Mastering Confluence Whiteboards

Noteworthy Product News & Insights: September / August 2023

PRODUCT HOTSPOT
Jira:
JSM:
JWM:
Confluence:
Bitbucket:
INSIGHTS HOTSPOT

Atlassian’s EAPs in a nutshell, and should you participate

Atlassian’s Early Adopter Programs in a nutshell:

  1. Iterative feedback loop: The primary purpose of the EAP programs is to let users try out new features or products before they’re widely released. This allows Atlassian to receive feedback, refine, and ensure a better overall user experience when the feature or product officially launches.
    As feedback is received, features can change, disrupting some teams’ workflow. Not all your suggestions will make it into the product. Atlassian needs to balance the feedback it receives to ensure it’s acting on insights that align with its broader vision and the needs of its wider user base.
     
  2. Target audience: Atlassian’s EAPs often aim at existing customers familiar with their products, in a specific role (for example, Admins or End-users), and can provide constructive feedback. These users are often vested in helping Atlassian improve because they rely on these tools for daily work.
     
  3. Benefits to users: Participants can experience the latest features ahead of the broader user base. This can give you a competitive edge, particularly in industries where agile project management, software development, or collaboration are essential. You often also get a direct line to Atlassian’s product teams.
    Note that since early adopter versions of software can differ from stable releases, Atlassian might lack proper documentation specific to these releases. 
     
  4. Requirements-based participation: Users can request to join an EAP, and Atlassian reserves the right to accept or reject your participation. You will be provided with instructions on the details of the program. Usually, by signing up for the EAP, you’d have to acknowledge the Atlassian Cloud Terms of Service, the Atlassian Privacy Policy, and the EAP products’ use. The EAP products are considered “Beta Versions” and are subject to applicable terms, conditions, and disclaimers. 
     
  5. Risk-free testing: Atlassian usually allows participants to opt out of the early adopter program and even roll back changes if they feel it’s not right for them. This flexibility ensures that you never feel trapped in a version of a product that might still have bugs or isn’t suitable for your specific use case.
    Note that early versions of software may have bugs or other issues. You need to be willing to tolerate some level of instability or unpredictability.
     
  6. Transparent communication: One of Atlassian’s core values is “Open Company, No Bullsh*t.” Staying true to this, the company maintains an open communication channel with its early adopters, updating them on changes, listening to their feedback, and addressing any concerns. You’ll collaborate directly with Atlassian product teams to share immediate feedback. Furthermore, you’ll likely receive an invitation to a private Community group, offering an exclusive platform for your insights.
By collaborating closely with its users, Atlassian can create products that resonate more deeply with their needs, ensuring long-term success and customer satisfaction.

Interested in participating in an EAP?

To join Atlassian’s EAPs, you can monitor community updates for product-specific announcements.
You can browse our site and narrow down Product News results using the EAP tag (here is a shortcut) – we source EAP news from the Atlassian Community to make this process easier. Additionally, consider subscribing to our monthly news digest; besides essential updates and valuable insights, we feature a curated list of recent Early Adopter Programs.
Note: we highlight many interesting EAPs, but not all EAPs released by Atlassian.

Atlassian’s financial overview in numbers

IN NUMBERS:
  • Atlassian’s total revenue increased by 26% in the latest fiscal year.
  • Sales to enterprise accounts rose by more than 50%. Enterprise customers are key drivers for Atlassian’s cloud migrations.
  • Cloud-based ITSM sales to enterprise customers rose by 80%. The company enhanced its cloud platform to support up to 50,000 users, with further expansion planned.
  • Jira Service Management now has over 45,000 customers.
  • 882 enterprise customers spend over $500,000 annually with Atlassian, a 44% increase from the previous year.
  • 353 accounts spend $1 million annually, marking a 52% increase.
  • Atlassian’s work management products are used by 150,000+ organizations globally – there’s a steady demand for Jira Work Management from enterprise business teams.
  • According to reporting of Atlassian’s fiscal Q4 results, total revenue increased by 24% to $939.1 million.
  • Cloud revenue reached $563.2 million, a 30% increase. This growth surpassed the projected 26% to 28% range. Cloud now makes up 60% of total revenue, a rise from 50% two years prior.
We recommend checking out the original article for a more in-depth summary.

Atlassian promoted Avani Prabhakar to the role of Global Head of Talent

Prabhakar, with over 20 years of international experience, has previously served as Atlassian’s head of HR for Asia Pacific and the global HR lead for mergers and acquisitions. She’s passionate about shaping organizational strategy and fostering cultural transformations.
She’ll lead a team of about 100 people across Human Resource Business Partners, Employment Relations, Talent, M&A, and DEI across Atlassian.
Read Avani’s post on LinkedIn.

Jira and ChatGPT: How to triage Jira tickets automatically

Five ways to monitor and report on daily activity in Jira

Monitoring these activities is relatively straightforward in Jira, and there are several ways to do so. Depending on a specific need, your team will likely benefit from one or more of these options.
Let’s delve into ways you can check the daily user activity in Jira.

