Jira & Confluence for BAs
Jira and Confluence, both made by Atlassian, are where many agile teams keep their work. Jira holds the backlog: epics, user stories, bugs and sprints. Confluence holds the documents: requirements pages, meeting notes, decision logs and glossaries. A business analyst usually works in both every day, and these tutorials show the parts of each that a BA actually uses.
Jira for business analysts
The Jira lessons follow the life of a piece of work: create an epic, write user stories under it, add acceptance criteria, split a story that is too big, size it with story points, and plan it into a sprint. Along the way you will see the scrum board, bug reports, linking work items (issues), spikes, a definition of ready, the INVEST checklist and non-functional requirements. The JQL lessons show how to search for exactly the issues you need and save that search as a filter.
Jira screens differ between team-managed and company-managed projects, and between plans. If a field or menu in a lesson looks different on your screen, that is usually why.
Confluence for business analysts
The Confluence lessons cover building a requirements page, meeting notes, a decision log and a business requirements document, plus the macros that make pages easier to read: table of contents, status, expand and the Jira issues macro. You will also see how to link a Confluence page to a Jira epic, so anyone reading a requirement can see the epic's live status and jump to its stories.
Where to start
If you have never used either tool, start with the lesson on getting Jira and Confluence free, then create a user story and an epic. If you already use Jira at work, the acceptance criteria, story splitting and backlog refinement lessons are the ones that most improve the quality of a backlog. Good stories are small, testable and written from the user's point of view, and the tool only helps if the writing is clear.
The videos
45 videos, in the order we suggest watching them.
How to Get Jira and Confluence for FREE (Atlassian Free Plan Setup)
How to Write a User Story in Jira (With Acceptance Criteria)
How to Create an Epic and Add Stories in Jira
Sprint Planning in Jira: Plan Your Next Sprint From the Backlog
Scrum Board in Jira Explained (Columns, Cards, Moving Work)
How to Write a Good Bug Report in Jira (Steps, Expected, Actual)
JQL Basics: Search Jira Like a Pro (and Save a Filter)
How to Write a Requirements Page in Confluence (Product Requirements Template)
Meeting Notes in Confluence (With Action Items and Decisions)
Decision Log in Confluence: Record Project Decisions
How to Link Jira Issues in a Confluence Page (Requirements to Epics)
Saved Filters in Jira (Share Your Search)
Advanced JQL for Business Analysts (Functions, Dates, ORDER BY)
Link Issues in Jira: Blocks, Relates To, Duplicates
Epics, Stories and Sub-tasks in Jira Explained
Story Points in Jira: How to Estimate (and See the Totals)
Acceptance Criteria in Jira: Given When Then (Testable Examples)
How to Split a Big User Story in Jira (By Rule and By Workflow Step)
Backlog Refinement in Jira for Business Analysts (Rank, Estimate, Split)
Jira for Business Analysts: The Quick Tour
Confluence for Business Analysts: A Quick Tour (Spaces, Pages, Templates)
How to Create and Organise Pages in Confluence (Parent and Child Pages)
How to Add a Table of Contents in Confluence (Long Requirement Pages)
Status Labels in Confluence (Draft, In Review, Approved)
Expand Sections in Confluence: Hide Detail Until Readers Need It
Tables in Confluence: Header Rows, Numbered Rows and Colours
Confluence Templates Every BA Should Use (Requirements, Meeting Notes, Decisions)
Show Jira Issues in Confluence: A Live List of Stories (Jira Work Items Macro)
Get Requirements Reviewed With Confluence Inline Comments (Add and Resolve)
User Story Map in Confluence: Activities and Stories on One Page
Definition of Ready Checklist in Jira (Tick Boxes on Every Story)
Spikes in Jira: How to Create a Timeboxed Research Story for Unknowns
Check a User Story With INVEST (in Jira)
Mentions and Tasks in Confluence (Assign Follow-ups With a Due Date)
Page History in Confluence: Compare and Restore
Non-Functional Requirements in Jira: Where NFRs Live (and How to Write One)
Labels and Search in Confluence: Find Any Page Fast
Jira Timeline (Roadmap): How to Plan Epics on a Timeline
Build a Project Glossary in Confluence
Write a Business Requirements Document in Confluence (BRD on One Page)
Requirements Traceability in Jira (Stories to Tests)
Comments and Mentions in Jira (Get Answers Faster)
Use Case Description Template in Confluence (Actors, Flows, Exceptions)
Watchers and Notifications in Jira (Stay Informed Without the Noise)
Stakeholder Map Page in Confluence: Who to Involve and How