Choosing an app from the Atlassian Marketplace - Part 2
This is the second part of the article about choosing an app from the Atlassian Marketplace. Read the first part to learn about the anatomy of this store and the apps' listings.
Final station: choosing an app from Atlassian Marketplace
On different stations of our educational path, you got some tips on what to look at while selecting the best Jira add-ons from Atlassian Marketplace. However, there are still a few more things that will make your research easier. We prepared graphics together with the explanations (where needed) so you could come back to this part of our guide every time you want to buy an extension from the Jira plugins marketplace.
Read the app’s documentation
Documentation, tutorials and other educational content created by the vendor should be one of the key parameters you check before purchasing an app. Look for the place where the vendor stores the documentation – it may be a Confluence space, the company’s website, or another form of a knowledge base. Check if the instructions are clear to you, all plugin functionalities are covered, and the content is regularly updated.
Check other apps developed by the vendor
Browsing other vendor’s apps can give you more information about the company and users’ satisfaction of their products. This can build up your trust toward the vendor and the confidence for purchase.
Watch product demos
It’s crucial to see the app in action before buying it. Some vendors give a possibility to sign up for a demo session, whereas the others have the demo videos on their YouTube channels. Also, don’t forget to visit the vendors’ blogs which usually contain educational content, tips and tricks as well as articles that compare specific apps.
Start a free trial
Use the possibility to evaluate the app. Most of the Atlassian store vendors offer a fully functional trial license. You have 30 days to test the plugin on your test instances (so that you don’t have to do risky experiments on the production instances).
Evaluate support service provided by the vendor
You can contact a support team through email or Service Desk to see how fast they answer and how their assistance process works. A good support agent should:
- provide you with comprehensive information,
- communicate in a “human” way (so that you won’t have a feeling that you’re talking with a bot),
- try to build a relationship with you,
- show interest in your experience with the product,
- be open to receive new features’ suggestions.
Ask Atlassian Community and your local solution partner
The Atlassian Community is huge (it has grown from zero users to three million in three years) and gathers the users who want to help each other. You can search there for apps’ reviews and case studies using keywords, post your question about the add-on, or start a discussion.
Gal Fatal, DevOps team manager in HP and Tel-Aviv Atlassian User Group leader, recommends engaging with a local community as well. You can talk about the solution you need with a local Solution Partner. They can help you with everything from the license management, through complete implementation of the Atlassian products and apps, up to different integrations and migrations. The Solution Partner is also able to create a custom plugin for you if there’s no solution on the Marketplace that meets your needs or requirements.
Join Atlassian Community Events
Gal Fatal also encourages to check if there’s an Atlassian Community Event (the name has recently changed from Atlassian User Group) in your city and join one of their meetings. This way you’ll gain more information about Atlassian products and Marketplace apps, as well as have a chance to ask your questions. All attendees of ACEs are happy to share their knowledge.
Meet vendors at the events like the Atlassian Summit
Live events are perfect occasions to talk with vendors about your business needs and schedule product sessions. Atlassian host the Summit once a year (you can already check the Summit 2020 page), and in 2019 a new event series has also started, called Atlassian Open. Visit the local partners’ websites as well, because they organize own events in their countries. And definitely don’t miss Jira Day – the largest Atlassian conference in Central Europe, which will take place from May 27th to 28th 2020 in Poland.
There is a plugin for that
Our journey through the Jira Marketplace comes to the end, but your adventure with the apps just begins! Please don’t rush though. Take your time to check if any apps that you have can’t meet your needs. If the answer is “no”, write down the requirements you have toward the future plugin and start browsing the Atlassian store. Enjoy your trip!
We're Atlassian Platinum Solution Partner Enterprise and Platinum Top Vendor in the Ecosystem. We’ve been working hard on helping improve Jira Software and Service Desk by adding useful functionalities for over 5000 teams around the world. We’re developing apps on the Atlassian Marketplace, providing expert services and sharing knowledge on the subject with useful tutorials and guides. Check our other articles in the Community:
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Alina Urbaniak [Deviniti]
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