In addition to Jira admins, it is essential to consider the experiences of general users too. Originally, Jira’s user base consisted almost exclusively of developers and IT professionals. Though they may also experience some difficulties with the platform, their general level of technical proficiency means we can expect them to overcome most obstacles. However, because Atlassian has recently been looking to expand Jira’s user base to other departments, such as marketing, HR, and legal, it is now more important than ever to ensure that the platform is easy to learn and use.

Onboarding can make or break an employee's first impressions about your company, so creating the perfect experience for them is vital. So, you must pay special attention to explaining to users every important aspect of Jira and Jira projects. If it goes south, it could mean that your employee won’t use it correctly, which could lead to misunderstandings regarding the required issue tracking method, worklogs, etc., and ultimately, frustration on both parts.

The mystery of the Jira system

If your company is using Jira or other Atlassian tools, chances are that your new teammate has never used them before. Especially newbies don't know where to find what in the system. 

Many Jira terms and concepts can be confusing, especially in the beginning. Jira has several functions, such as boards, bug tracking, and reporting, and users will encounter many additional features and related services to assist with its extensive array of potential use cases. In addition to the 3,000+ Jira apps on offer, they will also notice a wide range of Atlassian services in addition to the main platform Jira Software, from Jira Work Management and Jira Service Management to Opsgenie and Confluence. Often, the true purpose and usefulness of these only become fully apparent with experience, and Jira users (especially newbies) are often left overwhelmed by their initial impressions.

Limited access to project information

General users also have limited or no access to information on the project they are working on, which makes it even harder to see the bigger picture. This lack of clarity can impact motivation and leave the user disorientated and disheartened, particularly if their Jira admins are too inundated with other requests to find time to provide the requisite training and guidance.

Chasing admins for support

Of course, it’s natural for new users to take time to get up to speed with a new software or platform. However, Jira admins often observe that onboarding, training, and supporting new team members and even more experienced Jira users is a long and sometimes painstaking process. These problems are a source of frustration for both admins and general users. This issue is further complicated by the fact that a fellow Jira administrator may have created or modified the project in question, and Jira’s relative lack of transparency often makes it harder to provide a definitive response to user questions. Though Atlassian offers some tools to help onboard, such as checklists, project templates, and tutorials, these are often not enough for a proper onboarding experience. 

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For the reasons listed above, users often end up bombarding the Jira project admin or Jira admin for info – never a great feeling for either side. As we all know, not being able to get the most out of a platform or product can be incredibly frustrating – you know that if you could master the tricky parts, it would be a huge help in your work, but it just isn’t immediately clear how to do so. In the long-term, these kinds of problems leave users with an unnecessarily negative impression of Jira itself and can also affect their working morale and overall productivity levels. 

The Solution - Glass Project Documentation for Jira

Glass Project Documentation for Jira is a cutting-edge Atlassian productivity app that makes your Jira project configuration transparent. It automates your painful manual documentation tasks and keeps your documentation up to date. 

Glass provides detailed project information not only for Jira administrators and Jira project admins but for users. Administrators can unlock most projects to affected users while keeping data-sensitive projects hidden. Whether you manage a service desk, HR, IT or development project  — you can empower your team with valuable and easy-to-use documentation.

With Glass Project Documentation, one of our goals was to solve a crucial problem with Jira projects: to help new users learn about Jira terms and project settings. Glass supports the onboarding process by helping users understand how Jira works and what’s happening in their projects.

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Glass reveals how your Jira project is configured by providing 1-click access to the full project documentation, including:

• Users, roles and groups (with members), 
• Permissions, 
• Notifications, and 
• Workflows (with validators, conditions, and post functions).

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However, to understand the whole process, first, users need to learn basic Jira terms and concepts. If they scroll through Glass and click on the Information icon, they get a detailed tutorial of Jira fundamentals and useful links to deepen their knowledge.

All in all, Glass reduces your team's learning curve with relevant information and educational content. New Jira users (and admins) can promptly catch up. You can quickly get new project members on board. It enables your users to self-learn so that they won’t overhaul you. 

Conclusion

When preparing for onboarding, start on time and collect everything you want to cover and the milestones you want to achieve. Make sure you are transparent about your success metrics. Having clear goals is essential because it is chaotic enough for a new hire to enter a company and providing stability is vital. 

Glass Project Documentation for Jira can be your virtual onboarding buddy by providing an easy-to-understand tutorial on the Jira terms and project configuration. It reduces training time, speeds up onboarding, and makes self-service possible. Naturally, the less time you have to spend on training your team and users, the more time they will be able to spend on more important things.

‍Learn more on Glass Project Documentation for Jira here.