Say hello and tell us: what's on your desk?

[Prerna Gupta]

hello people!! My name is Prerna and I am a proud Indian, would love to work with this community ☺

[Monique vdB]

Welcome, @Prerna Gupta!

[Riya]

Hello,

[Riya]

Hi 

I would like to keep anything on my desk that says I am a community member of Atlassian.

Because I am using Atlassian products administrator since last 6 years.

I would be part of a community and provide my feedback and I would like to share challenges which I come overcome.

Regards,

Riya

[Erica Moss]

Welcome, @Riya!

[Judy Harris]

Good Morning Atlassian, I'm a Senior Experience Designer and this is my second day looking around Jira and Confluence.  I have used Trello Boards since 2014 and LOVE them so I'm excited to see what Jira is all about.   I have coffee on my desk and the view outside my window is my wooded side yard!

[Marcos Garcia]

Bonjour from Montreal!

I'm Marcos, DevOps Engineer at Sogema Technologies, a company changing the world with meaningful projects in developing nations.

We're currently working on bringing fully automated software technologies to the governments of countries in West Africa and Latin America. It is an honor to work here. 

On my desk: The minimum possible required to get the most work done.

 

[Erica Moss]

Hello, @Marcos Garcia! Glad you're here. 😄

[Stephen Waring]

Hello,

Steve here, I'll be spending most of my quiet time over Christmas sorting out our JIRA install at Global in London!

Cheers,
Steve

[Lars Bachmann]

I am getting confused, Mr. Batman. Thought my boss in somewhere in Schwabolonien in the south of germany.

[Stephen Waring]

One word:  Batmobile :)

[Monique vdB]

Nah nah nah nah nah nah nah nah WELCOME, @Stephen Waring! 

[Erica Moss]

Glad to have you here, @Stephen Waring. 😄

[Stephen Waring]

Thanks! :)

[Gail Welch]

Hello from CT! I am a consultant and I am fortunate to be able to work from home. I develop e-learning materials for a long-time client and cover Jira and Confluence amongst others.

This is my desk!

There is always Tea (I am a displaced Brit!)

When the day gets tough I swivel my chair 45' and stare out the window!

[Monique vdB]

I love your view @Gail Welch! I hope you have some bird feeders out there. :)

[Erica Moss]

Ditto what Monique said about the view! 😍

[Andy - PTC Redundant]

Never mind the view.... THREE screens...! That's...
ⒽⒶⓇⒹⒸⓄⓇ3

@Gail Welch: You should check out check out wide screens... so awesome!
Which brew is making the most appearances... PG tips...? Tetley...? 

[Matt Altieri]

Hey everyone! Matt here, DevOps Evangelist at Device42. When I'm not writing blog posts, documentation, or release notes, I'm working to let IT folks all around the world know about the awesome software our Developers are writing here at HQ in West Haven, Connecticut! (I know, you don't exactly think startup "tech company" when you think Connecticut ... pretty cool, eh!?)

That aside, I love cars (and dogs!), and have been a hands-on tech geek for as long as I can remember. Lots of kids take things apart, so as far as I've heard, but I spent my childhood and younger years taking things apart AND managed to re-assemble them (I'm thinking I got it from my Grandfather on my father's side, who was a self-trained engineer at Sikorsky Aircraft, no formal schooling).

I have always been drawn to things with engines: Anything from rebuilding (and customizing!) lawnmowers and their engines to COX string control and then radio control airplanes and helicopters, to computers to cars and motorcycles as I got older. I'm a really big fan of newer cars [fuel injected, OBD 1+], as at least in my book, there's not much cooler then combining the awesome power of combustion with turbocharging and the equally awesome power of computers to make it all run like it came out of a factory, and stay together, too!

