The Jira Life

Rodney Nissen, Alex Ortiz, & Bob Wen
  • 5.0 (3)
  • TECH NEWS
  • UPDATED WEEKLY

From the guys behind "Apetech Tech Tutorials" YouTube channel and "The Jira Guy" blog, comes a podcast that covers anything and everything relevant to being an Atlassian Admin. We cover the latest news and updates from the Atlassian ecosystem, cover best practices for your Atlassian Tools, and interview the movers and shakers within the community. Because we didn't choose The Jira Life, The Jira Life chose us.

  1. TEAM '26 Predictions - What's Actually Coming for the Atlassian Platform?

    MAY 1

    TEAM '26 Predictions - What's Actually Coming for the Atlassian Platform?

    Atlassian Team '26 Conference kicks off May 5th in Anaheim, which means it's time to pull out our crystal ball and see what's coming. We've been digging through the Atlassian Roadmap, the Cloud release notes, recent partner announcements, and a few tea leaves to put together our best predictions for what you'll be reading about next week — because if the pattern holds, there's going to be a lot to unpack. Will Rovo finally get the showcase moment it's been building toward? What does the new Google Cloud partnership mean for your stack? Will Mike Cannon-Brookes order a pizza on stage and have it delivered before the keynote wraps? And is there a surprise or two lurking that nobody saw coming? What's your boldest Team '26 prediction? Drop it in the comments — we'll call out the best ones on the stream.Tune in Thursday as we go prediction by prediction — then follow us to Anaheim: we'll be dropping our Keynote Response the afternoon of May 6th and going live from the Expo Hall floor on May 7th at our normal time to close out the show.Thank you to ikuTeam for connecting and collaborating with The Jira Life. https://ikuteam.comThe Jira Life=====================================Having trouble keeping up with when we are live? Sign up for our Atlassian Community Group!https://ace.atlassian.com/the-jira-life/Or Follow us on LinkedIn!  / the-jira-life  Become a member on YouTube to get access to perks:https://www.youtube.com/@thejiralife/...Hosts: Alex "Dr. Jira" Ortiz   / alexortiz89     / @apetechtechtutorials     Rodney "The Jira Guy" Nissen/ rgnissen  https://thejiraguy.com  Sarah Wright / satwright   Producer: "King Bob" Robert Wen   / robert-wen-csm-spc6-a552051  Executive Producer: Lina OrtizMusic provided by Monstercat:=====================================Intro: Nitro Fun - Cheat Codes   / monstercat  Outro: Fractal - Atrium   / monstercatinstinct

    1h 3m
  2. Balancing Governance & Customization in your Atlassian Environment (with Nick Turner)

    APR 25

    Balancing Governance & Customization in your Atlassian Environment (with Nick Turner)

    Every Atlassian admin has been there — you're either locking everything down so tightly that users are filing tickets just to breathe, or you've said "yes" one too many times and now you've got 47 duplicate fields and a different workflow in every single space. So where's the line?This episode is less of an interview and more of a conversation — and we want you to be part of it. As we sit down with Nick Turner of the Turner Advisory Group, we're pulling in perspectives straight from the JiraAmigos community, because this is exactly the kind of topic where everyone has a war story, an opinion, or a hard-learned lesson worth hearing.We'll dig into what it actually looks like when an instance tips too far in either direction. On one end, the over-governed environment built more for the admin than the everyday user — where guardrails have become gates and friction is everywhere. On the other, the anything-goes instance where customization has quietly spiraled into chaos, half the fields don't work, and no two teams are operating the same way.Nick brings his perspective from the Turner Advisory Group, the hosts bring theirs, and we want you bringing yours too. As you listen, we're challenging you to think honestly about your own instance — which direction are you leaning? How much of that is intentional, and how much just... happened?We also get into how much context matters here, because what works at a few hundred users can fall apart fast at a few thousand.Pull up a chair. This one's a group discussion.Thank you to ikuTeam for connecting and collaborating with The Jira Life. https://ikuteam.comThe Jira Life=====================================Having trouble keeping up with when we are live? Sign up for our Atlassian Community Group!https://ace.atlassian.com/the-jira-life/Or Follow us on LinkedIn!https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-jira-life/Become a member on YouTube to get access to perks:https://www.youtube.com/@thejiralife/joinHosts:- Alex "Dr. Jira" Ortiz https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexortiz89/ https://www.youtube.com/@ApetechTechTutorials- Rodney "The Jira Guy" Nissen https://www.linkedin.com/in/rgnissen/ https://thejiraguy.com- Sarah Wright https://www.linkedin.com/in/satwright/ Producer:- "King Bob" Robert Wen https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-wen-csm-spc6-a552051/Executive Producer: - Lina OrtizMusic provided by Monstercat:=====================================Intro: Nitro Fun - Cheat Codeshttps://www.youtube.com/c/monstercatOutro: Fractal - Atriumhttps://www.youtube.com/c/monstercatinstinct