1. Activity Stream 

For basic needs
Jira’s Activity Stream is a built-in feature that offers a real-time overview of recent activities on your board or project. The stream captures various actions like issue creations, transitions, comments, and more. In your Activity Stream, you can filter the stream by users, date range, and type of activity. This way, you can zero in on specific data points, making your oversight more efficient.
This article will be helpful to learn how to configure it. 

2. Issue History 3rd party apps

For a more complete feature set
There are several apps in the market, but let’s look at an Issue History for Jira from SaasJet as an example since it has the most installs and reviews. 
Every issue in Jira maintains its history, capturing every change made to the issue since its creation. The app provides not only a record of these issue changes but – most importantly – an effortless way to search and filter (think of faceted search-based results) based on any particular requirement you might have at any time. 
Many other features are available, and you can learn more from the Atlassian Marketplace. 
Tip: Check your installed app library. Some other apps you might be already using in your environment might offer some useful functionality. 

3. JQL (Jira Query Language)

Less of an “out-of-the-box solution, requires JQL knowledge
JQL is a powerful querying tool that allows users to create custom search criteria. For example, if you want to see all issues where certain fields such as priority, resolution, or status were changed in the past 24 hours, a JQL query can easily retrieve that. You can create many different types of queries, but the nature of this approach limits its usability on a day-to-day basis. Plus, only certain field changes are supported by JQL search. 

4. Email Notifications

Basic and on an individual basis (not for compliance/reporting purposes)
Jira can be configured to send email notifications for various activities. By setting up a proper notification scheme, team members can be instantly informed about issue changes, comments, and more. Ensure your team members have the right notification settings to keep them in the loop.

5. Audit Log

For Jira Administrators only
The Audit Log is essential for Jira administrators, especially when preparing for external inspections. It captures a broad array of activities, from project changes to user management actions. The Audit Log offers filters and an easy-to-read format to review and export data.
Monitoring team activity in Jira is not only essential for effective project management but also crucial for maintaining transparency and accountability. By leveraging Jira’s built-in or 3rd-party tools and features, teams can easily keep tabs on all activities, ensuring smooth operations and preparing for any internal audits or external inspections.

JiraCon23: Everything you need to know

JiraCon23 at a glance:

  • When? October 4, 2023 | 9 am – 3 pm PST
  • What’s it all about? It’s more than just an event; it’s a festival of knowledge-sharing for Jira enthusiasts. Hosted by Trundl, it’s a unique platform where Atlassian User Community, Developers, and Leaders from around the world share innovations, stories, solutions, and techniques to transform the way teams utilize Jira.
  • Price: $36.75 Early Bird Ticket (until September 16); Regular ticket is $49.
  • Register here

Why JiraCon23 is the place to be:

  • Keynote Speakers: Patrick Howell, Co-CEO @ Trundl, and Mark Cruth, Modern Work Coach and Evangelist at Atlassian. The event will begin with a comedy sketch, followed by Patrick’s overview of the event highlights. Then, Mark Cruth from Atlassian returns. Excited for his insights? 
  • Customized Learning across several tracks: An agenda overflowing with intriguing sessions each hour. Choose your favorite presentations, workshops, and demonstrations, and if you miss any, catch up with 55+ on-demand recordings post-event.
  • Build Your Network: Connect with an expected 600+ attendees from the Atlassian ecosystem, including employees, marketplace developers, and partners.
  • Amazing Giveaways: Last year, they gave away an iPad and a GoPro; who knows what’s in store this year? Just keep in mind that high engagement means better chances to win. 

Deep dive into content tracks:

JIRA & PRODUCTIVITY:
Unlock Jira’s potential. There’s more to Jira than meets the eye, and it’s time you tapped into its full power.
Sessions include: 
  • Proven Post-Migration Checks for Jira & Confluence
  • Streamline Recurring Jira Cloud Issues
  • Jira & Confluence: Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger together
  • AI and I: How AI is Shaping the Future of Jira Administration
  • Who says Jira has to be used that way?
  • and many more.
ESM & ITSM:
Not just for IT! Dive into the diverse applications of Jira Service Management and discover innovative ways to enhance your team’s efficiency.
Sessions include: 
  • Jira Service Management Fundamentals: How to Get Started
  • Make Your JSM Portal an eCommerce Shop
  • Smarter ITSM with Microsoft Teams and Jira Service Management
  • Supercharge Your ITSM With Customized Workflows
  • Jira DevOps Integrations: Improve Your Developer Experience
  • and many more.
AGILE & DEVOPS: 
No matter where you are on your Agile and DevOps journey, this is your chance to connect, learn, and evolve.
Sessions include: 
  • Mastering Release & Deployment Tracking in Jira
  • Team Spaces in Confluence
  • Software Documentation Your Team Will Actually Use
  • Planning Beyond the Sprint with Advanced Roadmaps
  • Connecting Strategy to Execution: Fireside Chat + Q&A
  • and many more.
Grab your tickets during the early bird special for under $40 and join the community in rewriting the Jira playbook. 