The way I look at it, if you haven't had to re-flash your ECU, your car is stock! :)

On my desk: An ASUS ROG laptop tucked under a pair of 23" monitors, a USB docking station over to the left with a pair of wireless headphones charging from it; To the right, a small shelf with everything from tea and honey to energy drinks to gushers and devil dogs (new: chocolate covered ... they're delectable!). Tissues, cough drops, advil and tylenol, and clorox wipes as well [not a neat freak; just a fan of clean], and of course a lovely "Blue Yeti" Mic for media creation and the like along with a rosewill mechanical keyboard.

Oh, and an empty bottle of Mexican Coca-Cola; I'm not exactly sure why. I guess I really like idea of real coke from a glass bottle. It seems to take itself more seriously than plastic, and think more of itself than a can.

I've been talking about (well, more thinking about than talking) getting a small fish tank for my desk. I'm on the fence, but I've been keeping fish for more than a decade, and my fish seem to live forever (don't overfeed them, and keep tanks clean!).

For the record, I am a big fan of Atlassian software. I've been a JIRA / Confluence user and administrator for quite a while, having used it (and come to really, really like it) over the course of my last few jobs ... it's a long story, but it started when I worked for Yodle in NYC, and I brought it with me to my last office ... it's been with me ever since. I was really pumped when I got here and we were using both JIRA and Confluence, and then really pumped when I found out that we were integrating Device42 with both...!

If you want to know a bit more, you can check my home on the web at http://www.mattaltieri.com -- or of course reply here!

[Monique vdB]

Yay, welcome to the community! I always wanted a desk fish too but didn't want to have to keep it alive. (I loved those ecosystem balls until I found out they were inhumane.) Here was my solution. Her name is Francesca, aka Bubbles.

You may also want to check out the vendor guidelines if you haven't already. We offer the option for vendors to write general interest articles for the community. You're clearly a great writer and I bet you could write some awesome articles :)  

[Erica Moss]

@Matt Altieri Wow, I feel like I know you already! Such a great intro post. With your expertise & passion for Atlassian, you're a great candidate for our Community Champion program — look forward to seeing more of you!

[Matt Altieri]

Nice to meet you both @Monique vdBand @Erica Moss! Glad to be a part of the community ... I should have joined sooner! Oh well, better late than never. 

Thank you both very much for the warm welcome! :)

[Adil Qureshi]

Hi everyone, my name is Adil Qureshi. I'm a researcher at Atlassian, presently working on Confluence. I'm a part of an awesome research team (see pic, I'm on the left) that works to understand what users want from our products and try to make that a reality!! It's great to be part of community which is awesomely managed by @Monique vdB and @Erica Moss.

Fun facts - I have two Bengal cats and a Goldendoodle. 

[Erica Moss]

Welcome, @Adil Qureshi! I think we need a follow-up post with Goldendoodle pics. Just sayin'!

[Monique vdB]

Goldendoodle pictures can be put here for your convenience: https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Off-topic-discussions/Friday-fun-show-us-your-pets/td-p/637317

[Adil Qureshi]

@Monique vdB @Erica Moss I have posted on the pets forum!! 

[Erica Moss]

@Adil Qureshi 😍😍😍

[Rajesh Viswanathan]

beautiful & Cute puppy

[alex ostritsky]

Hi All

Very new to Jira and confluence. The company am I consulting to has decided to implement ITIL processes for their internal IT department (small but growing) and after doing a bunch of research on YouTube decided to try to Jira.  We are all just fumbling around trying to get it set up.  I thought it would be a good idea to join the community to see how others are using this tool and learn from them.

Company is based in GTA (Toronto) and London UK. Hope to learn from all of you.

Cheers 

[MadelineBarr]

Hi Alex,

I am a JIRA Software and Confluence application admin at McMaster University (an hour from Toronto) and we also use ITIL.

Which JIRA application are you using?

We use JIRA Software for the Agile tools, but we also have JIRA Service Desk (I don't admin that system but I am familiar with it). We also have JIRA Software and Confluence 'talking' to each other. 

