Jira Software Agile Project Delivery Training Course

Course overview

Teams often adopt Jira Software but continue to manage delivery through inconsistent boards, poorly defined workflows, unreliable estimates, and status meetings built around manual reporting. Project managers, Scrum Masters, and delivery leads need more than the ability to create issues: they must configure Jira to reflect how work genuinely moves from intake to release, produce trustworthy delivery data, and prevent scope, dependency, and bottleneck risks from being hidden in backlogs. This course addresses the practical challenge of turning Jira Software into a governed agile delivery system rather than a ticket repository.

Participants build the skills to design company-managed Jira projects, issue hierarchies, workflows, screens, fields, permissions, boards, filters, dashboards, and automation rules. They learn to structure epics, stories, tasks, bugs, components, versions, and releases; plan and run Scrum and Kanban delivery; estimate with story points; manage capacity and dependencies; and use reports such as burndown, velocity, cumulative flow, control charts, and release burndown to make evidence-based delivery decisions. Advanced Roadmaps is used to create cross-team plans, model scenarios, and identify schedule pressure before it becomes a missed commitment.

Teaching combines instructor demonstrations with guided configuration labs using a realistic multi-team product-delivery case. Each participant works in a Jira Software training environment, progressively configuring a project and then using its data to manage a simulated delivery cycle. They leave with a documented Jira project configuration blueprint, including workflow design, field scheme, board settings, automation opportunities, dashboard specification, and an action plan for applying the approach in their own organisation.

The course is best suited to experienced project delivery professionals and Jira users who are expected to improve team practices, establish reporting standards, administer project-level configurations, or coordinate work across several agile teams. It is equally relevant to managers approving the training because it links configuration choices directly to delivery visibility, governance, forecast reliability, and reduced administrative effort.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Configure a company-managed Jira Software project with appropriate issue types, workflows, screens, fields, and permissions
• Design an issue hierarchy linking initiatives, epics, stories, tasks, bugs, versions, and releases
• Build Scrum and Kanban boards using JQL filters, swimlanes, quick filters, WIP limits, and board policies
• Facilitate backlog refinement and sprint planning using story-point estimation, capacity data, and acceptance criteria
• Create Jira Automation rules for assignment, workflow transitions, SLA-style notifications, and issue field updates
• Analyse delivery performance using burndown charts, velocity reports, cumulative flow diagrams, control charts, and cycle-time data
• Develop cross-team delivery plans in Advanced Roadmaps with dependencies, capacity, scenarios, and target dates
• Produce a Jira project configuration blueprint and dashboard specification for an operational delivery environment

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Project Managers — who need reliable Jira data to plan, govern, and report on agile delivery
• Scrum Masters — who configure team practices and use Jira evidence to improve sprint flow
• Delivery Managers — who coordinate multiple teams, dependencies, releases, and forecast commitments
• PMO Analysts — who need consistent project structures, dashboards, and portfolio-level delivery reporting
• Jira Project Administrators — who maintain project-level schemes, workflows, fields, boards, and permissions
• Product Owners — who manage prioritised backlogs and need transparent progress and release information

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should already understand the purpose of agile delivery and have practical experience working in Jira Software as a team member, Product Owner, Scrum Master, project manager, or administrator. Familiarity with backlogs, epics, user stories, sprints, Kanban boards, story points, and basic Jira issue creation is assumed. Participants should be able to navigate a Jira project and interpret a board. Prior Jira administration certification, coding, API knowledge, or advanced JQL expertise is not required; these are developed where relevant. The course focuses on Jira Cloud concepts, although most delivery practices transfer to Jira Data Center environments.

Training methodology

The five-day programme alternates focused instructor-led explanations with hands-on Jira Software configuration labs. Participants work through a multi-team product case, creating issues, schemes, workflows, boards, queries, dashboards, automation rules, and roadmap plans in a sandbox environment. Group workshops test configuration choices against realistic problems such as changing scope, blocked dependencies, uneven flow, and release-date pressure. The final application-planning session converts the case work into an implementation blueprint, prioritised improvement backlog, and adoption steps for each participant's own Jira environment.

Course outline

Day 1: Jira delivery foundations and project design

• Jira Software Cloud architecture and project configuration choices
• Company-managed and team-managed project operating models
• Issue types, issue type schemes, and agile work hierarchy
• Epic, story, task, bug, sub-task, component, version, and release design
• Custom fields, field contexts, screens, and screen schemes
• Permissions, roles, notification schemes, and project governance
• JQL fundamentals for locating, validating, and segmenting delivery work

Workshop: Participants configure the foundation of a company-managed Jira project for a product team and produce an agreed issue hierarchy and governance design.

Day 2: Workflows, boards, and backlog control

• Workflow mapping from work intake through validation and release
• Statuses, transitions, validators, conditions, and post-functions
• Workflow schemes and controlled change management
• Scrum board configuration, estimation settings, and sprint controls
• Kanban board configuration, WIP limits, policies, and service classes
• Board filters, swimlanes, quick filters, card layouts, and colours
• Backlog refinement using acceptance criteria, story splitting, and Definition of Ready

Workshop: Participants map a current-state delivery workflow, configure it in Jira, and build a board that makes blocked and high-risk work visible.

Day 3: Planning, estimation, and release execution

• Story-point estimation methods and Jira estimation field configuration
• Sprint planning using capacity assumptions, velocity, and commitment boundaries
• Managing scope change and spillover without corrupting delivery metrics
• Versions, releases, fix versions, and release readiness tracking
• Dependency identification using issue links, blockers, and linked work
• Backlog prioritisation with value, risk, urgency, and sequencing criteria
• Confluence-linked requirements, decision records, and delivery documentation

Workshop: Participants plan two sprints and a release from a prioritised backlog, recording capacity assumptions, dependencies, and release risks.

Day 4: Reporting, automation, and delivery governance

• Burndown, burnup, velocity, sprint, and release reporting in Jira
• Cumulative flow diagrams, control charts, cycle time, and ageing work analysis
• Dashboard design for team, delivery manager, and executive audiences
• Saved filters, JQL reporting queries, subscriptions, and filter governance
• Jira Automation rule structure, triggers, conditions, branches, and actions
• Automation use cases for triage, assignment, escalation, and workflow controls
• Data quality controls for missing estimates, stale issues, and invalid status usage

Workshop: Participants build a role-based delivery dashboard and automate two controls for triage and ageing-work escalation.

Day 5: Cross-team planning and implementation roadmap

• Advanced Roadmaps plans, sources, hierarchy levels, and scheduling settings
• Capacity planning across teams, skills, and sprint cadence
• Dependency mapping and critical-path risk identification
• Scenario planning for scope, staffing, sequencing, and target-date changes
• Portfolio reporting limits, assumptions, and responsible use of forecast data
• Jira configuration governance, naming conventions, and change-control practices
• Implementation sequencing, adoption measures, and continuous improvement backlog design

Workshop: Participants create a cross-team roadmap scenario and present a Jira implementation blueprint with prioritised configuration, governance, and adoption actions.

Tools & standards covered

Jira Software Cloud, Atlassian Advanced Roadmaps, Confluence Cloud, Jira Automation

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions