About the course
Jira is widely recognised as the leading tool for teams adopting agile methodologies like Scrum and Kanban for planning, tracking, and managing their work. This intensive 2-day workshop is designed to provide participants with the practical skills and in-depth knowledge needed to effectively use and configure Jira to support their team's agile processes, improve collaboration, and enhance project delivery.
You will begin by exploring the fundamental concepts of Jira, including issues, workflows, and projects, and gain hands-on experience navigating and customising the interface to suit individual and team needs, including personal dashboards and basic JQL querying. A significant portion of the workshop is dedicated to applying Jira specifically within a Scrum framework, covering essential practices like product and sprint backlog management, sprint planning, tracking progress, and interpreting key sprint reports such as burndown and velocity charts.
Day 2 focuses on leveraging Jira for Kanban teams, teaching you how to configure Kanban boards for visualising continuous flow, implementing practices like swimlanes and Work-In-Progress (WIP) limits, and understanding and utilising Kanban-specific flow metrics like Cycle Time and Cumulative Flow Diagrams for process improvement. The workshop also delves into more advanced Jira features, including a deep dive into the powerful Jira Query Language (JQL) for advanced searching and reporting, an overview of workflow customisation, basic project administration concepts, understanding integrations with other tools, and an introduction to the capabilities of Jira Automation.
Through hands-on exercises integrated throughout both days, participants will gain practical experience and confidence in using Jira to manage their team's work, visualise progress, identify bottlenecks, and streamline communication, ultimately contributing to more efficient and predictable agile project delivery.
We are happy to customise this workshop to take into account the roles and activities within your team, any existing experience with other platforms such as Trello, Monday.com or Azure DevOps, and we can reduce the duration to 1 day if you are looking to focus on specific topics (for instance just Scrum or just Kanban techniques).
Instructor-led online and in-house face-to-face options are available - as part of a wider customised training programme, or as a standalone workshop, on-site at your offices or at one of many flexible meeting spaces in the UK and around the World.
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- Navigate the Jira interface effectively and customise your personal workspace and dashboards.
- Understand Jira's core concepts: Issues, Workflows, and Projects.
- Effectively use Jira to manage a Product Backlog and plan Sprints within a Scrum framework.
- Track sprint progress and interpret key Scrum reports (Burndown, Velocity...)
- Configure a Jira board to support the Kanban methodology and visualise workflow.
- Implement Kanban practices such as Swimlanes and Work-In-Progress (WIP) limits in Jira.
- Utilise Kanban-specific reports and flow metrics (Cycle Time, Throughput, CFD).
- Use Jira Query Language (JQL) for advanced searching and filtering.
- Understand the basics of Jira Workflows and their impact on issue transitions.
- Understand basic project administration concepts including users, groups, and permissions (as covered in the optional module).
- Understand how to integrate Jira with other tools and leverage Jira Automation capabilities (as covered in the optional modules).
- Apply Jira effectively to support agile project management and enhance team collaboration.
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This 2-day workshop is designed for anyone who will be using Jira to manage and track their work within an agile framework, focusing on both Scrum and Kanban methodologies. It is particularly relevant for:
Team Members (Developers, QAs, Designers, etc., working within Jira)
Scrum Masters
Product Owners
Project Managers
Agile Coaches
Business Analysts
Team Leads / Managers
Anyone involved in project tracking and workflow management using Jira.
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This workshop is suitable for anyone who will be using Jira to track and manage projects, particularly those working in agile environments. Participants should have:
Basic computer literacy and familiarity with using web-based applications.
While not strictly required, a basic understanding of agile principles (Scrum or Kanban) is beneficial.
No prior experience with Jira is necessary, as the workshop starts with the fundamentals.
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This Jira course is available for private / custom delivery for your team - as an in-house face-to-face workshop at your location of choice, or as online instructor-led training via MS Teams (or your own preferred platform).
Get in touch to find out how we can deliver tailored training which focuses on your project requirements and learning goals.
