So, Jira Guys and Gals – this was last week.

No post today – I've been sick the past few days, and haven't had a chance to write anything. X_x I'll catch you all next week!

— Rodney N – The Jira Guy (@theJiraguy) May 17, 2023

I still wasn’t 100% till closer to Sunday, which meant this week has been about one thing: Catching up. So I need a nice, easy post to write. Why not leverage what I’ve already done?

I have 176 posts on this blog, going back to 2019. That feels like an enormous amount of content and needs to be more – all simultaneously. And chances are, you didn’t learn about this blog when I started writing. So why not look at some of my favorite posts and give you some things to add to your reading list? Let’s dig into this!

Everything has its start.

Using Jira For a Job Search…well…that’s a thing.

To be fair – I’ve had this domain and even a blog on it for a few months before I posted this – but this is the real start of the blog. The posts before are so cringe-inducing that I’ve hidden them – mostly from myself. But this post was born from a rather desperate place and did well enough that it convinced me there might be something here. I still feel that this post and the couple that followed it eventually did land me new employment.

Now – I’ve always loved the “off-brand” uses for Jira. My recent post about Pokemon should be proof enough of that. So this one, titled “Using Jira For a Job Search…well…that’s a thing,” fits into my niche. And the setup I described did solve a real-world problem I was having. Of course, looking back at it, there are things I’d change about the project I ended up producing, but on the whole, it stands up, even today.  

What’s this? Who left all these breadcrumbs everywhere?

Following the Breadcrumbs: Decoding JIRA’s Logs

I don’t consider myself the first of anything in the Atlassian space. There were blogs before me, and there were Atlassian content creators well before me. I *think* I was the first to try to create content consistently over a long period of time, but even that is not 100% guaranteed. 

Which is to say, I’ve have my heroes and heroines, too, one of which was Rachel Wright. But, honestly, it still blows my mind that people put her and me on the same pedestal. 

So when she took notice of what I considered to be a tiny blog, I was beyond ecstatic. And when she gave me a challenge on something to write, it was going to happen – which is how this post came to be. Honestly, this one is likely due for a refresher, considering I wrote it for the server, and it doesn’t cover some of the changes you see for the Data Center, but this one still makes me happy.

The App Tier List

JIRA App Tier List

So last week, I did an App review – the whole point was an attempt by the people behind the App to get an upgrade on the Tier List. I still find this funny as I didn’t think much of this Tier List concept when I first wrote about it. I was looking for an article to write, and while watching TierZoo (seriously, great content!), I thought, “What if I did this with some Atlassian Apps?” I thought this was a concept I was going to do once and never touch again.

But it’s still around, and people take my opinion on Apps seriously, so it’s now a thing.  

Rules of Thumb

Rules of Thumb

So – the great thing about having followers is that you can crowdsource posts. So that’s exactly what I did here. I asked Jira Admins about their rules of thumb – “a method of procedure based on experience and common sense.” That being said, I still love how this post came out. I still need a reminder about some of these rules. Jesse’s advice of, “If you are creating a provision to happen once a month or one out of 100 issues, you should not be making a provision for it,” is still rather poignant.

Still sad about Server 😦

So Long, Server

So, this period of time was…interesting. Okay, that doesn’t cover it. Here I was, about a year into this blog, and my bandwagon was pretty well hitched to Atlassian. So for a few days, I was in an absolute panic. Yes, it was an overreaction, but this announcement was so out of the blue that it caught everyone off guard. But I gave myself a week before I put any words down. I knew my first reaction would likely be an overreaction, and the week gave me time to digest and understand the news before publicly sharing my thoughts. What came out of that process was very much one of my better posts, “So Long, Server.”  

I haven’t exactly cared for some of Atlassian’s practices and priorities since this post was made. However, despite everything Atlassian says, it still feels like if they could get away with it, they’d leave the On-Prem business entirely, and I know I’m not the only one who feels this way. But one thing is for sure; I wouldn’t be surprised if I have to write another one of these at some point in the future.

CSV Imports

CSV Imports: The Secrets of Bulk Jira Issue Creation

The last post I’ll share today is my largest post when gauged by view count. This post still consistently gets hundreds of views a month and has since I published it. This post is about using a little-known feature in an unintended way.

So – once upon a time, Atlassian was the underdog. They needed to make it easy for people to switch to them. One way they did this was to support importing from various platforms. Eventually, as they grew, they flattened all that out to the CSV Import. Its main goal was to allow you to import from a different system – migration support. But, with some help, I learned another use for this.

You see, you can import to existing projects. I’m still not 100% sure if this is an intentional use case or a happy accident, but I have yet to find a lot of documentation around this – which is probably one reason the article does so well. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that it was also my 100th post on the blog!

What do you think?

What are your favorite posts? Are there any you still refer back to? What should more people know about? Please share it in the comments! \

Also, what do you think I should do for my 200th post? That is coming up faster than I’d like, so getting your ideas in now won’t hurt!

You can also find me on social media via my Linktree. Please do all the social media things: Follow, like, comment, and share. I keep saying this, but it really does help.

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