Jeremy Neuharth discusses how to use JIRA and GreenHopper to manage disaster recovery efforts. He proposes creating a "live disaster recovery plan" by modeling it after an Agile Scrum backlog where each recovery item is a JIRA issue. This allows the plan to be easily reprioritized and updated. It also enables visualizing recovery status and assignments using dashboards. With some customization of workflows and fields, any organization can set up an effective disaster recovery solution in JIRA with only a day or two of effort.

2. How to:
Survive a Zombie Apocalypse"
Managing your disaster recovery efforts in JIRA"
Jeremy Neuharth!
Founder, Sycorr"

3. Who is Jeremy Neuharth?"
• Atlassian’verse" • Works in the financial services
(banking) sector"
• JIRA & Confluence
administrator since 2005" • Involved in multiple disaster
recovery efforts"
• GreenHopper user since 2008"
• Assisted five organizations with
JIRA deployments"
• Outside the Atlassian’verse"

4. Managing a Disaster is Rough"
• Inherently, it has many unknowns"
• The dreaded Disaster Recovery
Binder "
• How do you keep everyone on
the same page"

5. Is There Something Better?"
• Solution 1"
• A Live Disaster Recovery
Plan"
• Solution 2"
• Manage the Unknown with
a Simple Triage"

6. What is a Live Recovery Plan?"
• Concept from a Scrum (Agile) Backlog" Rem
inde
• Each item is:" Even
a liv
r
plan e
mus
• Contained within a single JIRA issue" revie t be
wed
• Can be reprioritized at any time"
• Has key data in order to “recover” the item"

7. Example Living Recovery Plan"

8. Plug
Why is This Great?" - in
Gree
nH oppe
r
• JIRA is Living Documentation"
• Have details in JIRA or linked to other systems"
• Reprioritize quickly using GreenHopper’s global ranking"
• Easily add data with custom fields"
• Flexibility during a disaster"
• Have the JIRA project ready-to-go at any time"
• Simplistic Clarity of Interface and Information"

9. Have an entire disaster recovery plan on a
secure USB key with JIRA! Be prepared for
even a #ZombieApocolypse.
#summit12

10. Issue
Issue
A Simple Triage"
Prioritization
Work Assignments
Queue
1 Issue
2 Issue
3 Issue
4 Issue
5 ….
Impediment/Completion
Reporting

11. Example: Triage Dashboard" Queue
Whose Pain
Live Info
Overall
How is the Plan

12. Why is This Great?"
• This is what JIRA does…. issues & workflows"
• Easy and quick visualization with dashboards"
• Brings everything to a command center"
• It is what your teams are used to using"
• Social features like @ mentions are huge timesavers"

13. Even a #ZombieApocalypse can t beat the
JIRA s ability to manage and visualize issues
in a disaster.
#summit12

14. How to Create Your Own"
• Dust off the JIRA workflow engine"
• Create a simple workflow that MATCHES your situation"
• Use built-in fields"
• Components = Business Units"
• Version = Time (Date)"
• Labels = On the Fly Grouping"

15. How to Create Your Own" Plug
- in
• Use custom fields" Verg
o SLA
• Recovery Objectives "
• Pre-Assigned Teams, Systems, etc"
• Create a JIRA project"
• Start adding items to your plan"
• Create handouts and training to support the new simplified process"

16. • A complete DR plan should cover a Zombie Apocalypse"
• Thinking outside the binder makes things easier"
• JIRA & GreenHopper are a great solution for DR"
• With very little effort (a day or two) any company could
have a DR solution setup and started in JIRA"
Take Aways!

17. Thank you!
+1.701.212.1155 @jneuharth
jneuharth@sycorr.com
linkedin.com/in/jneuharth