Some common abbreviations/acronyms used in this post:
RCC – Release Certification Checklist
RCM – Release Certification Manager
Dev – Development
BODs – Business Object Documents
MSF – Manufacturing Solutions Framework; our product system of record – where we manage and maintain product, suite, and third party product information, as well as maintain product SKU information.
GA – Generally Available

I work within Application Services, or more specifically, the Release Certification and Governance team at Infor*. We lovingly refer to ourselves as the “Gate-Keepers” or, more quietly, the “RCC Police.” As a unit, we “police” all product releases; we uphold and improve policies and processes that ensure we are able to meet commitments we have made to our customers, especially in regards to training, documentation, functionality, security, etc. My technical position is Business Analyst, and I work alongside Dev Project Directors, Dev Project Managers, Industry & Solution Strategy Directors, Quality Assurance Managers, and all manners of Product Development; when I describe my particular job to my friends, I like to call myself the “grunt” of my team – which is by no means a negative term. My main tasks, day-to-day, are processing RCC requests, processing BOD tickets, maintaining MSF data, and working on/improving current processes within Release Certification. I run reports, gather data, occasionally do data entry, and of course support the RCM’s in their endeavor to certify releases. 

The majority of the processing parts of my job are done within Jira, a project management tool developed by Atlassian. All of our products going through Release Certification must have an RCC for each release in their Jira Project. Each RCC has a number of tasks (the exact amount is dependent upon the size of the release: Major, Minor, or Maintenance) that must be completed well before GA, at GA, or sometimes post GA. Most of my coworkers, at least that I work directly with, are Jira Users, meaning they have basic privileges within the system. I was recently “upgraded” to Jira Administrator – so I have all kinds of power. I promise to not let it go to my head. I have become the go-to person within my team (and other teams) for help with Jira. Even some of the Education department and Information Development teams have asked me to help them with Filters (a way to view, categorize, and sort Jira tasks) and Dashboards (a page for gadgets that display Filters in more aesthetically pleasing ways than a list). While I am always learning better ways to utilize Jira, and still have a ways to go to becoming a Jira Master, this is easily one of the best things I can add to my resume: 

Emma VanDerLeest, Business Analyst & Jira Administrator.

*Infor is a global leader in business cloud software products for companies in industry specific markets. Infor builds complete industry suites in the cloud and efficiently deploys technology that puts the user experience first, leverages data science, and integrates easily into existing systems.