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Here we are, Jira Guys and Gals. We are now less than two weeks from Team ’23! I haven’t been this excited about a conference in a long, LONG time.

And yesterday, Atlassian finally put out the session schedule, which means I can also figure out when I want to do what. So what sessions have me ready to sign up, what sessions am I catching on replay because of time conflicts, and where can you find me to claim your TJG Laptop sticker at the conference? Let’s dig into that!

Before we begin, I’m partnering with Old Street Solutions for Team ’23. What does this change for the event? Nothing! The Makers of Custom Charts for Jira want me to do the same things I’ve always done for Team Conferences. This post, my Keynote Recaps, all that jazz. That said, I hope you will join me in visiting them at Booth #34 to check out how their Custom Charts for Jira app can integrate with apps from Tempo, Adaptavist, and so many others. Additionally, you can find me, Alex from Apetech Tech Tutorials, Robert Wen (the Atlassian Quiz Wiz King), THE Fun Man Andy, and so many more at Old Street’s Bar Chart Bash Afterparty!

The Sessions

1. Governance in the open organization

Jay Greguske (Senior Principal Software Engineer, Red Hat, Inc)

APRIL 20, 10:30 AM – 11:15 AM PDT at Venetian C+D

I feel like I can always learn from people who have put effective Jira governance into practice. And the scale of what the Jira team at Red Hat has achieved is remarkable – 1800 projects is nothing to scoff at. The only way Jira can still be usable at that scale is either federation or good governance – and likely both. 

The biggest thing I think I can continuously improve is getting buy-in from stakeholders on important decisions – without letting them take over the whole process and making government pointless. It seems Jay’s organization has a pretty solid grasp on this and is here to tell how this came about. I’ll attend with my notebook to take lessons from this session.  

2. Escape the admin black hole: How a leading satellite provider commands its Atlassian stack

Dan Tombs (Inmarsat), Evn Tomeny (Appfire), Tyle Woolstenhulme (Appfire) 

April 20, 11:45 AM – 12:30 PM PDT at Venetian I

So this session is very similar to the first one I featured, but given who the co-host is, I think this will have many tips and tricks I love that help enforce your required processes while allowing your teams to be flexible.  

My favorite example is the Universal Status field – a custom field that maps a project’s workflow statuses to standard statuses that can be reported organization-wide. Of course, this requires a lot of workflow post-function work to run effectively, but it’s beautiful in its overall simplicity. 

As for what tricks we’ll learn in this session, I don’t know, but you know I’ll be there to find out. If I have enough, I’ll make an article about some tricks I’ve collected for you all to replicate.  

3. Assets workshop: Go all in on Jira Service Management

Peter Grasevski (Atlassian), Dorothea Linneweber (Atlassian) 

April 20, 1:00 PM – 1:45 PM PDT at Expo Lab – Lunch & Learn A

So, this isn’t a breakout session – it’s an Expo Lab on the Expo Floor. So I’m unsure what to expect or if I can catch it in time. But I would like to try it out. I love the potential in Jira Assets (Formally Insight). As an Admin, I have much to keep track of – servers, instances, plugins, etc. This is even further compounded when you have multiple Admins within your team. But I feel I can use Assets to start organizing all this info, so I’m interested in seeing the demo to figure out a strategy toward that goal. Maybe I’ll catch you all there!

4. Optimize your Atlassian tools: Strategies to drive lasting adoption

Gertie Rizzo(Atlassian), Sarah Joshi(Atlassian)

April 20, 3:15 PM – 4:00 PM PDT at Venetian J

Don’t get me wrong – some organizations have strong Jira hate. Jira Cloud – even more so. If I see another post about “Jira is the anti-pattern,” – anyways. It has long been my stance that Jira is neither good nor bad, but it’s what you, as the admin, make of it. Similar to how a hammer can build a house and tear it down, how Jira is used largely depends on the people using it. 

That being said, sometimes you will be asked to make Jira work in an organization where it is not wanted. In this case, the best thing to do is to figure out how to make it so that people want to use it. But how do you go about it? I think that is what this session is about – giving you strategies and tools that allow the early adopters a good experience, thus laying the groundwork for widespread adoption within your organization.  

5. Breaking all the DevOps rules

Mirco Hering (Accenture)

April 20, 10:30 AM – 11:15 AM PDT at Venetian B

So this is the first session where I have an overlap. I love anything DevOps, but unfortunately, it is not my day job right now, so I must put the other session first. That being said, I can still watch it on replay, right? 

This session is about when it is okay to do everything you aren’t supposed to do. For example, when is it okay to deploy a broken build? How do you know when test automation is slowing you down? That is precisely what Micro will be talking about. I’m interested in hearing this, as I always love a good excuse to break the rules.  

6. Ongoing onboarding with Trello and Confluence

Cindy Weydt (Atlassian) 

April 20, 1:15 AM – 1:30 AM PDT at Expo Theater – A

This ‘session’ is my second “Not a breakout session,” but I think I can also improve on this topic. Let’s face it; onboarding is tricky. I’ve done it a lot as a contractor with Coyote Creek Consulting (now Praecipio), but I still ask, “How do I do X?” at my current job. Usually, it’s something you must do on day 1, and otherwise, once a year afterward. How does anyone remember something like that? How do you go back and check up on your new people? Or make sure that everything that needs to be done is completed? I think this is the concept behind Ongoing Onboarding, and its use of Trello is much more of a bonus. Unfortunately, this is also during a time slot I’ll be otherwise busy, so I hope to catch it on repeat at some point.  

What are your can’t-miss sessions?

Did I miss a session you are looking forward to? Tell me about it! This list is a drop in the bucket, and I’m still combing through the list and filling out my schedule, so I want to hear from you! Comment with your favorite session, and maybe we’ll run into each other there.

Remember, you can find my social media links on Linktree. I’ve been trying to post more on LinkedIn and Twitter, and I know some of you have seen the results. Please continue to like, comment, and share the content, as it helps spread the blog.

Also, feel free to give me a shoutout during Team ’23! If you run into me, I have a ton of these holographic laptop stickers to hand out. I’ll post often about where you can find me, so keep an eye out!

But until next time, my name is Rodney, asking, “Have you updated your Jira issues today?”