managed and Team-managed projects. 

[Glaucia Morasco]

Kavitha, I am in doubt about the path to take, could you help me please?

[Kavitha Chandrasekaran]

Hi Glaucia, Thanks for reaching out. If I were you, I would start with Atlassian Badges and free courses and can move on to the Atlassian Professional certifications. If you don't use Jira at work, I would recommend getting Jira standard and practice a lot before moving to Professional certification.

https://university.atlassian.com/student/catalog/list?category_ids=21580-pro-skills-badges

Thank You

Kavitha 

[Glaucia Morasco]

Thank you so much for your reply. I use JIRA daily at work and promote trainings in the company where I work, but I don't have any certifications related to that. Thank you for your support.

[Kavitha Chandrasekaran]

Hi @Glaucia Morasco Very nice! All the best for you! Please feel free to reach out to me if you need any additional info. 

[Ally]

Hi Glaucia,

I tried the exam early this year and didn't meet up with the cut-off mark, I was a bit discouraged, I went back to retake the refresher course and tried all the Exam prep material in the Atlassian University. I'm ready to face the exam for this coming week.

Any advice for me, Thank you.

[Kavitha Chandrasekaran]

Hi @Ally 

I have purchased Udemy mock exam. I just started and did 10 questions in the first exam and so far I think it is great. I will be doing the mock exam few times, making notes of what I am going wrong with and then redoing the exam. 

https://www.udemy.com/course/jira-administrator-for-cloud-certification-practice-exams/ 

All the best for your exam! 

Thanks!

[Ally]

Thank you @Kavitha Chandrasekaran 

[Adeola Lawal]

Hi @Kavitha Chandrasekaran 

I retried my 2nd attempt but I didn't meet up with the cut-off mark, I'm a bit down but I will want to retry it.

I will proceed to retake the skill builder course from the beginning all over again and get grounded before reattempting the exam.

Also I can start with other pro skill badges to further help me.

[Kavitha Chandrasekaran]

Hi @Adeola Lawal  

Sorry to hear, but I am sure with some more strategic preparation :-) you will pass next time. 

The results will have a breakdown of score by section. Focus on sections that you scored less.

Also focus on sections you scored well but not 100%. Getting some more questions right in these sections you are comfortable with, will give you a buffer for any incorrect questions in sections you are not comfortable with. 

All the best!! Keep us posted. 

[Diogo Teles]

Hi @Kavitha Chandrasekaran

I found the mock exams to be incredibly good at consolidating knowledge but even better at finding the holes in it. Be aware that, at least back in July, some of the questions were out of the scope of the ACP-120 and fell into the scope of ACP-520. One question had a wrong correct answer (you will find out when you test the solution, which you should definitely do if there is any doubt in your mind as to why a correct answer is correct).

After taking each exam for the first time take a look at the QA section at the bottom, it will address these issues. There was at least one small segment of each exam where this was true. The explanation from Udemy was that when the exam was originally crafted the topic of product access management was listed in the list of exam topics.

Don't be discouraged by this, those practice exams will help you immensely. Really, I can not underline this enough, they are an incredible aid.

Although some questions were off-topic, I am grateful for them as I am preparing for ACP-520 and they were bang-on for that cert. 

Follow Udemy's recommendation on how to use the practice exams. Especially the one about retaking the exams until you can consistently hit 90%+ You will be pleasantly surprised with the results when you do the real thing.

One final note, in case you are considering taking the proctored exam. Their readiness check app does not check for unauthorized software processes running in your system. However, the exam browser tests this and will block you from starting the exam until you kill all those processes. I was over 10 minutes late for mine because some of these processes have a tendency to come back. I had to completely uninstall some apps from my system before I got it to pass the check. It was particularly insistent on the removal of lt communication clients, like Zoom and Teams.

Good luck!

[Kavitha Chandrasekaran]

Hi @Diogo Teles 

Appreciate you taking time to sharing your experience and your  feedback about the udemy mock tests. I took the 2nd mock test couple of days ago and found it a bit overwhelming to understand and answer.

So have went back to the Atlassian Exam Success material. 

I am planning to take the exam at the centre. 

Thank You!

Kavitha

[Kavitha Chandrasekaran]

Aug 27th - Took the 1st Mock exam from Udemy - good questions very similar to questions from Atlassian Exam Success material- score only 48% :-)

Going through incorrect answers topic by topic and making notes. Will publish in a day or two, an updated sheet on company-managed and team-managed project differences and also some other notes. 

[Carmen Odimba]

Hi @Kavitha Chandrasekaran ,

great discussion you started up here!

I passed the ACP-120 recently and also used the Udemy course to prepare, only to find out that the questions are relevant topic-wise but quite different from the ones you'll get in the exam. Still good to test understanding.

What I did find helpful was to go through the Exam Success course. It addresses the exact topics you'll get in the exam. Since you already have a lot of experience, practice won't be a problem. You still might want to study team-managed projects and their settings a little more if you rarely use them.

Best regards and best of luck!

[Kavitha Chandrasekaran]

Hi @Carmen Odimba  Congratulations on passing ACP-120. 

Thanks for the insight on the exam. I am using the Atlassian Exam Success Course as the primary guide. It is very nicely laid out. Just require few iterations of reading  to not miss some important points. 

I will play with the team-managed a bit more as I do not use it at work. 

Thanks again Carmen!

