Yes, you read that correctly. You’re Agile and don’t even realize it.
What is Agile?
Agile was initially designed for software development, so you may be asking yourself: what does that have to do with being a parent?
Agile, simply put, is a way of completing tasks in an adaptable manner as a team. That may sound like common sense. But think back to when you’ve ever had to convince anyone, let alone a child, to change their minds. I’m betting they put up some resistance, at least initially.
So, how are parents Agile already without realizing it? Let’s walk through the various parts of Agile methodology and find out.
Agile Methodology Through the Lens of Parenting
As a parent, things are constantly in motion with children: in the air, about to happen, or need to be planned. This constant state of replanning is the sprint. The backlog is the future expectation of milestones, i.e., crawling, waking, teething, etc., that all need to be addressed down the line. These too are constantly reprioritized, ready for a future “sprint,” as there is no exact order in which a child will achieve these milestones.
There’s a learning curve to being a parent as well. Do it faster.Then do it better.Then do it faster and better. Sound familiar? A child’s developmental milestones can be restated as big tasks(epics) that need to be split into more manageable smallertasks (stories).
The process of faster and better is the iterations process within Agile. If you’re a parent, you were probably much better at feeding, bathing, and soothing your child in year two vs. year one. The entire process was also probably easier if you had subsequent kids, because although each child is different, your mindset changed into parenting mode without you realizing it.
The next one is easy: time-boxes. There are no long meetings as a parent. There’s the time between now, the next task, and the next fire-drill. There’s barely time to plan, and then you’re turning around and immediately re-planning.
User stories is another easy one to relate to. One of the primary functions of Agile is to focus on relating the tasks to outcomes. The client (child) has a need. Your job is to fulfill the need. The outcome is a satisfied client (child). If you discover a better way to perform the task, it’s incorporated into the action, but the required outcome is the same.
Planning poker may sound odd at first, but its purpose is to identify ambiguity and clarify priorities. For example: one parent may think that the child focusing on learning an instrument at an early age is a higher priority than the other who prioritizes learning a second language. In having these discussions and assigning a weighted value to each task, everyone getting on the same page faster in order to move forward together means more efficient and more successful products.
A software developer’s “kanban board” is really just a constantly evolving to-do list. The most common kanban sequence is “To do,” “In progress,” and “Done.” This is where the next part of Agile comes into focus. Transparency is key. Each parent or team member must know what the others are doing in order to avoid duplicate efforts and keep everyone in the loop.
The “standup meeting” in software development is a short meeting to catch everyone up on their status. It usually tries to answer three questions:
What did you do yesterday?
What are you planning to do today?
Where are you blocked?
The first two are self-explanatory, but the final question is the most relevant comparison. How can the other team members (spouse, parents, in-laws, etc.) help each other to remove obstacles for each other, therefore easing everyone’s workload?
In those rare breaks between tasks and emergencies, parents can talk about what’s working well, what’s not, and how they can improve. This is the sprint retrospective.
Relationships
Think it’s pretty weird that parenting and software development can be so similar? On first glance, perhaps. However, the key relationships between software development cycles and parenting are ultimately the same:
Plan for the short and long-term knowing they will be replanning continuously along the way.
Must be able to adapt on the fly while also juggling multiple tasks of varying priority.
Focused on outcomes vs. process.
Constant communication and coordination between parties is required.
My next blog post will focus on what both sides could learn from the other using Agile. Questions or comments? Follow up with us at info@ascendintegrated.com
In 2020, Atlassian announced some big changes to their product offerings. On February 2, 2021, Atlassian will be ending the sale of new licenses for Jira Server in favor of Cloud and Data Center offerings. For those who are already licensed for the Server version, you will have until February 2, 2024 to use it with support. In addition, if you are looking to purchase Advanced Roadmaps (formerly Jira Portfolio) for Jira Software, Team Calendars for Confluence, Analytics for Confluence, or Insight Asset Management and Insight Discovery for Jira Service Management Server, you will no longer be able to purchase these products as new Server Apps after February 2, 2021, though you will be able to renew them if they were already purchased. These Apps will be free to use as a Data Center or Cloud Premium / Enterprise level customer for Jira Software, Confluence, and Jira Service Management. Also, effective February 2, 2021, any renewals for Server products that take place after this time will see price increases. Atlassian is offering financial incentives to switch to Data Center and Cloud as well. If you are considering moving to Cloud, if you meet certain criteria, you may be eligible to use a free trial for up to 12 months. This can provide a good parallel period if needed. More information is available at Atlassian.com.