We are planning on creating our knowledge base in Confluence and connecting it to JIRA Service Desk soon. I will be heavily involved with this and I've done it before in a sandbox environment.

Welcome to the community. 

Madeline

[alex ostritsky]

Hey Madeline

We are using (piloting) Service Desk. Subscription we bought has confluence licenses as well. We are very early on in the project and the pilot and just setting up our projects to see how they work. One question that came up right away is about KB. Is there a standard KB available for traditional desktop support (is computer on ? is your internet up ?) - or are we going to end up writing our own KB for basic stuff ?

[Erica Moss]

Welcome, @alex ostritsky! 👋🏼

[eb_purdys]

Hi! I'm here to gain way more knowledge about JIRA admin capabilities. Nice to see this community in action.

[Erica Moss]

Hi, @eb_purdys — welcome to the party! 😄

[A.]

Hello! Too late to the party? :)

I'm a university student from Italy, I'm also a blogger and productivity apps geek. I'm currently writing my master thesis by day and running a personal blog and I also collaborating with other websites by night. And I have to thank Trello for keeping me sane! :)

Here is a photo of my messy desk.

[Thomas Schlegel]

Hello and welcome to our community,  @Alice - it's never too late for the party 🎉 😄

[A.]

Thank you, @Thomas Schlegel! :)

[Erica Moss]

@Alice Where in Italy? I miss it terribly (and by that I mean I've been there once and am desperate to go back 🙈)).

[A.]

I live near Turin which is in Piedmont (north-west), the less touristic side of Italy but I enjoy it :)

Where have you been @Erica Moss?

[Erica Moss]

@Alice Love it. 🙂 I visited Venice (+ Burano & Murano), Rome, Ravello, Sorrento & Capri. I still daydream about Venice: https://www.instagram.com/p/BTPY3u-DzTl

[Monique vdB]

@Alice we also need to talk about Sherlock -- love the sign and underground map!  Have you visited 221b? Read all the stories? Met Benedict Cumberbatch? 😉

[A.]

Oh nice @Erica Moss! You took the touristic way 😉 try to come here next time, we have mountains! And, not to brag, but Turin is often described as a little Paris!

[A.]

@Monique vdBwhenever you want! I'm a huge fan of Sherlock, I visited 221b but only the shop, not the museum unfortunately. I'm currently half way through the stories (I have the huge Kindle edition with them ALL) and sadly never met Cumberbatch. What about you? 🙂

[Monique vdB]

@Alice also a huge fan! I haven't been to London in decades so have not had the chance yet to visit 221b -- and sadly no Cumberbatch either :)  But it's a great show. I've also been known to read Sherlock fanfiction, but don't tell anyone 🤣

[Erica Moss]

@Alice Had to do some of the basic stuff for our first go-round. 😉

[A.]

@Monique vdBOMG never thought about reading Sherlock fanfiction! Now I have to start... 😉

@Erica Mosstotally get it! I did the same in London a couple of years ago.

[Gergő]

Hi there,

I'm a digital marketer at DevMads Ltd. Our company develops an agile planning tool, called StoriesOnBoard. It's integrated to Trello (and also to JIRA). I'm using Trello and StoriesOnBoard for building up an agile workflow for agile marketing planning and executing. So I'm ready to help you on the following topics: software development solutions and agile marketing solutions.

[Erica Moss]

Glad to have you, @Gergő! 🙂

[Monique vdB]

Some posts spun off into their own threads -- just a reminder that you can now create a new thread to introduce yourself! 

[Tanya Botta]

Hi Group!  My desk is way too messy to post a pic here.  :)

I'm currently studying for my Atlassian Certifications and hope to be active in this community.  I'm located in San Diego, CA.

[Thomas Schlegel]

Hi @Tanya Botta, 

now we want to see your desk even more 😄

Welcome to the community!

[Erica Moss]

I appreciate your candor, @Tanya Botta. 😄 Welcome to the party!

