Converting your team to a new tool!

[Ashlea Shaw]

Hey all,

With the introduction of Confluence's whiteboard feature, I am interested in hearing how people changed the behaviour of their colleagues; moving them away from other digital whiteboards to the Confluence Whiteboard - which is super handy to keep everything in one place. 

[Tim_Sullivan]

Unfortunately, our migration to Confluence Whiteboards has been rather disappointing.  The main issue is the lack of a Table feature so that we can use the feature as a sprint planning/monitoring tool. We migrated to be more under one roof with our tools, but now I am sorry we did. Hopefully the Confluence whiteboard will begin to add features to make it more usable.

[Robert Hean]

Hey Tim - would be curious to learn more about the issue you're facing.

It is possible to create a table-like view using the various shapes (or pull in links to Jira tickets as cards).  It's not a table like we are on a Page but can visually approximate it. (There may even be a template with something similar?)

[Tim_Sullivan]

Robert, thanks for the suggestion, but I have tried what you suggest.

I have used various shapes to crate a 'table'.  We use it with a column for Jira cards, a column for each day of the sprint, and a column for 'done' to drag tasks and story cards when the go to done. In this table, I have to be careful not to drag the square if I miss where I click (or remember to lock part of the 'table').

In a true table, I can create a new row with one click. In this 'table', I have to paste 12 boxes and make sure all the alignment is correct.

As we move through the sprint, we used to be able to drag the Jira card column to the current day of the sprint to evaluate if we were behind or not (tasks to the left not completed). 

I also looked for templates, and tried several, but nothing was close to what we need.

Thanks

[Adam Wicks]

We aren't migrating - as a loyal customer with over 200 users on the standard licensing, the license structure for whiteboards, frankly, sucks.   The "last three active boards" without any means to determine which boards you can use and which are read only is a complete showstopper for us, for what otherwise seems to be a pretty useful tool.

Until Atlassian update the approach to this we won't be using it. 

[Robert Hean]

Adam - that does sound frustrating (at best).  I would have hoped it would atleast make it easy to tell which whiteboards are 'active' :/

Curious if you rely on users to avoid it, or actively disabled Whiteboards?

[Adam Wicks]

Hi Robert - if I can find the button to disable it, I'll do that. It's being pushed far too much within the tool to entice usage and then tripping users up when they run into the three whiteboard limit. 

[Adam Wicks]

This would appear to be another frustrating love Atlassian/Hate Atlassian development!  

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/CONFCLOUD-76287

You can't push a tool which has this level of restriction and not provide the means to disable it...

[Frode Nilsen]

Yeah, we started using this nice tool company wide during the beta period.

Then we were downgraded to the same plan as Free users (we are on Standard), without any grace period or tooling to selectively disable boards our-self.

Now looking into FigJam.

We were also looking into the new Database tool, which we found a bit cool. But have disallowed any further use of that until license policies are clear.

[Robert Hean]

@Adam Wicks you should be able to disable Whiteboards (or Databases) at the space level... unfortunately there isn't an option (that I can find) to disable at the Instance level :/ (although I wonder if a support ticket could do that?)

[Robert Hean]

Hey Ashlea - for context I'm on Premium, so I don't run into the limits mentioned in the thread.

I've found it useful for a few purposes :

1. System diagrams
2. Process mapping
3. Organizing my own thoughts

The biggest win for me is that they're in the hierarchy with other related information. Prior to this I was stuck copying in a diagram to a page... Not the end of the world, but a headache to update and manage.

Everyone having a vess is another big plus for me... Prior to this only a small group had access to our old tool, making me the gatekeeper :/

There are a number of quality of life features I find are missing (esp when compared to more mature products), but given its in Confluence and does ~80% of what I need it's been a good shift. 

[Karine VANEL]

On our side, we are going there gradually and although the new functionality covers 80% of the needs. For some users, the remaining 20% ​​remains blocking.
So for the moment, I communicate and support users:
- on the target by explaining clearly that there will be no migration from our old tool to the new one
- on the monthly new features: to clearly show that the tool evolves regularly and by reporting the features expected by users
- 2 hours support sessions in small groups to known and use the features. They are generally surprised to see all the features because they have preconceived ideas. 
- I created lot new templates because compared to a mature tool, some are missing (I currently reach + 50)

[Robert Hean]

@Karine VANEL - I love that you're hosting support sessions... many times I find tools like this (or any other tool) are just flipped on and folks are expected to figure it out... some do, but many suffer.

Do you get good attendance/results from them?

[Cas Renooij]

I'm curious about that too. Good question!