3 years as a Cloud admin and I just learned this lesson

[Chris Thomas]

Jira cloud seems to change without notice sometimes.

I've learned:

"I don't know how anything in Jira works, I only know how it worked last time I tried it."

Anyone else have a similar experience?

[Clay Davis]

I totally agree...I've only been an admin since November of 2021, but I'm learning that lesson as well.  Before I do a training session or walk through with a new department, I spend about 30-45 minutes making sure that what I "think I'm going to show them" is actually how it is still done (grin)

[Bill]

You aren't alone. We've complained about this to our rep on numerous occasions. 

[Shawna Schnorr]

Yes, for sure.  I used to get emails from atlassian of the changes, but now it seems like anything, anytime.

[Susanne Harelius]

I wanted to get the updates as an RSS stream so we can share them in a slack channel. But no. I need to subscribe somewhere to get them. And then I need to share them with our users manually... 

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Yeah, it's frustrating that most of the DC products all have RSS feeds, but Cloud has only https://confluence.atlassian.com/cloud/blog (which would be a doddle to turn into RSS feeds)

[Leonard Hussey]

Yes.

And: changes "released" means I'll get them in 6-8 weeks. Despite documentation saying it works already. 

[Anne Saunders]

I'm on the other end - I almost always get the email about the new features that are on a phased rollout a day or two after I notice the features.

[Greg Annen]

This is has been my exact experience with Jira, as well as several other cloud platforms. But it's probably a two-way street. Vendors probably follow release management best practices where they communicate changes and new features, but does anyone really read the release notes and digest the content in the context of their own instance?

[Leonard Hussey]

Not if you have your instance running as you like it. But if you are hoping for something to cover a gap you have (so many variations and flexibility, gaps can be huge or small as per your needs), then you check the releases every other minute :)

[Karri Adkins]

Yes.  I would say this is one topic that is totally consistent across all users and/or admins using Jira / Confluence.  Even more true is once you get to know an app/feature, and you know it well, it changes.....making you then look incompetent to your own user base.

[Aaron Geister]

You can change the release schedule for your site. I have ours to be on release and so I get the latest changes right away and can jump on and configure them. This is sometimes a big surprise when I get to work but it helps me to get on the horn right way.

[Tom G]

I have experienced it as well.  I have tried to follow the what 's changed in Jira.  To see what's new and figure out what might be changing. 

[Marc - Devoteam]

Hi all

Within Atlassian Administration you are able to change Release tracks on your instance.

Release tracks determine when you and your users get changes and new features for Jira Software, Jira Service Management, and Confluence.

1. Continuous
   
   Products receive changes and features as soon as they become available. Products are on the continuous release track by default.
   
   All changes made by Atlassian
   
   
2. Bundled
   
   Products receive changes as a group on the second Tuesday of each month.
   
   Visible changes that require people to adjust the way they are working, but do not cause significant impact to the organization. For example:
   
   - moving a button
   - a new task the user needs to complete
   - a new setting
   - a new step in a Jira workflow

There are visible changes that aren’t included in the bundled track because they roll out over a longer period of time

[Haddon Fisher]

This is definitely a constant source of low-level anxiety for me whenever I have to manage a Cloud environment. Emails, the "what's new" list, and "release tracks" are great attempts to message out, but I do feel like there's just too much changing too quickly in too big a pool for me to keep up with in anything approaching an effective manner.

However, I must say it does feel like there's been some improvements here. I still remember the day they rolled out the enforced pagination without giving even their partners a heads up...so...hooray for not doing that anymore 🤷

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

This is common across all SaaS platforms, frequent upgrades and improvements are quite a big selling point for most of them!  It's a shame when those choosing to adopt them don't tell the admins to expect it!

[Maksim_Feshchanka]

Agree with you, Chris!

+1 from me here)

[Mike Aaron]

I find this to be most applicable to Jira Cloud.  Updates are deployed by Atlassian to the Cloud products based on their product roadmap. Self-hosted instances that I've administered are more static and predictable. 

[Chris Thomas]

I don't know how true it is with Jira, but I have seen server programs left for years without updates. It seems it's a Pick you Poison type thing.

[Anne Saunders]

Yeah - It's nice to know the team behind the product we're using still has a growth mindset. Definitely preferable to some of our other SaaS providers.

[John Funk]

I don't think any Jira Cloud Admin has NOT experienced this. It's a part of living in the cloud. Be sure to keep up with the weekly blog that shows the rollouts.