[Marine Lacourie]

Now we want to see how messy a desk can be 😄 

[Volodymyr Havryliuk]

Hello, Community. My name is Volodymyr. I 've been working as Jira and Confluence administrator since August 2015. Now I'm working in L2 Support team as Atlassian Administrator. These days I'm preparing for my Atlassian Certification and studying Java and Groovy. Looking forward getting in touch with you. 

[Erica Moss]

We're glad you're here, @Volodymyr Havryliuk!

[Volodymyr Havryliuk]

@Erica Moss, thank you. So am I.

[Robert Bauer]

Hi. Howdy! Hey.

My name is Robert Bauer and I serve as the Jira and Confluence (cloud version) administrator for Cutomer Facing and Collaborative applications team at a Home Builder. 

Nice to be here.

[Erica Moss]

Glad to have you, @Robert Bauer!

[Robert Bauer]

Thanks. Great to be here.

[Monique vdB]

@Robert Bauer meaning your company builds homes? That's a cool use case for Jira and Confluence!

[Robert Bauer]

Correct, @Monique vdB, the organization for which I work builds and sells homes. We have a great deal of software that supports that process, so we use Jira and Confluence to support our software development.

[Kenya Bravo]

Hola a todos, 

En mi escritorio dos monitores, una libreta para anotaciones, dos bolígrafos, un resaltador y auriculares. Conocí Jira hace un poco mas de dos años, lo use poco en ese entonces, hoy estoy de vuelta para ser administrador de Jira Service Desk, mucho por aprender, pero desde ya me encanta esta herramienta.

Saludos a todos desde Buenos Aires.

[Monique vdB]

Hola! :) 

[Kenya Bravo]

Saludos Monique! buena semana

[Marine Lacourie]

Hi everyone!

I'm happy to join the community! I've been a user for a few years and finally take the time to share with the community.

I'm now based in Singapore where I enjoy living, working as a QA Manager and travelling around. If you come by, let me know :)

On my desk:

• Family photo
• A plant
• Tea (I love good tea!)
• Headphones
• And I used to have a fish, but it died... So now I just keep plants as it scares my colleagues that a new fish could die. I wonder why...😄 

Have a good day!

[Anurag Jalan]

Welcome Marine. I am also working with a financial firm in Singapore with major focus on few of the atlassian products.

[Marine Lacourie]

Nice! Have you joined the Atlassian User Groups meetups before?

[Anurag Jalan]

Not yet. However, I am planning to attend the next one whenever it happens.

[Anurag Jalan]

Have you attended?

[Erica Moss]

Welcome, @Marine Lacourie! Now I want a plant for my desk. 🌱

[Monique vdB]

Welcome @Marine Lacourie! I have a glass fish on my desk that I got in Venice, which I cannot kill.

And I loved Singapore when I visited there a few years ago. I still miss the dragonfruit drink from the Hawker market -- you can't get that here. :(

[Marine Lacourie]

@Anurag Jalan Yes, I attend since last year, and now just became an organiser / leader.

Please join the next one, there are some interesting presentations and it's nice to discuss after the meetup.

@Erica Moss It's sooo nice to have a plant on a desk. If you like nature and plants, you should definitely get one. I've got the one on my desk for 2 years and it's still growing.

@Monique vdB Haha yeah, I should get a glass or plastic fish. Any plan to visit again SEA? I have to admit that food and fresh juices here are amazing 🙂

[Anurag Jalan]

@Marine Lacourie definitely will join next time . Hope to catch eveyone there

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

My desk is a little different today.  I have an "assistant"

[Jodi LeBlanc]

So adorable @Nic Brough -Adaptavist- 🐈 I also love your office, looks amazing 😊

[Thomas Schlegel]

Oh, I also want such an assistant - very nice.

She's taking care of the really hard questions, I think?  :-) 

[Erica Moss]

@Nic Brough -Adaptavist- Seems like a bit of a micromanager.

