Perspective of a Jira Admin with Atlassian

[Dan Breyen]

Hey everyone, trying to stay positive but looking for some feedback from my peers.  Hoping this post doesn't get me in trouble.  I'm challenged to word this in a positive manner and keeping my head up. The big question on my mind at this current time regarding Jira/JSM/Confluence is how everyone handles issues reported to Atlassian and the challenges of getting them fixed in a timely manner.  

Granted, I've only been using Jira/JSM/Confluence in the cloud for 6 months, but about 1/2 of the issues that I've ran into and are affecting me have been issues for several years.  I've voted for them, and am watching them, but what else can be done? 

B+

Thanks.

[Darquise Leblanc]

I think it's a valid question! However, I don't have the answer. We've only used jira cloud for about a year now. Would love to hear other feedback as well.

[Kalin U]

It's indeed a great question. There are features that are simply not present on Cloud yet or just different from Server / Data Center and one can only do as much as vote and watch issues in the public tracker.

Publicly blogging, tweeting or otherwise "shouting" our frustration out - unless it's security-related, will do very little. You always have the opportunity to ask Atlassian support to give you workarounds, or look for solutions on the Marketplace...

I'm too interested in other admins' experiences and thoughts.

[Haddon Fisher]

My perspective is probably a bit jaded now but...

1. Don't expect anything from Atlassian. Their track record on getting things people actually ask for out the door is....uh...not so good.
2. Instead (and if you can afford it) look for add-ons. Most of these vendors are very responsive and within the bounds of the platform can still make a lot of magic happen.
3. Be noisy to Support. Atlassian has always had an on\off relationship with Jira.atlassian.com, but recently shut off the ability for non-employees to make tickets, so the only way to engage there is commenting. I know they do look at the comments and votes, so it is worth it to do it, but I wouldn't expect much engagement there. Support on the other hand (unfortunately for them) sort of has to respond. They can't do much beyond pass your feedback along to Product, but I have had people in Product reach out to follow up on feedback this way, so at least a portion of them are listening.
4. Participate in the research interviews. They take some up time but this is the least ineffective way I've found to raise awareness on things.

[Dave Ness]

but recently shut off the ability for non-employees to make tickets

I was unaware of this. This is...unfortunate.

[Kalin U]

I fully agree with you on 2, 3 and 4.

[Dave Ness]

This by far is the most frustrating aspect of using/administering Atlassian products. To me, it's especially frustrating when you're waiting for a (rather large) issue to be addressed, and then Atlassian announces new features that the community didn't seem to need or ask for.

Don't get me wrong, I love the Atlassian suite, but sometimes one broken (and perennially unfixed) feature is enough to drive me to other competing products.

[Leonard Hussey]

My own experience with Jira is ~ 1.5y -- all of it with Jira Cloud.

But still, in that short time, I've managed to be baffled more than once when I see improvements being released that feel like minor cosmetic changes with few votes while there are other painful topics with huge vote count that remain in GATHERING INTEREST for years on years.... to the point that older Jira Server related tickets get forked/cloned into Jira Cloud related tickets for the same issue as it is a pain on both sides... and BOTH tickets have high vote count.... but still on GATHERING INTEREST state

[James Scott]

When we first transitioned (from ServiceNow), I had to do a lot of creative solutioning.  I don't want to say that's always the fix, but sometimes you have to really think outside the box, especially if you're used to a different platform.  The means to get to the end just might not be exactly what you're looking for, but you get the desired result nonetheless.  I've also had success with using Atlassian Support on some things, and then of course, leaning on our implementation partner (Expium).  I really think if you can get creative with workflows, automation, post functions, etc, you can accomplish most things you're looking to perform.  Don't forget about add-ons from the marketplace also, they're typically cost effective and not cost-prohibitive.

[Sarah Elmer]

After being on Atlassian for 14 years I've found the following:

1) If it's an outage or major degradation of service, they are quick to address. The key to this is to have examples (screen shots, etc) to back up your concern. The more reports of the same issue, the quicker the response.

2) If it's a new feature that is not conducive to the clients needs, a ticket will be started "to look into it". These tickets can be upvoted by users which is supposed to let them know the popularity of the issue. Now, does it mean that a change will be made? Of course not. The majority of the issues are completely ignored. A few times, due to the number of up votes received, an issue has been addressed, but for the most part they are ignored.

When Atlassian was firing off updates on a weekly basis (very piece-milled and very little instructions on use of new methods) there was a ton of "WTH" issues created because we could no longer use the software (especially Confluence) in a way needed. Most of these were never addressed. 