[marcowells]

Awesome thank you I am studying for this

[Kavitha Chandrasekaran]

All the best @marcowells. Please feel free to post/share any information you find useful. Thank You

[Vijay Shanmugam]

Congratulations for your ACP-120 and Thanks for the detailed explanation Kavitha! Appreciate it

[Kavitha Chandrasekaran]

Took the second mock test from Udemy material.. Found it very overwhelming. So planning to stick with the Atlassian Exam Success Material and studying the content again. Exam scheduled for Saturday Sep 9th!  Will keep everyone posted! Please do keep sharing your experience to the group! 

[Kavitha Chandrasekaran]

Passed the exam on Sep 9th. 

Took about 2+ hours to complete 75 questions. Took the exam at the PSI centre. 

Studying the Atlassian Success Cloud course and other topics linked from the course and doing the sample tests would greatly help.. Practice hands-on activities with as many topics as you can. This will help you remember better. 

Any questions/help needed, please feel free to reach out to me.

Thank You All!! All the best!!

[Kavitha Chandrasekaran]

Updated list of differences between Company-Managed and Team-Managed projects.

These are my notes, but always refer and double check the Atlassian material for accuracy. 

Topic	Company-Managed Jira Project	Team-Managed Jira Project
Access, Permissions and Security
Who gives access to projects?	Project admins manage access by adding users and groups to project roles which then work with the project permission scheme (and possibly the issue security scheme, if it exists).	Project admins manage access by adding users and groups to project roles, and they can create their own custom roles.
Creating custom roles in the project	Jira administrators can create, edit, and/or delete project roles according to your organization’s needs.	Project admins can create custom roles
Versions and components	Project admins can manage versions and components	Versions and components do not exist.
Custom fields	Jira admins can create custom fields which can then be used in the company-managed Jira project. Project admins of company-managed project cannot create custom fields	Project admins can create custom fields.
Settings and Configurations	Settings and Configurations are shared across multiple projects	Settings and Configurations are unique to the project and cannot be shared
Permission scheme	Permission granted through permission scheme	Doesn’t have permission scheme. Uses access roles – Open, Limited and Private
Issue security	Called Issue level security	Called Issue restrictions Can only be applied at Issue Type level not to individual issues
Permissions required to set security	“Set Issue Security” and “Edit Issues” permissions to the appropriate users, to enable them to set and update the Security Level field	“Restrict any issue”
General Project Configurations
Who can create a project?	Only Jira admins can create a Company-Managed project	Any user with the “Create team-managed projects” global permission can go to the Projects dropdown in the main navigation bar and create a team-managed project.
Boards	Can have multiple boards from across multiple projects. More board configuration options.	Can have only one board per project, with issues from that project only.  Different and limited board configuration options.
Sub filter	Company managed Kanban has sub filters	Team Managed Kanban doesn’t have sub filters

Topic	Company-Managed Jira Project	Team-Managed Jira Project
Notifications
Notification scheme	Notifications for projects are managed by notification schemes, which are shared by projects	Notifications are independent to each team-managed project and is not shared to other projects. Notification schemes are not applicable for team-managed projects
Events that trigger notification	System events Workflow triggered events and Custom events	No events tied to workflow post functions, and no custom events can be created.
Default notification	Default Notification Scheme. Email sent for system events to Current Assignee, Reporter and Watchers	By default, notifications are sent to All Watchers, Current Assignee, and Reporter. This can be customized.
Notifications to custom user picker field	Possible	Not possible
Configuring workflows for Issue Types
Sharing workflows?	Workflow schemes can be shared across many projects	Workflows in Team-managed project are managed by Project Admins at issue type level for each project. Workflows cannot be shared.
Transition types	Transition types include ·       Create transition ·       Global transition ·       Common transition ·       Self-reflecting transition	Transition types include ·       Create transition ·       Global transition ·       Self-reflecting transition
Automated Actions	Automated actions include triggers, conditions, validators and post-functions	Automated actions are limited and are called rules. ·       Assign an issue to someone ·       Update an issue field ·       Restrict who can move an issue ·       Restrict to when an issue has been through a status ·       Restrict to when a field is a specific value
Resolution	Resolution field is used to indicate why an issue is closed. Examples are Done, Won’t Do, and Duplicate. These are managed through transition screens.	The resolution is automatically set to Done (the global resolution) for any status in the Done status category (green) in team-managed project workflows, and new resolutions cannot be added
Transition Screens	Transition screens are available in a company-managed project.	There is no concept of transition screens in a Team-managed project
Issue Types, Fields and Screens
Defining Issue Types	Issue types are defined globally, managed by issue type schemes and mapped to projects.	Issue types can be created by project admins

[LynnG]

Congratulations @Kavitha Chandrasekaran Thank you for the excellent post!

[Kavitha Chandrasekaran]

Thank You @LynnG 

[Kavitha Chandrasekaran]

If anyone needs help with preparing for ACP-120, please reach out to me on linkedin. I am currently helping someone online and have content prepared/categorized for easy learning.  

[Adeola Lawal]

Thanks @Kavitha Chandrasekaran  I will reach out

[jack]

dear  @Kavitha Chandrasekaran  I need your board access，please show me 

thanks

[Kavitha Chandrasekaran]

Hi @jack You should have view/comment access. I am unable to give team member access, as that will mean an additional license I will need to pay for Miro. 

Thank You

[jack]

yes I have view/comment access，but I cannot see some topic，like this

[Kavitha Chandrasekaran]

@jack Please check now.. All slides should be visible. 

[jack]

thanks！！！