[Jodi LeBlanc]

@Erica Moss  too funny! 😹

[Monique vdB]

I would say your assistant is very beautiful, but I think that's an inappropriate comment for the workplace. 

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

@Erica Moss- George likes to think she rules the house.

[Jodi LeBlanc]

I love her name, that was my grandmother’s name but everyone called her Georgie 💖

[Meg Holbrook]

I need more Rick and Morty in my workday.

[Leo Diaz DEISER]

Hello everyone!

My desk on my birthday ^_^

[Anurag Jalan]

@Leo Diaz DEISER wowwwwww.....looks amazing

[Thomas Schlegel]

Happy Birthday, @Leo Diaz DEISER !

[Leo Diaz DEISER]

Thanks!! :)

[Erica Moss]

Happy birthday, @Leo Diaz DEISER! Hope it was a great one. 🎉

[Meg Holbrook]

Hey all!

My name is Meg and I am the JIRA system administrator and Business Applications Lead for a midsize mortgage company located in Sacramento, CA. I administer both Cloud and Server products. Some of my other roles include technical/training writing, designing press releases on new features, creating program integrations, and managing our enterprise help desk.

I'm leading the charge for Atlassian products in my organization and am constantly looking for new teams to onboard (five so far!). It's been a bit difficult to connect with the nearest AUG (San Francisco), but I'm excited to see that there's a brand new one in Sacramento even though there are only two members. 

I attended the Atlassian Summit 2017 and had a great time listening to keynotes and meeting vendors. I learned a lot from the admin class I attended as well as the breakout sessions... the snacks were also great ^_^

My goals this year are to find enough time to get around to my admin cert as well as to develop a deeper connection to the Atlassian community. Up to this point, I've been a forum lurker. I would love to find more ways to contribute. 

On my desk:

Plants, coffee cups in various stages of 'caffeine-ation', and more pens than I could ever use in my life.  

[Erica Moss]

Hello and welcome, @Meg Holbrook! I think we all need that mug on our desks. 🙈 I love hearing that you'd like to get more involved in the community — I'll send you a note with some suggestions!

[Erica Moss]

@Meg Holbrook The email I just sent you bounced back to me, so feel free to reach out with any questions! emoss AT atlassian dot com

[Meg Holbrook]

Hey @Erica Moss, for some reason my profile settings are not syncing with my Atlassian account settings. I will email you. 

[Erica Moss]

@Meg Holbrook Great!

[Meg Holbrook]

I relogged and it all seems to be fixed now. 

[Daniel Eads {unmonitored account}]

Hey Meg!

As a user group leader, I connected with your comment about small groups and just wanted to encourage you to bring folks from the teams you've onboarded (and even ones you're trying to convince)! We've had new people attend our AUG and things "clicked" for them after seeing how other companies were using the products. Seeing it in your own environment is definitely awesome, but sometimes seeing generic usage helps people get their minds out of "my own work problems" and just focus on what the tool can do.

Nice to meet you and looking forward to upvoting your answers! :)

[Meg Holbrook]

Thanks Daniel! 

Agree that seeing examples is hugely beneficial. 

[Darrell Sutherland]

Hi folks 

My name is Darrel and I am a systems administrator for Capgemini UK supporting the atlassian tools, jira, confluence, fisheye, bamboo and bitbucket for a major UK Government department... We have a clear desk policy so just the monitors and a pic of my 3 lads keep me focussed throughout the working day.

Glad to meet everyone!

[Erica Moss]

Welcome, @Darrell Sutherland! 👋🏼

[Deleted user]

Hi, I'm Marina. I am working as operations manager at a company for herdbook software and genetic evaluation for livestock in Switzerland. We are using Jira, Confluence and ServiceDesk. One year ago we started to use Tempo Timesheets for timetracking which makes invoicing a lot easier. 