After February 2, 2021, you might be wondering what the best path would be as a current Jira Server customer? This will depend on several factors on which you can weigh in:
Does your company currently use any of the Apps that will now be included with Data Center or Cloud Premium / Enterprise? These Apps include Advanced Roadmaps (formerly Jira Portfolio), Insight Asset Management, Insight Discovery, Team Calendars for Confluence, and Analytics for Confluence. You may want to check to see if the price of the Server Renewals plus the App Renewals are greater than switching to Data Center or Cloud (including the migration discount) where they are now included. For example, Automation for Jira is included with Jira Service Management (formerly Jira Service Desk) for Cloud Premium / Enterprise, but not Server. It can currently be purchased separately as a Server or Data Center App. Jira Service Management Cloud Standard has Automation, but not Global and Multi-Project Automation.
Does your company currently only have Jira Server, but you will need to use the Apps mentioned above after February 2021? You will only be able to access these Apps with Cloud Premium / Enterprise or Data Center (Except Automation for Jira).
Are you able to continue using your Marketplace Apps for Jira Server? Though every vendor will differ, support of Apps for Server may lapse over time. Conversely, there may be some Apps that are not yet available for Cloud. In most cases, Apps that are available for Server are also available for Data Center. There also may be more Apps that are exclusive to Cloud as this option becomes more popular. Some Apps that you were using for Jira Server may also become deprecated if a Feature becomes available with Data Center or Cloud.
Does your number of users for Jira Software Server exceed 500 at the time of renewal? The economics per user get better at higher tiers and Data Center starts with the 500 user tier. There are also incentives for renewals vs new subscriptions with the same tier, migrating to Data Center or Cloud as an existing customer, App renewals vs new subscriptions, and discounts for upgrading to a new tier, and discounts for Annual vs Monthly pricing.
Do you value better performance? Jira Cloud offers Standard, Premium, and Enterprise levels of service to provide better levels of service and support. While it’s true that Data Center allows more control, it may be more economic to rely on Atlassian support than to put out fires when they occur on your own infrastructure.
Licensing can be a complicated process and different scenarios can play out that can make a big difference in your costs. Ascend Integrated can provide a free licensing consultation so we can help you determine the best course for your company and look for the best discounts. Contact licensing@ascendintegrated for more information.
Over the past few weeks following Atlassian’s announcement to discontinue Server (on-prem), you’ve probably been caught up in determining the best methods for importing your current, Jira server environment into the Atlassian Cloud. For this article, we’ll focus on importing your server environment (or Data Center) into the Cloud, and how Ascend has successfully completed this for clients with very customized environments, using Python Scripts, JSON, and more, combining this into the Ascend Migration Suite (AMS).
Importing Methods
Currently, there are several methods for importing into the Cloud, each with their own positive attributes as well as drawbacks. These include:
CSV: fastest importing method, but may cause users to be created which shouldn’t be, attachments to be missing, missing issue history and links, or inconsistent comments and comment data not being imported.
XML Import: full import of all attributes, but will require you to upgrade your current environment to the latest version of Jira (which changes often) and re-configuration of cloud apps.
Jira Cloud Migration Assistant: great for basic environments, but for complex environments with add-ons / apps, scripts, triggers, webhooks and APIs, this is not ideal and may create more headaches. This also may lead to loss of issue history information.