Jira Service Management for software development teams

Noteworthy Product News & Insights: July 2023

PRODUCT HOTSPOT:
INSIGHTS HOTSPOT:

The surprising career setback: The downside of overachieving

Here is a short overview of the consequence of overperformance.

  1. Managers may hesitate to promote or assign new responsibilities to high-performing employees because they are valuable assets. Promoting such individuals could compromise efficiency or result in the loss of an exceptionally effective team member. This selfishness on the part of management can hinder an employee’s career trajectory.
  2. Potential damage to workplace relationships. Colleagues or managers might feel threatened or undermined by a high-performing employee, leading to alienation or even workplace bullying. According to research, exceptional productivity by a few workers can create tension and lead to attempts to sabotage their work or reputation.
  3. Burnout presents a possible risk. Overachievers may face increasing pressure from management to take on more responsibilities without adequate support for their professional growth. The lack of a clear sense of impact can be a significant risk factor for burnout, surpassing heavy workloads themselves.
It’s important to note that not all employees are affected equally by this phenomenon. Ultimately, the responsibility falls on companies to address this organizational dysfunction and prevent talented workers from missing out on opportunities because of their abilities. However, individuals can also take steps to protect themselves, such as being team players, focusing on improving communication and leadership skills, and seeking feedback. In some cases, it may be necessary for affected employees to consider finding new employment.
To read the entire article on Atlassian blog, click here.

New in Confluence: Share in Slack, Assigning page ownership, and a better way to publish

“Share in Slack” functionality is now available for Confluence

Nidhi Raj, Sr. Product Manager, announced the introduction of the Share in Slack feature, which provides enhanced flexibility when sharing Confluence pages. With this new functionality, you can now directly share a Confluence page with specific users or channels in Slack. This integration streamlines collaboration and empowers teams to seamlessly exchange information and knowledge between Confluence and Slack, enhancing productivity and efficiency.

Assign and transfer page ownership

In Confluence, when a page is created, the original creator is permanently associated with that page. However, if the creator leaves the company or team, there is no way for someone else to take over that page. The Confluence Cloud team has developed an exciting new feature: Page owner. It allows an assigned page owner – not the original creator – to be responsible for maintaining the accuracy of the page’s content.
WHAT TO KNOW:
  • Having the “owner” of content as the original creator no longer associated with the company can lead to issues and make it difficult for readers to reach out to the current subject matter expert. A new feature – page ownership – allows users to assign a point of contact for a page.
  • Page ownership can be updated by the current page owner, space admin, or site admin as needed.
  • The original page owner is the creator, and there can only be one page owner at a time.
  • You can change the ownership of a page and view the creator and owner history through a contextual menu within the page’s byline.

A better way to publish in Confluence

The Confluence product team has introduced the new Publish Dialog to enhance the process of publishing drafts and updating existing pages in Confluence.
WHAT TO KNOW:
  • This new Publishing Dialog brings you an additional step in the publishing workflow when transitioning a page from Draft to Published.
  • It provides you with options to choose the page’s location carefully, define access permissions, and decide whether to notify watchers of the associated space.
  • It offers extended publishing capabilities, such as scheduling content to be published at a specific date and time or choosing between publishing as a page or blog.

Exploring possibilities in a safe environment with the Cloud Sandbox

Within the sandbox-isolated space, users can experiment with various features, configurations, and customizations, all without fear of disrupting their production environment. It is a valuable resource for learning, training, testing new functionalities, and crafting custom solutions. Whether you’re a curious explorer seeking to expand your knowledge or an innovative developer, the sandbox provides an environment where limitless possibilities and experimentation is encouraged.

Harnessing the automation power of Forge; for seasoned developers

When it comes to automating tasks across Atlassian products, a range of options are available, catering to different levels of coding expertise and customization needs. 
Automation for Jira and Confluence offers a quick and straightforward no-code solution for most scenarios. Additionally, apps like JMWE, JSU, and JWT can extend automation functionality and enhance your app capabilities, also with little or no coding required. Apps like Scriptrunner and Power Scripts provide added flexibility and customization options for those eager to delve into coding. 
However, if you are a seasoned developer and are willing to get your hands dirty with coding, while these apps allow you to extend the capabilities even further and tailor the automation to your specific needs, another option is available to developers in Atlassian Cloud: Forge.
Forge, from Atlassian, is an app development platform integrated into Atlassian Cloud. It allows you to write code that executes in response to events such as Jira issue transitions, Confluence page views, and even external events. If you have experience using Atlassian APIs for custom scripting, Forge operates similarly. However, it provides a development and hosting environment already set up and ready to connect with Atlassian products.
In this article, you can read about an example of the need to create a Confluence page when a new Jira issue is generated, with the additional requirement of embedding the Jira issue within the page’s body. While automation can handle the majority of this process, it does not support creating a Confluence page with specific content in its body. At least not out-of-the-box.

Navigating the Atlassian Cloud Sandbox