What is our primary use case?
We're creating a centralized place for our stakeholders and sponsors to have shared access to project details.
My partners are normally the architects, engineers, and product owners. I work as a senior project manager and program manager. I have the scrum role added to me when we don't have any since I'm a scrum master too. I've been on the engineering side as an engineer, like onboarding and monitoring and creating all the meetings, and meeting with our customers more. I'm able to use Jira to help facilitate tasks related to various projects.
What is most valuable?
It's easy to set up.
The solution is user-friendly, and it's very easy to use once you go through the guidebook. There's lots of great documentation.
We can integrate with other solutions, like Azure, GitHub, Slack, et cetera.
What needs improvement?
I am really focused on identity access management and getting access to the vendors. Right now, I'm setting up vendor access through Azure. You can do that or with the IAM.
Sometimes we have to create several different types of access because we have vaulted databases. We have the Unix databases, I have MySQL, and we have Mongo, where I get access to those user classes or to the databases in the host group. Those are all different access scenario forms that I submit after I do the configuration in the form with the security team. I need clarity on the IAM.
I'm not clear on PAM eighter. Is there a form that they have to submit to get access to the internal cyber-risk teams to get their access for people to be able to use the tool on the Confluence side? Do they have to send some kind of form to the operation's security or enterprise security? To be able to get the access for privileged access, do they need to be working on projects that have vaulted databases? I still need to figure out how that works.
Other companies that are competitors of Jira and Confluence, are able to create their active directories for the vendors that don't come in internally. They only do access through the cloud and through third-party, two-factor identification. That's something I was wondering if that was already implemented in the packages, the package for Confluence. It would be nice to have that right in the solution.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used the solution since 2016.
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable. We use it with GitHub a lot and it works fine.
How are customer service and support?
I basically have never had to deal with support. I've only internally asked for assistance. Usually, it's the Microsoft person or whoever the administrator is. We use Slack or Microsoft Teams that are interfaced with those tools as well, and when we need help, we go through those solutions.
We have it all in a channel where we customize our teams, and then we have all the channels for whoever we need to reach out to for Atlassian. If we have Jira Confluence or Azure issues, we just reach out to the Microsoft person, one guy we all know can assist.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We were trying to use Microsoft Teams to centralize everything. However, we only track our actions and our action items, and our issues and risks.
Microsoft Teams now does have a template I create through an Excel template I upload.
I usually managed only the Jira side, not really the Microsoft side.
How was the initial setup?
It's pretty simple to set up and start using the solution.
Usually, I go in and look at the functions and options, and usually, I create my project teams more in Jira and Confluence as well. Then I start creating whatever epics I need. I start creating my boards, what we're going to create, to my backlog first and then the parent, the backlog, and the sub-criteria. I'm not really working with these tools on all my projects since not all of my customers are working with these tools.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I pay for the service every month.
I only get billed for the services I use. I don't know what it costs internally from a corporate perspective, as it has to be used when they buy the package itself. Therefore, I don't know the cost from a corporate perspective, I only know from the way I use it. I just purchase the licensure, and then they bill me directly and invoice me monthly.
I've been getting invoices since 2016, and I started off at a higher cost, and now I find the price to be lower.
What other advice do I have?
I have it on my phone. I'm doing testing. With Jira, you get billed when you're working as a freelancer or a consultant. I get billed monthly as an invoice, so I have to go and test their new functions and features monthly. When you have the licensures, you must touch the application, the system.
If you're used to working in GitHub or when you're working with engineers, they tend to have their own version one tools. Jira is good for working well with GitHub and has been since the beginning. Jira has gone ahead and created functional user roles for each user that is going to use the tool.
Potential users should understand that they have options.
I had someone demo everything with me back in 2016. And then, I had someone demo the updated features for Trello. They can really dig in and show you some interesting features. Learn the business side, the process side, how to use it, and what it can do, and you'll be better off when you start.
I love Jira and Atlassian products. As a matter of fact, I promote them. That said, I'm also promoting all of Azure and Microsoft and your products as well. I'm taking the training for both Atlassian and Azure for the cloud. Right now I'm doing all of the certification training right now.
Make sure that when you're using the Jira side, that you're using Jira for the backlog and creating the product. In Jira, we create the product backlog and the backlog for prioritizing the work we're going to do. Then for the Confluence side we assign to an administrator that manages the site period, the platform's governance that provides the access to all of us. That's more the Confluence side.
I use Jira more for managing projects or creating the product charter.
Then we implement all our artifacts and documents in a centralized place. We add our iterations.
Everybody needs to use Jira always on their projects. I'd rate it ten out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.