With teams across the globe working remotely, now more than ever, businesses need the ability to seamlessly plan, track, adjust, and prioritize the important work. Recently, at the Atlassian Remote Summit, we learned about all the new ways the Atlassian Suite can keep our teams productive and provide visibility into how work is tracking across projects and teams.
Step Away from that Spreadsheet!
Teams that have been frustrated by planning and project management tools with static, stale data are now leaning more on tools like Jira and Portfolio for Jira: planning and delivery tools which share the same single source of truth. These tools empower teams by providing accurate timelines and next steps by automatically updating planning tools with real-time data.
In the past weeks and months, many companies and teams have been scrambling to support remote work, struggling to communicate plans effectively to all stakeholders. Others have relied on Atlassian for years and are looking to scale their operations. Any team can now take advantage of new features by moving to cloud or upgrading to premium. Barriers have been lowered so it’s more affordable than ever to get more features from your Atlassian tools.
In the ‘old days’ (a few weeks ago), it was easy to walk over to a colleague’s desk and get a status update on a project. Are we on schedule? Do we need to make any adjustments? Are we at risk? Many companies may have used some Atlassian tools to track progress but weren’t really getting the most out of them. Now, more than ever, you need accurate and dynamic information from a single source of truth so all of your team members can be on the same page.
Structure and Flexibility
At Modus Create, we are a globally distributed company and remote work has always been our ‘normal’. Using Atlassian tools helps everyone stay up to date on the status of our work even if our colleagues are not online. In this new era with everyone working from home, many parents are finding the only time to fully concentrate on work is when the kiddos are (finally) fast asleep. Being able to look at a dashboard, or Kanban board, or just your set of tasks, lets you work independently and efficiently whenever you can.
Let’s face it, many people are overwhelmed by quarantine restrictions and adjusting to working from home. Having a Jira or Trello board to visualize your team’s work will help focus your attention and bring transparency and consistency to your teams.
Trello has engaging features like picture backgrounds, emojis and even ‘celebrations’ when a card is moved to ‘done.’ These uplifting little touches help bring much-needed lightness and fun to your teams’ daily work.
If you’ve been using Atlassian tools for a while you may find your instance has grown and is getting unmanageable. We can help! We bring best practices customized to your processes to every engagement. Our team of Atlassian professionals will meet with your teams and coach them on how to get the most value out of your tools.
If you’re just starting your Atlassian journey, or are a gnarled veteran, now is a great time to take advantage of newly released and upcoming features.
Enhancements to Roadmaps
Everyone loves a colorful roadmap. But it has to be accurate, flexible, and easy to use as well. Get ready for Roadmaps, coming soon to classic Jira projects.
Automation
A few simple automation rules can go a long way in increasing your team’s productivity. You won’t need to nag your devs to move their cards if you set up the system to do it for them!
New Templates for Confluence
Atlassian relaunched the Template Gallery in March for cloud customers which include over 75 new templates created by partners, customers, and Atlassian leaders. This means it is easier than ever to create organized content and collaborate with your teams. You don’t need to start with a blank page! There are built-in guides to help you get started and follow best practices. Take a look at the huge selection of templates here.
Portfolio for Jira
If you’re not on cloud and ready to level up to more powerful project management, it’s a good time to take Portfolio for Jira for a spin. Portfolio for Jira is an intuitive add-on that larger organizations can use to manage their many different programs and initiatives while keeping distributed teams on the same page. Some cool new features include drag-and-drop for planning, capacity management and a way for you to save frequently used views so you don’t have to recreate the wheel. You can even create epics and stories inline, from within the interface.
Check out all the cloud options and new features in Josh Kochelek’s blog Atlassian 2020 Summit Recap – Cloud for Everyone.
Conclusion
Using Atlassian tools gives you valuable insight into actual work by visualizing progress in real-time. This enables you to make data-driven decisions and maximize throughput. They keep the team engaged and focused. In these times of uncertainty, real-time visualization of work at all levels ensures your teams stay on track for success.