JSON Import: Will require development resources and experience with API development, but is the most effective at importing issues into the cloud without loss of data.
Maintaining your issue history and comment chains are important – they allow you and your auditors to see the full history of an issue resolution. While the above methods have various degrees of effectiveness, the development team at Ascend built and automated complex (500+ Data Center and Server environments) built multiple Python Scripts into an Ascend Migration Suite (AMS) in order to automate the import of issues, issue history, comments, and various information into the Cloud.
Automation with Python and JSON
As you may have guessed already – a cloud migration comes with multiple options, and multiple complexities as well. Utilizing a mixture of Python, JSON exports / imports, and some Jira know-how, Ascend built a process to automate portions of the migration process. Here’s how we do it:
Create a full JSON Export for each project to be migrated to the Cloud (migrate project to project, since you may not need all your Jira projects in the cloud).
Utilize custom Ascend’s Python scripts (created and updated by us) in the Ascend Migration Suite to map on-prem users to the Cloud environment, this ensures account IDs and @mentions in comments are retained.
Any missing usernames we update manually using a CSV configuration file our scripts read.
Other custom Ascend Python scripts are run to maintain links (Issue links and Epic – Story, Sub-task links, etc.).
And finally, login credentials, project keys, miscellaneous project data and information, (including Components, Fix Version/s, etc.) are also uploaded.
Workflows, depending on their complexity and if they use custom validators, may need to be manually re-created.
The upload is pushed into the Jira Cloud environment.
Attachments will need to be uploaded as well, but this is also done via a script.
Always note – before performing any of the above, always be sure to take inventory and understand whether configurations for add-ons / apps and REST APIs carry over from server to Cloud.
Conclusion
Importing to the cloud is not always the easiest, but with our method above, we can shorten the time to import your environment into the cloud by 60%, reducing a 4 – 6 week project into a 2 week project using our automated scripts and test suite. This also saves you time from upgrading your current environment on-prem, which may require additional time and resources. Reach out to us today if you’re interested in hearing more!
You’ve done it! After a successful installation of Jira Software, you were able to convince all of your company’s teams to move off their old software development methods and start using Jira. It took some major effort to convince the groups that just because “We value individuals and interactions over processes and tools”, that does not mean that everyone using the same software development platform would harm the team’s unique workflows. The implementation of Jira has also increased most team velocities as they are more easily able to communicate amongst themselves, what is needed to develop a Story within a Sprint. Program management is still not happy however. In many cases, it is still unclear which team is working on what part of the program solution. The Program deadlines keep being pushed back. Large development items (Epics) in the Program which require input from multiple teams and different skills become difficult to get across the finish line. Traditionally, the Project Managers would communicate the milestones needed and simply hound the Scrum Masters and Product Owners until their team’s work is done. This required the Scrum Masters and Product Owners to negotiate with each other’s deadlines during the Scrum of Scrum Meetings. Perhaps, there is a better way.
Let’s say that you now have 5 teams doing Sprints regularly in Jira. Their velocities differ between the teams, but they show greater improvement and predictability between sprints. As the Program Manager, you’ve been tasked with ensuring large software solutions get completed on time and on budget. These solutions will take multiple Sprints, perhaps many months in some cases to see the full program implemented. How can you use Jira to align the teams to a common program goal?
Here are some Suggestions with Jira Software
Align Sprint Lengths – The Start and End Dates among Scrum Teams in a Program. If more than one team shares a Jira Project, use enable parallel Sprints.
Enable Parallel Sprints – If more than one team shares a Jira Project, use enable parallel Sprints.
Create a Program Board – Create a Board with all of the Teams in a Program (Both Scrum and Kanban). Use Simple: To Do, In Progress, and Done statuses to classify all them by Column on the board so that it’s visible for the Program Manager.
Create a Program Dashboard – Include Sprint Gadgets for each individual team including burndown and velocity charts.
What happens if the number of teams and programs continue to grow? Programs may eventually be large enough that we need to plan several sprints ahead. How can we do this in Jira?
