Atlas Updates in Confluence

[Lauren Cooper]

How I use it now

People don't always want weekly update emails, but instead want to drop in when they want (and with minimal searching) so I thought I'd put links into a Confluence page that they could click on whenever they want to look into Atlas.

At first I used a link from a Topic/Tag, but I realised this gave me everything including Completed ones.

So then I went to Projects and filtered by Tag and Status.

Then I copied the url from the address bar, added a link to my Confluence page, and pasted the link.

Then I changed the link option to Embed.

So I get this view...

If there are specific important projects I add a separate link for the project and use the Embed option to see the latest update:

How I would like it to work

I would really like to be able to have the latest Atlas update show in a field in Jira so I could see it against the project issue (we use a central project with summary cards to represent each project we do).

I would also like a status and due date change in Jira to trigger an update in Atlas, but that is a dream!

[Josh Devenny]

Hi @Lauren Cooper - thanks for raising your feedback with such detail - super helpful!

I think what you're asking is already possible. There's an Atlas <> Jira Software integration that you can use to:

• Connect an Atlas Project to a Jira Software Epic
• Keep the summaries, due dates, and labels/tags in sync automatically
• Show the latest status update on the Jira Software Epic.

You can see how this works here.

You can install the integration here.

The key thing here is that the issues have to be Epics, currently they can't be of any other type.

Hope that helps - let me know if it doesn't!

Josh

[Lauren Cooper]

Hi @Josh Devenny 

I was confused at first because we already have that integration installed.

Then as I read on I see it is because we don't use Epics for projects (we manage our projects through a "Project Central" model with a custom issue type to represent each project). So I don't think it will be possible.

It would be really great if all issue types could be used to sync on. Do you know if this is likely to ever be available?

Thanks, Lauren

[Josh Devenny]

Hi @Lauren Cooper - yeah we've discussed how we might do this in the future. What is your issue type called? Is it a "Project" issue type?

One thing we have to balance is that we think it's valuable to have all issue types connected to Atlas, so want to be a little bit more specific on which ones we choose. Today we support Epics, and in future might support Initiatives. Your use case isn't the first time I've heard that people use a Jira Project to track Projects, so would love to know more.

(CC @Rachel Lin

Thanks!

[Lauren Cooper]

Hi @[deleted] - yes, it is a "Project" issue type.

Very happy to answer any more questions.

OK, it makes sense you would want to limit the issue types.

I would really like to rollout Atlas to our users. Currently I am running it on my own by manually copying updates people make in Jira and pasting them in to each project! There is a reluctance for people to take on another tool without seeing the benefits, and I guess whilst we have to keep Jira and Atlas in sync manually it isn't really an easy thing to sell.

In the meantime, depending on the timescales you are looking at for "Project" issues, I will look at how tricky it would be to create a shadow project with Epics that mirror our "Project" issues that can be linked to Atlas. The more I think about it now the more complex I can already see it will be, but it's worth a small test.

Thanks for all your help.

[Josh Devenny]

@Lauren Cooper - what's holding you back from turning off "Project Central" in Jira and switching over to Atlas?

It's funny you say that phrase. Atlas started as "Project Central" internally at Atlassian. It was modelled as a Jira project, just as you have. Then it changed to "Team Central" and we built the first version of Atlas. Now we have moved off the Jira solution completely.

Curious what's blocking you to do that :)

[Lauren Cooper]

@Josh Devenny we use our Project Central board as a workflow for our process from concept through approval to delivery and then closure. There are approvals controlled by finance and restrictions over change of status.

Not sure how we could do that in Atlas, but open to suggestions. :)

[Josh Devenny]

Ah, thanks for sharing that. That is more complexity than we intend on adding to Atlas. Rather than duplicating Jira's workflow/approvals/restrictions systems, I think the best thing here is for us to consider how Atlas might support syncing a Project issue type to an Atlas Project (as we've already discussed).

That way you get the power of Jira's workflow with the power and simplicity of Atlas's status and comms loops.

This is great for our discussions internally, thanks for the info. I've passed this thread onto Rachel (mentioned her above) who's thinking through the connection with Jira.

[Matthew McGarity]

I'll throw my hat into the ring for "supporting multiple issue types." Here's our use case, which I've discussed a bit with @Rachel Lin

We are using Atlas for release tracking:

• 1 Atlas Goal per release
• 1 child Atlas Projects per major feature
• 1 Epic per major feature, each synced to an Atlas Project

However, we sometimes have work that doesn't rise to the definition of an epic (think individual stories) which the business requires greater visibility to.  While I can easily create new Atlas Projects to represent these, because they're not Stories not Epics, I cannot sync details.  

[Matthew McGarity]

@Lauren Cooper Regarding Confluence, you mentioned embedding a topic would show completed projects. If you archive the projects after completing them, they won't appear in that embed.  For us, this is useful as the topic embed shows so much more information than the projects embed (ex: timeline, latest update).

[Lauren Cooper]

Hi @Matthew McGarity thanks for your reply.

We don't generally archive in Jira because it affects our reporting, but it would be a real possibility in Atlas, so I will start archiving now! :) I will also check out the topic embed.

Thanks, Lauren

[Lauren Cooper]

@Matthew McGarity all working well now, thanks.

And another benefit of topic embed is that it automatically puts them in due date order (unlike project embed which ignores the sort even if in the url).