    1h 6m
  3. Examining Atlassian Certification Changes (with Kristjan Mathiesen)

    APR 16

    Examining Atlassian Certification Changes (with Kristjan Mathiesen)

    In this episode, we sit down with Kristjan Mathiesen, who recently joined Atlassian's Certification team as a Technical Subject Matter Expert, to take a comprehensive look at one of the most valuable — and often underutilized — resources in the Atlassian ecosystem: the certification program. Kristjan walks us through the full history of Atlassian credentialing, from the early days of the Atlassian Certified Professional (ACP) exams — high-stakes, proctored assessments designed to validate deep product knowledge — through the evolution of the program into a broader ecosystem of credentials. We cover the early ACP exams, how they came to be, why they were built the way they were, and who they were designed to serve. We also dig into the Atlassian Certified Associate (ACA) and Atlassian Certified Hands-on (ACH) credentials — the latter being a lower-stakes, non-proctored, open-book format aimed at a different audience entirely. Then we look at where the program stands today. All exams now live on the Certiverse platform, making the entire certification journey fully online — no more trekking to a testing center. Other changes are afoot this year, rolling out with the release of the updated ACP-520. We close the episode with a bigger-picture conversation about the value of credentials in today's job market. Kristjan shares his perspective on why certifications matter more than ever in a world where learning moves fast — where a college degree still carries weight, but hands-on, specialized credentials are increasingly what validates real-world expertise to employers. Whether you're already certified, considering your first exam, or just curious about where the Atlassian credentialing program is headed, this episode is for you. Subscribe, leave a review, and let us know — are you certified? Thank you to ikuTeam for connecting and collaborating with The Jira Life.  https://ikuteam.com The Jira Life ===================================== Having trouble keeping up with when we are live? Sign up for our Atlassian Community Group! https://ace.atlassian.com/the-jira-life/ Or Follow us on LinkedIn! https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-jira-life/ Become a member on YouTube to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/@thejiralife/join Hosts: - Alex "Dr. Jira" Ortiz https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexortiz89/ https://www.youtube.com/@ApetechTechTutorials - Rodney "The Jira Guy" Nissen https://www.linkedin.com/in/rgnissen/ https://thejiraguy.com - Sarah Wright https://www.linkedin.com/in/satwright/ Producer: - "King Bob" Robert Wen https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-wen-csm-spc6-a552051/ Executive Producer:  - Lina Ortiz Music provided by Monstercat: ===================================== Intro: Nitro Fun - Cheat Codes https://www.youtube.com/c/monstercat Outro: Fractal - Atrium https://www.youtube.com/c/monstercatinstinct

    1h 6m
  4. Building an Atlassian Experience (with the Build It Together Event Organizers)

    APR 11

    Building an Atlassian Experience (with the Build It Together Event Organizers)