Engage in an Agile Transformation
Tools are not enough for an effective organization to adopt Agile practices. Even if individual scrum teams are well functioning, it can be difficult to get a program to function as a team. An outside consultant tends to make the best Agile Coach. This coach can provide insight without any preconceived bias.
Use a Knowledge Base
Confluence provides an excellent link to Jira. The more content is shared at the Team and Program level in the same place, the easier it is to coordinate which issues to work on in what Sprint with the Teams. Build both Team and Program level Spaces in Confluence to share this information.
Use a diagramming AddOn
The Draw.io diagram AddOn provides a way to draw product roadmaps, team org charts, value streams, and visualize processes. Couple this with Confluence and you have a great way to visually show your program the information they need.
Still need to Scale Up?
Jira Align allows a user to view all of the Sprints for a Program Increment (typically five Sprints). You can view dependencies within different issues among the teams. You can see when an issue is scheduled to be worked on. Jira Align allows you to plan at the Program level and view this work as it allocated at the Team level.
Getting better at Estimation During Sprints
The Planning Poker for Jira AddOn allows teams to vote on point values of issues during Sprint Planning. It allows you to record team member votes, reach consensus, and estimate as a remote team.
Big changes can be needed when a company gets larger in size and complexity. Going from 5 teams to 10 teams to 20 teams will change how teams need to work together. As software products become more complex and developed, more teams will need their input in a large solution. It’s important to coordinate between teams and Jira Software can be scaled up as you need it. Contact Ascend Integrated to learn more!
A repository of hardened and validated containers is critical to enhancing operational security while reducing deployment times. Powerful Atlassian DevSecOps tools are now available on hardened containers to all DoD departments and agencies. The containers are available for download directly from Platform One, and organizations that do not already have Atlassian tools can get them through Carahsoft and Platform One’s 5-year, $95M BOA 2 for DevSecOps Tools, Pipeline and Platform Integration and Licensing.
Enhancing Container Security
DoD’s highly-automated Container Factory takes container instructions from the Repo One source code repository and validates and hardens the images. Hardened containers and documentation are then stored in the Iron Bank centralized artifacts repository. This process provides all DoD programs with ready access to hardened containers without having to continuously recertify. Applications running in these containers have been vetted and granted an Authority to Operate (ATO). Multiple USAF Programs, including the F-35 program, use these containers to support secure program development and operations.
Atlassian and Ascend have been working together to build and deploy hardened containers for Atlassian’s applications. DoD container hardening begins with an approved base operating system and automated build, test, scan process. Containers are first locally built and tested from pre-defined instructions, then scanned for vulnerabilities and exposures.
Ascend’s JetDock secure DevOps tool provides a centralized portal for automating the security scanning and build out and deployment of hardened containers. After the vulnerability scans, JetDock removes duplicates, false positives, and cleared vulnerabilities, providing an organized and graded list of containers. Any DoD agency or department can pull approved container images from Iron Bank and use the application in their own environments.
Continuous Security Measures
Hardening containers is an ongoing process, requiring images to be regularly updated so that their security functionality is kept current. JetDock keeps an eye on public repositories to see when a new version of an Atlassian tool is released and updates the container build files. After running a test build and scan, JetDock reconciles the security findings with previously answered, justified, and closed issues. The system then suggests possible justifications for new scan findings and provides a list of findings that require human attention. New justifications are stored for future automated scans.
How DoD Agencies Can Get Hardened DevSecOps Tools
DoD teams have ready access to Atlassian’s DevSecOps applications, such as Jira, Confluence, Bitbucket, and Bamboo, through the Platform One BOA 2 for Tools. The intent of the BOAs is to provide Government departments and agencies with an accelerated path to a vetted contractor pool. Leveraging the BOAs eliminates the need for individual defense program offices to conduct additional market research, and has been shown to cut the total acquisition time by over 75%.