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Day 1: Jira Fundamentals and Agile Basics
Morning: Getting Started with Jira (Refined)
What is Jira? (Recap with more real-world use cases)
Benefits of Using Jira (Deeper discussion on ROI and team impact)
Exploring the Jira Interface (In-depth navigation, understanding different layouts for different project types)
Jira Key Concepts – Issues, Workflows, and Projects (Detailed breakdown with examples of different workflow types)
Setting up and Managing Your Profile (Advanced notification settings, API tokens for integrations - optional stretch task)
Customising Your Workspace (Creating and sharing dashboards, using JQL gadgets)
Hands-On Exercise: Personalising dashboards and creating basic JQL queries.
Afternoon: Scrum with Jira
Setting up and Managing Your Product Backlog (Creating different issue types, using components and labels for organisation, basic estimation techniques)
Refining Your Product Backlog (User story mapping basics - optional stretch task, prioritisation techniques like MoSCoW)
Sprint Backlogs and Sprint Planning (Creating and managing sprints, assigning work, understanding capacity)
Reporting – Sprint, Burndown, and Velocity Charts (Interpreting reports in detail, customising report views)
Hands-On Exercise: Creating a product backlog, planning a sprint, and reviewing basic reports.
Day 2: Kanban with Jira and Advanced Topics
Morning: Applying Jira for Kanban Flow
Building on the Jira fundamentals and Scrum application covered on Day 1, this module focuses on how to configure and use Jira specifically to support the Kanban methodology for visualising and managing continuous flow.
Configuring a Jira Board for Kanban:
Setting up board filters and column mapping to workflow statuses to visualise your value stream.
Choosing the appropriate project type and initial column setup for Kanban.
Kanban Swimlanes:
Implementing swimlanes based on criteria like priority, class of service, or responsible team to categorise work on the board.
Customising Columns & Workflow Mapping:
Detailing how board columns map directly to underlying workflow statuses (revisiting the workflow concept from Day 1).
Setting up and enforcing Work-In-Progress (WIP) limits on columns and understanding their impact on flow.
Kanban Monitoring and Flow Metrics:
Understanding and using Kanban-specific reports in Jira.
In-depth analysis of key flow metrics: Cycle Time, Lead Time, Throughput, and Control Charts.
Interpreting Cumulative Flow Diagrams (CFDs) to identify bottlenecks and analyse flow.
Hands-On Exercise: Setting up a Kanban board, configuring swimlanes and WIP limits, and interpreting basic Kanban flow metrics in Jira.
Afternoon: Advanced Jira Features and Integrations
Workflows (Stretch Task/Additional Module):
Understanding workflow schemes and their association with projects.
Basic workflow editing (adding statuses and transitions).
Using workflow conditions, validators, and post-functions (high-level overview).
Jira Query Language (JQL) Deep Dive:
Advanced searching techniques using various operators and functions.
Saving and sharing filters.
Using JQL in dashboards and automation.
Stretch Task: Building complex JQL queries for specific reporting needs.
Basic Project Administration (Additional Module):
User and group management (brief overview).
Permission schemes (understanding basic access control).
Issue type schemes.
Integrations (If relevant to the audience):
Overview of integrating Jira with other tools (e.g., Confluence, Bitbucket, Slack, Microsoft Teams).
Basic linking of issues and pages.
Automation (Stretch Task/Additional Module):
Introduction to Jira Automation.
Creating simple automation rules (e.g., automatically assigning issues, closing resolved issues).
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Official Atlassian Jira Software Documentation - https://support.atlassian.com/jira-software-cloud/
Atlassian Community (Jira) - https://community.atlassian.com/
Atlassian Marketplace (Finding Integrations) - https://marketplace.atlassian.com/
Jira Query Language (JQL) Reference - https://support.atlassian.com/jira-service-management-cloud/docs/use-advanced-search-with-jira-query-language-jql/
The Scrum Guide (Official Scrum Framework Guide) - https://www.scrum.org/resources/scrum-guide
Kanban Guide (Example source, e.g., Kanban University) - https://kanban.university/the-kanban-guide/
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