    What does it take to create a hands-on Atlassian event from the ground up? This week, we sit down with some of the organizers behind Build IT Together — Lina Ortiz, Shawn Doyle, and Josh Golosinskiy — to hear the full story of how a community idea became one of the most practical Atlassian gatherings around. We trace the origins back to the Atlassian Builders Summit, the spark that planted the seed for something different: an event where attendees don't just sit through sessions — they actually build. The team walks us through the evolution of that vision into Build IT Together, a two-day, in-person training and conference held right before Atlassian Team '26 in Anaheim, California. We dig into what makes BIT stand out from a typical conference. Attendees pick a real problem, choose a learning track — Rovo AI Agents, Forge Apps, Project Management, or Enterprise Service Management — and leave with a working solution, not just notes they'll never use. It's beginner-friendly, technically deep, and built by practitioners for practitioners. Lina, Shawn, and Josh share what goes into curating the speaker lineup, designing tracks that produce real outcomes, and building the kind of room where Jira admins, consultants, and project managers feel right at home. We also talk about the unique positioning of BIT right before Team '26 — so attendees can go from building to being inspired in the same week. Whether you're thinking about attending, speaking, or just want to understand what a community-driven Atlassian event looks like from the inside, this episode is for you. 🗓 Build IT Together takes place May 4–5, 2026 at the Clarion Hotel in Anaheim — a short walk from the Team '26 venue. 🎟 Tickets start at $47 for the conference day, or $447 for the full training + conference experience. Learn more and grab your seat at https://buildittogether.events Thank you to ikuTeam for connecting and collaborating with The Jira Life.  https://ikuteam.com The Jira Life ===================================== Having trouble keeping up with when we are live? Sign up for our Atlassian Community Group! https://ace.atlassian.com/the-jira-life/ Or Follow us on LinkedIn! https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-jira-life/ Become a member on YouTube to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/@thejiralife/join Hosts: - Alex "Dr. Jira" Ortiz https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexortiz89/ https://www.youtube.com/@ApetechTechTutorials - Rodney "The Jira Guy" Nissen https://www.linkedin.com/in/rgnissen/ https://thejiraguy.com - Sarah Wright https://www.linkedin.com/in/satwright/ Producer: - "King Bob" Robert Wen https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-wen-csm-spc6-a552051/ Executive Producer:  - Lina Ortiz Music provided by Monstercat: ===================================== Intro: Nitro Fun - Cheat Codes https://www.youtube.com/c/monstercat Outro: Fractal - Atrium https://www.youtube.com/c/monstercatinstinct

    1h 3m
  5. The Chicken Life: Tender is the Night

    APR 3

    The Chicken Life: Tender is the Night

    Forget your sprints. Abandon your backlogs. This week, the crew is bocking the system and doing a full retrospective on the only meaty morsels that matter: chicken tenders and nuggets. We kick things off with the question that has haunted humanity since the dawn of the deep fryer — who has the best chicken tenders? Our panel of highly unqualified experts (namely our TJL crew) are joined by a special mystery guest to weigh in on the crunch factor, the tenderness-to-breading ratio, and the all-important "structural integrity during dipping" metric. It's a full audit, and not everyone makes it out alive. Then we pivot to the sauce standup — a lively, occasionally heated discussion about the condiments that make or break the whole experience. Ranch loyalists will face off against honey mustard truthers. There will be drama. There will be tears. There may be a barbecue sauce apologist. You've been warned. And finally, things get spicy — like, genuinely, medically questionable spicy — as the TJL crew with mystery guest straps in for our very own "Hot Ones"-style challenge. Watch your favorite project management podcasters discover that they have absolutely no business eating hot sauce ranked beyond Level 4. Their composure will crumble faster than a badly scoped Q3 roadmap. Whether you're team tender or team nugget, a dipper or a dunker, a ranch ride-or-die or a rogue aioli person — this one's for you. 🍗 New episodes drop every week. Cluck yeah. The Jira Life is not responsible for any sauce-related disputes, spontaneous hunger, or sudden urges to order a 20-piece at 11pm. Thank you to ikuTeam for connecting and collaborating with The Jira Life.  https://ikuteam.com The Jira Life ===================================== Having trouble keeping up with when we are live? Sign up for our Atlassian Community Group! https://ace.atlassian.com/the-jira-life/ Or Follow us on LinkedIn! https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-jira-life/ Become a member on YouTube to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/@thejiralife/join Hosts: - Alex "Dr. Jira" Ortiz https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexortiz89/ https://www.youtube.com/@ApetechTechTutorials - Rodney "The Jira Guy" Nissen https://www.linkedin.com/in/rgnissen/ https://thejiraguy.com - Sarah Wright https://www.linkedin.com/in/satwright/ Producer: - "King Bob" Robert Wen https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-wen-csm-spc6-a552051/ Executive Producer:  - Lina Ortiz Music provided by Monstercat: ===================================== Intro: Nitro Fun - Cheat Codes https://www.youtube.com/c/monstercat Outro: Fractal - Atrium https://www.youtube.com/c/monstercatinstinct

    1h 6m
  6. Vibe Coding Meets Work Management: MCP Magic (with Ed Gaile)

    MAR 28

    Vibe Coding Meets Work Management: MCP Magic (with Ed Gaile)