Carahsoft, the trusted government Atlassian solutions provider, is the contracted source for Atlassian tools on the BOA 2 contract. The BOA is a new way for DoD teams to obtain Atlassian software. Ascend hardened containers, once accredited, will be available via Iron Bank. Continuing development and process streamlining are ensured through this multi-year contract. Support, services, and expertise surrounding the Atlassian product stack are also available through this BOA.
Organizations are always searching for ways to become more efficient and secure. With the rise of DevOps processes, organizations inevitably need to adopt, build, and deploy tools to support their growing development staff. These tools may include Jira, Confluence, Jenkins, MongoDB, and other applications and services on the marketplace.
With the list of tools growing, it’s important to keep all these tools organized, updated, and secure. This itself is a full-time job requiring multiple resources.
So, why not automate and consolidate your DevOps and DevSecOps processes?
Automatically Identify and Apply Updates
Imagine this: you have multiple tools deployed in your environment supporting your DevOps processes and most importantly – your development team. How do you keep on top of application updates and not interfere with your team’s support of these products?
One word: automation.
By having a tool intelligently pulling, scanning, testing and deploying updates as the updates to the applications are released ensures your environment remains secure and highly functional. This also enables your team to focus on continuing to provide DevOps tool support to your team.
Execute Security Scans
Categorizing and maintaining a list of Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) and findings for your security team can be a real hassle, especially when its spread across multiple DevOps tools.
Why not automate? The ability to automatically integrate with Twistlock, Anchore, or other security scanning tools on the marketplace to build a centralized list of CVEs and maintain these will be an automatic win for you, your security team, and your IT Auditors.
JetDock – the AI DevSecOps Platform
We focused on automation in this blog – but which tool on the marketplace is right for you?
JetDock – Ascend’s DevOps tool which enables the automation and deployment of new DevOps tools using AI and Machine Learning to automatically build, scan, and deploy containerized applications. Using state of the art frameworks, JetDock can be deployed securely within your environment and becomes a DevOps consolidation tool for your team; a one-stop-shop for maintaining your DevOps environment. The tool has already shown success with the U.S. Air Force, obtaining funding through AFWERX contracts and use in the Platform One program.
As of Jira version 8.3 released this year, Jira can integrate with a mobile app developed by Atlassian. The plugin comes standard in 8.3, but you can view it here:Mobile Plugin for Jira.
In some areas, it shows promise, but we are also finding others where improvement is needed. This article is a brief overview of the free Mobile app for Jira Server and Data Center.
Logging
In
To connect your Jira instance, you will need to first download from the Android or iPhone app store. For this blog, I’ll be using my iOS device and connecting it to one of our sandbox instances (running 8.4.2). To connect, add your URL and add your credentials.
Figure
1: Logging In
Accessing Jira Software Projects
Projects and boards were easily accessible when first logging in, allowing you to navigate to your SCRUM or Kanban board quickly. As shown in the figure below, the board was available with drag+drop touch capabilities.
Figure
2: SCRUM Board Example
Opening an issue was simple as well; by tapping on the issue, you were able to open the issue details. All fields, including custom and system fields, were visible in the app.
Figure
3: Opening an Issue
Issue
Searching
No
JQL necessary – search is based on pre-selected filters and free-text search as
shown below.
Figure
4: Free Text Search
Transitioning
and Editing Issues
Transitioning and Editing Issues is accomplished by opening and editing the issue’s fields on-the-fly. Note any permissions you have access to on the server will be active in the mobile app as well. To transition an issue, you can click on the transition, and the options in the workflow will be available to you.
Figure
5: Transitioning Issues
Known
Limitations
There are some known limitations/workarounds for the mobile app.
Currently, it does not support Service Desk (see the figure below)
No support for connecting through a VPN (unless you have this set up on your phone)
It may have issues connecting to an instance utilizing an SSL certificate (if the certificate is self-signed).
