Character limit on Goal Updates Feels Stifling

[Brent Vierling]

Maybe I'm just too wordy :)

I'm finding it VERY difficult to give meaningful Goal updates with the character limitation.  It is difficult to get adoption for a product if the updates aren't meaningful.   

I support the character limit on Projects.  While it can be difficult, it makes you really think about the update.

Can we at least double the max word count or let the goal updater set the limit per goal or the organization set it on all goals.  We don't mind spending 2 minutes reading about a month's worth of work.  We sometimes link to a Confluence page for certain updates that are much too long for Atlas Goals.

It could be argued that we should be using Risk, Learnings, and Decisions more which could compensate for the some of character count and that would be true.

I thought I would put this out there to see if anyone else is experiencing similiar pain point.

[Dirk Ronsmans]

Hey @Brent Vierling ,

I agree, I'm too wordy too :) A little workaround is to add a details section in the update. There's a little button to "add details" 

That does not seem to count towards the character limit :)

[Brent Vierling]

@Dirk Ronsmans  yes I should have mentioned that.  The details doesn't have the character limitation and can be helpful. 

I still maintain that I have trouble even giving an "introductory" update in the top portion within the character limitation without it feeling VERY cold and lifeless since I'm reducing every last word down.  I don't feel I gain the same benefit on reducing down the words on the goal as I do on the Project.  I feel the meaning on the goal update becomes less rather than more.

I appreciate your reply!

[Greg D]

Little trick that could help. Use emojis to breathe life into your updates and shorten the character count without it feeling cold.

Definitely feel your pain in some scenarios, but I take it as a challenge. Considering most people do not pay attention to almost anything, maybe keeping it under the threshold and using emojis to gain you extra free words in the introduction helps gain readers. And I promise that I never text in emojis and I am from the times before the internet, haha... I still find emojis really powerful for Goals and Projects.

Then, you can use the "Add more details" to explain as much as you want.

[Linda Buchanan]

Totally agree. I spend so much time trying to come up with a short summary to fix into 280 Chars is just painful.

Adding the other information to the details, means that executives/management. that get the the project updates via say a weekly email have to click to get to read the entire update. They don't want that or even might not have access to get into JIRA 

I often feel that Atlassian treat Projects delivery as if everyone is just humming along in little teams and is on the same page with lovely little updates each week

Unfortunately, Project are complex and need to cover a lot of areas (finance, procurement, security, legal, vendors, and yes the actual software development and delivery via JIRA work items) 

There can be a lot of information to provide to ensure everyone has the facts.  

I do use decisions, and risk in 'Project' but would like a proper RAID register for Projects. e.g. for Risks I would like to see things such as status (open, closed), impact/likelihood, mitigations and be able to look and report at this a project level and across all projects

Sorry to take over your post for a rant, but I would like to see Atlassian actual invest the real enterprise project management capabilities. It seems they are just always building on JIRA Software without understanding actual project management and the realise. Not all project run fully out of JIRA i.e. if you are asking your legal team to review something that is needed, I can be pretty sure a lawyer is not coming along to a standup and working out of JIRA. 

Maybe that is the point, they are only targeting these capabilities at agile product delivery teams, not actual projects that need oversight and project controls from initiation to closure 

[AZAPI]

I can relate to this. A strict character limit can make goal updates lose the context that actually makes them useful. Short updates are great for quick scanning, but occasionally the “why,” key learnings, and outcome need a little more space. A flexible limit per goal could be a good middle ground.