Project updates - standardising template

[Lauren Santarossa]

Is there any way to create a 'custom' template and then it as the default template, so that it can be used by all teams across my orgs Atlas site? 

We want to allow teams to still have freedom and creativity with their updates but still keep them somewhat in a standard format e.g. weekly outcomes, risks, decisions, etc so that people who are following multiple project updates aren't receiving information in too many various formats.

also beneficial as a template to showcase what senior leaders are looking for in the updates e.g. the 'so what'

[Rachel Lin · Accepted solution]

Hi Lauren! Thanks for your suggestion - at the moment, we have a set of pre-defined templates but this is a great idea for our backlog. 

Is there an example of what headings you'd define in a template that are most helpful? And would you just expect 1 template, or want to create many different ones for different teams/depts across your org's Atlas? 

[Kristie Garver]

I would like to see a template that allowed for milestones and those milestones would have update capability. The "so what" from Lauren is a big part of our projects too. Those "so whats" could be broken out in an update and presented as part of the project status that would be great. Maybe a template for the what does success look like and the ability to update on those.

We also use the decisions and risks but there is no indication anywhere that there is something there. I think that would be part of a summary view (at least an indicator to have you click down a level.

I would like to see the decisions section expanded, to allow for when decisions need to be made (so identified) and then the decision.

[Kate]

Hi Rachel,

To sneak in on Lauren's suggestion; my company currently utilises Jira to capture our statuses of large projects (this manner was built prior to Atlas' launch) but I can't tempt them over as Atlas is seen as 'too simplistic' or unable to be modified to our exact needs. 

By being able to create our own templates (or even just modify the ones that already exist), we would be able to get our project leads to provide updates in a uniformed way that would answer the questions that our portfolio teams need to know. 

[Greg Billington]

We would really appreciate being able to define a custom template, we use the traffic light template but want to have 2 or 3 section titles to prompt people to give updates on specific areas.

[Lauren Santarossa]

Thanks for the speedy response Rachel! 

Hmm no particular template specifically, we usually stick with the usual This week/Nxt week focus, and risks/decisions, plus sometimes celebrations worth calling out. 

I think being able to create a customized template that can be set via Atlas admin so a Function sticks to the same template can have a few benefits e.g. shared way of communicating outcomes, celebrating kudos, escalating risks update, but without limiting the creativity side of adding videos, images, charts etc.

We also have a few delivery teams that we'll be looking to ask to share updates via Atlas, however, are not as experienced with sharing progress updates with external audiences to their team or to a senior-level audience... so having some standardised headers we can set within a template might help to showcase the high-level "so what" of the work being delivered (along with sharing all the great Atlassian resources and tips as part of The Loop)