    This week on The Jira Life, we’re joined by Ed Gaile of Appfire to explore the intersection of creativity, automation, and the future of teamwork. We dive into the emerging concept of Vibe Coding—what it is, why it’s resonating with modern teams, and how it shifts the way we think about building and interacting with tools. From there, Ed walks us through the practical side of innovation: connecting the Rovo MCP server to Jira and Confluence to unlock new possibilities for integration, orchestration, and intelligent workflows. Whether you're experimenting with new development paradigms or looking to push the boundaries of your Atlassian stack, this episode blends vision with hands-on insight in a way only The Jira Life can. Tune in for a conversation that’s equal parts inspiration and implementation—and maybe catch a new vibe along the way. The Jira Life ===================================== Having trouble keeping up with when we are live? Sign up for our Atlassian Community Group! https://ace.atlassian.com/the-jira-life/ Or Follow us on LinkedIn! https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-jira-life/ Become a member on YouTube to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/@thejiralife/join Hosts: - Alex "Dr. Jira" Ortiz https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexortiz89/ https://www.youtube.com/@ApetechTechTutorials - Rodney "The Jira Guy" Nissen https://www.linkedin.com/in/rgnissen/ https://thejiraguy.com - Sarah Wright https://www.linkedin.com/in/satwright/ Producer: - "King Bob" Robert Wen https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-wen-csm-spc6-a552051/ Executive Producer:  - Lina Ortiz Music provided by Monstercat: ===================================== Intro: Nitro Fun - Cheat Codes https://www.youtube.com/c/monstercat Outro: Fractal - Atrium https://www.youtube.com/c/monstercatinstinct

    1h 5m
  7. Trello Takeover for St. Trello's Day (with the Trello Trailblazers)

    MAR 19

    Trello Takeover for St. Trello's Day (with the Trello Trailblazers)

    This week on The Jira Life, something unexpected has happened… the show has been peacefully (and joyfully) taken over by the Trello community. 🎉 In honor of St. Trello's Day, a legendary celebration of boards, cards, and the power of visual collaboration, the Trello Trailblazers have seized the microphones and transformed the podcast into a whirlwind tour of all things Trello. Leading the charge are Trello champions Brittany Joiner, Rob Hean, and Mike Day, who bring their trademark enthusiasm—and just a little mischief—to The Jira Life studio. In this whimsical episode, the Trailblazers explore: - Why Trello deserves its own holiday (and how St. Trello Day came to be) 🎈 - The magic of boards, lists, and cards that keeps teams organized across the world - Creative and unexpected ways people are using Trello—from project management to life planning - Friendly debates about when Trello shines brightest in the Atlassian ecosystem Expect laughs, playful jabs at Jira, and plenty of practical tips for anyone who loves visual workflows. Whether you're a Trello devotee, a curious Jira user, or just here for the celebration, this episode proves that sometimes the best way to talk about productivity tools… is to throw a party for them. 🟩✨ So grab a card, move it to “Done,” and join us for a festive—and slightly rebellious—edition of The Jira Life. The Trello Life ===================================== Having trouble keeping up with when we are live? Sign up for our Atlassian Community Group! https://ace.atlassian.com/the-jira-life/ Or Follow us on LinkedIn! https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-jira-life/ Become a member on YouTube to get access to perks: https://www.youtube.com/@thejiralife/join Hosts: - Alex "Dr. Jira" Ortiz https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexortiz89/ https://www.youtube.com/@ApetechTechTutorials - Rodney "The Jira Guy" Nissen https://www.linkedin.com/in/rgnissen/ https://thejiraguy.com - Sarah Wright https://www.linkedin.com/in/satwright/ Producer: - "King Bob" Robert Wen https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-wen-csm-spc6-a552051/ Executive Producer:  - Lina Ortiz Music provided by Monstercat: ===================================== Intro: Nitro Fun - Cheat Codes https://www.youtube.com/c/monstercat Outro: Fractal - Atrium https://www.youtube.com/c/monstercatinstinct

    1h 7m

  8. MAR 14 ·  BONUS

    March 11 Emergency Episode: Breaking - Atlassian lays off 10% of staff!

    The Jira Life reacts to news of layoffs at Atlassian

    36 min
See All (173)

Trailers

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
3 Ratings

About

From the guys behind "Apetech Tech Tutorials" YouTube channel and "The Jira Guy" blog, comes a podcast that covers anything and everything relevant to being an Atlassian Admin. We cover the latest news and updates from the Atlassian ecosystem, cover best practices for your Atlassian Tools, and interview the movers and shakers within the community. Because we didn't choose The Jira Life, The Jira Life chose us.

Information

  • Creator
    Rodney Nissen, Alex Ortiz, & Bob Wen
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    173
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Rodney Nissen, Alex Ortiz, & Bob Wen
  • Show Website
    The Jira Life

You Might Also Like