Step 1: Ask a Collaboratory Question

[Giovani Spagnolo]

What is the best approach to use Confluence to document a never-before documented software project? Which steps should be taken before using Confluence or how to use Confluence for the preparatory phase?

[Giovanni Schiano-Moriello]

What small steps can you take to promote a culture of frequent team communication and relationship building in a fully remote working environment when you are new to the organization?

[Dy Fortea]

I am working with cross functional teams. Is there a way for me to see a consolidated view of the different scrum team sprint so I can have a single report that I can share to my stakeholders? Can EazyBI do this? 

[Gerda Grantiņa]

Hi @Dy Fortea

Yes, it is possible to have a consolidated view of different scrum team sprints in one report using eazyBI.

Here is an example report that shows sprints grouped based on a name pattern.
The report uses a custom hierarchy in a sprint dimension based on the imported property - "Cycle": https://eazybi.com/accounts/22010/cubes/Issues/reports/725640-sprints-by-sprint-name-balance

This eazyBI community post contains the full information and the REST API import definition for this example. The import will update data automatically based on sprints created in Jira.
The training video goes in more depth on how to use additional data import for creating custom hierarchies.

Best, 
Gerda // support@eazyBI.com

[Patty Land]

When working with an ecosystem of integrated tools, with some considerable overlap of functions/capabilities across them, what is the best way to effectively train users to leverage them together at scale?

Flexibility is good for the user experience of intermediate and expert users, but it comes at the cost of complexity and risk at scale. From an organizational standpoint, standardization and governance can provide efficiencies, clarity of purpose, and a better user experience for novices.

Integrating organizational tools with Jira and Confluence allows for synergies and an expansion of capabilities, while reducing error; however, when teams can complete like activities (such as tracking requirements or updating status) in multiple tools, training users on effective usage of the tools becomes gray and muddy. Sometimes, having too much choice is frustrating.

What's the best approach to take to train users to use an ecosystem of tools (Jira, Confluence, and a suite of integrated tools) for what they're best at?

[Michiel Schuijer]

Hi, this sounds very familiar to our organization's situation where we also have overlap with multiple systems with like capabilities and integration with systems/services that also have similar features.

I think the short answer is: there is no best way.

TL;DR

The way I see it:

Because each company has their own unique setup it will require a unique approach each time as well to deal with things like this.

Decisions should be made by a group of people who are able to see the big picture and can make clever choices to select which tools are the starting point, which restrictions you may want to impose on changes / additions, what terms and tools should be leading and document this somewhere clearly and have it available readily and use it as training material (reference).

It is possible to create trainings that highlight the use of individual tools and during this show the bridging between other tools and gradually move on to the next tool.

For example, I have created a Jira training which consists of a basic and advanced part where I first focus on getting people trained on the basic information about Jira and why we use it and then gradually explain how to use the interface and many of its (basic) features.

In the advanced part I highlight the many other possibilities and the integration with our Confluence and use of add-ons to expand into other tools and possible overlap.

For Confluence I made a similar training, with the same basic and advanced parts.

The thing I am currently still missing is training material focusing on other such tools and possible integrations and a mandate from management to make this a standard (mandatory) on-boarding continuation. Currently our on-boarding process does not include this and I think that is a missed opportunity.

Spending some more time for each employee starting new or working longer already but wanting to know more about the tools and the interoperability of them will pay itself back imho. Having a sort of pipeline of tools example in place to show the various processes from start to end and back will make people understand not only how to use the tools but also why we use them and may make them more enthusiastic about the tools in place, which in turn could create higher levels of productivity and satisfaction.

[Rik de Valk]

Hi @Patty Land , this is a great question! One of the big dilemma's large organizations often face is the 'autonomy versus alignment challenge'. On one hand you want to give teams as much autonomy as possible, so that they can learn what works best for them. Let them experiment, fail, improve.

On the other hand, large organizations need to have some level of alignment. Standardization can help in areas such as cross-team collaboration and portfolio insight. But it can also actually benefit usability. Because with standardization it becomes very predictable how things work. People do not have to learn how things work when they interact with other teams or domains.

When it comes to knowledge management it can even be more important to standardize tool usage. The reason here is hat a critical success factor here is 'how easy it is to find information'. And if information is scattered all over the place, this will be very challenging unless you have a brilliant enterprise search solution.

Anyway... In my opinion it is good to work with an architecture that determines which capability to support with what solution. There should always be room to deviate from that architecture standard, as long as the organization makes a well-informed decision about that (being aware of the disadvantages).

[Jean LeMay]

Confluence is the best place for our separate practice areas to understand and define where our work intersects and where we can learn from each others' processes to improve our own when working together.

[Marta Woźniak-Semeniuk]

In a remote-first environment, how can you promote more collaboration and better relationship building?