These configurations/workarounds are forthcoming, and beta versions of the app showed promise around the Service Desk and Software implementations. Also – looking for Dashboards? You won’t find any here, unfortunately.
Figure
6: Jira Service Desk Project View
Our
Recommendation? Try it!
Check it out and see if it’s the right fit for your team. If you have a more advanced implementation, we recommend reviewing some of the other mobile apps on the Atlassian Marketplace. Have questions? Feel free to drop us a line! Get In Touch
Testing is often the task in your project that is often left behind, or becomes the recipient of a shortened timeline based on scope creep, time crunch, or whatever the reason. With more organizations relying on the Atlassian Tool Suite (specifically Jira and Confluence) as their core enterprise tool suite, the importance of testing new configurations, add-ons, and custom scripts developed in a widely-used tool suite is more important than ever before. Answering the questions “What broke?” and “What works?” is essential to understanding the impact and risk your new functionality or requirement implementation poses. This blog is not a catch-all, end-all, be-all for your testing woes, but we want you to start thinking through some strategies and best practices when it comes to testing and maintaining your Atlassian Tool Suite.
How much testing?
This is generally defined in your governance model, but we recommend setting up a defined and succinct list of functionality you are looking to testing any time major functionality is developed. For instance, if you have a custom script running for only one project, test the core functionality and workflows already configured for that project, along with testing core features inherent with major projects in your instance.
When should you test?
Test early, test often. Following the implementation of any major configuration, add-on / app, or custom script in your development environment, have a list of core functionality you are testing, major projects you will review, and also a running list of any bugs. To state the obvious – make sure you resolve the bugs before pushing the script into production.
Some Of Our Recommendations
These recommendations may seem straightforward, conspicuous, and previously alluded to in the paragraphs above, but they’re still very relevant:
Have a plan: understand and dedicate the role of tester to a team member (hint: not the developer), when testing will be performed, frequency, and scope of testing. Understand what functional tests you want to perform, and load testing strategies.
Development Environment: Don’t have one? Get one. If you’re on Server or Data Center Atlassian generally allows you to use the same licenses across your development and production environments. Have Cloud? Contact a Partner (like us) and we’ll help you.
Test early, test often: Going back to having a plan. Test early, test often, and automate. Review your scripts on a monthly or quarterly basis to ensure scripts detailing core functionality remain relevant.
Use Configuration Manager: easily migrate project configurations between your development and production environment using the Configuration Manager for Jira add-on (for server and data center).
Automation: Automate your load testing and functional testing scripts. Use tools such as Selenium, Gatling, and others to automate your testing scripts and pull out testing reports.
Whether you are just starting in the Atlassian ecosystem, or you are a veteran looking to grow within the community, this article is for you.
I’ll begin where I started, delve into what I did to get to my position today, and finally, I’ll leave some tips for those in a similar position as I was.
Where I started
In 2017, I landed my first official job as an IT Support Specialist at a small company. I joined a team that had little structure to their requests, accepting them by either email or paper. These requests included on-boarding and off-boarding employees, general IT support, and system bugs. This system was unmanageable as requests were getting lost, forgotten, and were unable to be tracked.
Before joining the IT team, I was on the website testing team. They used an external company to help develop the website, which used Jira to track issues and bugs. With my limited experience with the system for testing, I decided this was a solution to their problems.
What I did
I watched quite possibly every tutorial video out there. Using Jira Service Desk, I made a demo of what I thought their service desk should look like and presented it to my team and the executives. What I didn’t know was that presentation would change my life. I got approval and dove straight into building the final product.
What started with one portal for IT requests only, quickly expanded into five other departments over a year. With the growth of the service desk, my role went from being just an IT Support Specialist to being a full-time Jira Administrator.
Naturally, through the progression of this, I started my path through the community. At first, I was just asking questions, but I noticed there were questions that I could help answer. I immediately found a passion for the community and helping people. I found myself spending more and more time there trying to provide any answer I could. I was also fortunate enough to be sent to the 2019 Atlassian Summit, a definite must-attend event for anyone looking to grow their career with Atlassian. I was able to dive even deeper into the world by meeting people from Atlassian’s team, other Admins from around the world and my current company, Ascend Integrated. Shortly after the Summit, I joined the Ascend team as a consultant.