I started implententing Jira in our processes nearly two years ago and meanwhile it would be hard to work without all these great tools. I did most of the administration to fit Jira and helped to set up Confluence spaces. Now most of the administration is done in a small team of three people and I am happy not to do all this on my own.

In my spare time I like being outdoor. I go trailrunning, hiking, kayaking and I've got a passion for riding road bike - and Switzerland is a great country for all of these activities 😉

As you see, I try to keep my desk simple but with some color. Colored notes and my coffee to go cup to keep it warm!

And: today is my birthday - so it's all a little bit relaxed! 🎉

[Anurag Jalan]

@[deleted] Welcome & Happy B'day. Now all we want is party 

[Thomas Schlegel]

@[deleted] - Viele Grüße in die Schweiz und herzlichen Glückwunsch nachträglich zu deinem Geburtstag!

[Erica Moss]

@[deleted] Love the pops of color here! And happy birthday! 🎉

[rajesh dasaratharaman]

Hello All,

Rajesh here from Chennai. Looking forward to Learn Best Practices and Share my thoughts.

[Erica Moss]

@rajesh dasaratharaman Welcome to the party! 😄

[Markus Knoll]

Hi All,

I'm Markus from Germany, Saarland. I start Atlassian 5 years ago als User and go my way to Administrator. We use Confluence, Jira Software and Servicedesk, Stride and Trello. I'm very sad about the out of hipchat.

I'm also look for Best Practices and Share. Help on Problems and join nice People. I was last year in Barca on the European Summit, it was awesome.

So thats all for first time :-)

Markus

[Monique vdB]

@Markus Knoll, wilkommen! Sounds like you are building expertise on many of our products. Maybe a future Community Champion? :) 

[Thomas Schlegel]

Hallo @Markus Knoll,

viele Grüße aus Hamburg ins Saarland und willkommen in der Community!  

[Amy Marley]

G'day All, 

I'm Amy from Perth, Australia, an accountant turned software tester/admin by default type user. Learning how to balance working from home while being a parent!

We currently use Jira, Confluence and Capture and know there are features we can use better or don't use at all. 

I try to keep my desk minimal with just the screens, keyboard, drink bottle and pen/scrap paper but at the moment also have a pile of kid's books to repair on it too. 

Looking forward to moving my desk from next to my bed to outside in its new place... 

[Monique vdB]

G'day, @Amy Marley! Is that a private office? I'm so jealous! We have a garage I sometimes think I could convert to an office, but it's too full of stuff. 🤣

Looks beautiful! 

[Amy Marley]

Thanks @Monique vdB. I hope it to be just private office, but in reality I think it will be an office/storage/kids play-room!! 

[Monique vdB]

@Amy Marley I know what you mean. My daughter has a room and a closet that should be enough to hold her stuff, but somehow we have art supplies and toys and games everywhere! Right now it's a race: will I have time to get organized before she grows up and goes to college? We'll see! The clock is ticking, I only have ten years left! 

[Amy Marley]

My girls are 3 and 1, I hope that clicking clock race isn't over too fast for either of us...but 10 + years... its still a long race! hehehe... good luck!

[Daniel Eads {unmonitored account}]

Woah very cool @Amy Marley and jealous of your potential setup! I just have one girl at 1 who's barred from the basement where my desk is, but it's rather unfortunately directly underneath her usual play area. A separate non-attached space for a desk would be super nice! And looks like you get gobs of sun :)

[Erica Moss]

@Amy Marley That looks WONDERFUL.

[Amy Marley]

Thanks @Daniel Eads {unmonitored account} and @Erica Moss. They definitely get up to lots of discovering mischief at 1, so totally understand the basement restriction! 
Perth gets sunshine for most of the year, even during winter there are still plenty of sunny days...feel lucky cause I'm def a sun lover ...esp after a long stint of computer time!  

[Brad as Paul]

Hi

[Monique vdB]

Hi Paul!