In my first month with Ascend, I’ve obtained two Atlassian certifications. With this company, I have been able to focus on exactly where I need to grow. After a lot of hard work and dedication, I was invited to the Community Leader program in August. A significant accomplishment and something I am incredibly proud to be apart of.
Here are some tips and tricks to help you along your way:
Don’t get discouraged
The very first time I took my certificate exam, I failed. It completely crushed my soul, and I started thinking I didn’t belong in this field. I was wrong. Don’t let failures get you down. Failure is a vital part of your success, and without it, you will never learn.
Ask for help
There is a wonderful community of people out there that are willing to help you at a moment’s notice. All you have to do is ask!
Play around (test test test)
If you want to know how something works, do it! Play around in the instance. Touch every button. If you don’t have a test instance, get one! Server instances are free if you host them yourself and you can do all the testing and playing around you want. Testing is the best way to learn the many aspects that the Atlassian toolset offers.
Experience is key
If you want to get an Atlassian certification you’ll need experience, but you won’t necessarily need the recommended years of experience to pass. I don’t meet all of them myself, but you will need to know how each and every tiny function works. Otherwise, the already difficult exams will be a thousand times harder.
Learn the Marketplace
For those that don’t know, the Marketplace is where all add-ons for the Atlassian toolset call home. Learning what is available is important because it opens up options. Even with all the flexibility the tools give you, it’s not always enough, and add-ons are the only way to go. Knowing what options are available will not only let you know alternative paths you can take, but it will help you know where or who you’ll need to reach out to to get your problem solved.
Go to events
Most major cities have an Atlassian User Group (AUG), and these groups host free events. I recommend going to yours. You get great information from them, and you get to meet new people!
Try to attend the Summits or other smaller events Atlassian puts on throughout the year. These will be extremely beneficial to your growth.
So you’ve got a great service desk system like Jira Service Desk in place, but customers are still sending emails directly to you for password resets or new hardware purchases. While adoption has gone well for some customers, others still want that personal interaction to allay their fears of choosing the wrong software license type or ensuring an employee gets onboarded within the week. How can we continue to deliver great personalized customer service while also promoting comfort and ease-of-use around your new Jira Service Desk? Here are some ideas:
Name your Service Desk: Sometimes having a system with a name and a mascot help to personalize a system so that users feel more comfortable using it. For example, you could name your system “SANDY” and create logo character based on one of your brands as a mascot. Your customer can think of it as asking SANDY a question rather than just typing a question into the Confluence knowledge base.
Give Thanks for the Heads Up: Did one of your customers report a possible problem early that saved a system from going down? Perhaps they suggested a fix that helped an agent close a ticket. Find a way to recognize those who help put out fires before they start. It’s a great way to encourage other departments to look for proactive ways to prevent issues from cropping up.
Customer Training: Maybe a customer is unsure of how to use the service desk and is still walking up to your desk or calling in issues? Be proactive, provide training and easily accessible videos to walk customers through the ticketing process so they are assured that you have received and are working on their request / issue. This could be a way to see from the customer’s perspective some ideas to improve your service desk processes, layout, and policies so that customers are more comfortable with the system.
Customer Usage Feedback: Too many fields for a user in the customer portal? Too many request or issue types? Simplify. It’s important for the user experience to have straight forward forms and easy to understand questions.
Create Meaningful Satisfaction Surveys: Provide users the ability to submit satisfaction surveys and make them easily accessible. For instance, after a ticket is resolved / closed, send an email to the customer asking to complete a customer survey. Make sure you also leave room for suggestions so that feedback can be used to create a better experience.
Interested in learning more about Jira Service Desk, Confluence, or the Atlassian Tool Suite? Contact us today!