The bottom line is, if it will work "in their mind" to further the projected usage, it will be done. If it doesn't, it won't. If it deals with degradation of service, they will act. 

[Sue Wilson]

I agree with many of the comments above. 

I worked on Atlassian server products for over a decade.  A lot could be done and add-ons made everything even more powerful. 

Over the last year and a half, I moved to an organization that uses Atlassian Cloud.  I learned quickly not to make assumptions that requests could be completed with configuration I used to be able to implement in my server days because Cloud is much more limited. 

Yes, add-ons will help here as well, but I've also run into limitations where an add-on can only perform so much based on the Cloud limitations. 

I am watching several specific Atlassian tickets that have been open for 3 or more years to see if a fix will ever be implemented. 

In the meantime, I can only search for add-ons that will alleviate some, if not all, user requests OR simply say it is not doable due to Cloud limitations and try to offer workarounds or alternative solutions.

[Lewis Cook]

Hi,

 Been a Jira admin for about 9+ years. Initially server and now cloud.

Vote watch and comment as far as I know are your only options... I've not really seen any of it make a huge difference unfortunately. :(

Some of the issues I've encountered have been raised and "Gathering Interest" for over a decade! Often these don't seem trivial to fix, or may be what you would consider core excepted functionality. E.G. The lack of an outgoing email audit log for the service desk, the existence of a specific permission for release management in a software project (currently you need to give project admin permission), the ability to filter by @ mentions...

It often feels like Atlassian are more interested in rolling out additional functionality than fixing their existing issues. Particularly when it comes to paid content. The flip side also being that there are often add-ons which will plug the gap/issue/bug which is useful if you have an organisation willing to fork out the $$'s or are able to justify the cost.

Even new functionality isn't exempt from these issues, using the Change Calendar as an example it's a great feature that certainly seemed to plug a gap of providing the ability to visually see your Change processes tickets. However it's somewhat poorly implemented, requires services to be setup, lacks some obvious filtering or colouring options (to define Standard vs Emergency change) and as far as I am aware is still not enabled on a Company managed project - it was announced in 2021!

However overall I think I probably fall into a fairly large category of admins/companies that we have so much already setup in Jira that the concept of changing to another product that may have better (and more timely) support is quite painful and a huge time/project overhead that we simply can't afford. So we rumble on and grumble about it and work around the issues...

As you can see from a jaded Jira admin you aren't wrong that it's difficult to word it positively.

I often describe Jira like a swiss army knife... except it only comes with the scissors and bottle opener, knife and you need to pay for everything else! From what I have heard/seen it is a nice product in that it's very configurable and you can create some complex processes via automation etc. I have limited experience of administering other tools so perhaps its a "the grass in greener on the other side" situation? Might be interesting to hear from others who have been admins of other tools and had worse situations that Jira/Atlassian. 

[Kimberly Anderson]

I share your frustration.  My experience has been that with every ticket I open, they ask for info that was originally provided in the initial request, or information on my account that I expect them to already have.  In every ticket, I found my answer before they finished asking repetitive questions that seem to be asked just to stall providing help.  I have never had a ticket resolved by Atlassian.

[Anne Saunders]

I've had stellar experience with Jira Support for actual break/fix in our instance, and degradation of service complaint resolution has been great.

For requested modifications, standardizations, or other improvements to the interface / performance...not so much. I have several votes out on issues that are ANCIENT (10+ years in some cases.) 

Two things you can do are:

1. post here on the Community with issues you're concerned about or looking for workarounds on, with a link to the issue. This may get you workflow or workarounds you were unaware of, and it will encourage those who interact with it to also review and vote for the issue.
2. Exhort your colleagues to vote and watch and share. I ask my devs and other teammates to do it all the time - you gotta pump those numbers up! I can only point to one case where I thinkit mattered, and the speed of the implementation on Atlassian's side leads me to believe it had already been in development. 

[Karin van Driel]

I've been a Jira and Confluence admin for at least 16 years, initially on Server, followed by Cloud. As we were on Server for such a long time and the organisation was reluctant to spend time and effort on upgrades, I've been super happy the last few years, since we upgraded to the latest version of Server and then proceeded to move to Cloud. I can do so much now that wasn't possible previously! So whilst I definitely understand the frustration of seeing something that isn't working as you would like it to and wanting to get that addressed, I'm still in the headspace of being starry eyed about all the shiny new (to us) functionality that we have found super useful.
Do I agree that Atlassian Product Managers could be more involved in the community and keep tickets updated more regularly? Yes. But a lot of these tickets are for functionality that is new or fulfills a need currently not supported. If you look at the number of votes on tickets and then realise that Jira alone has over 25 million users, that puts things into perspective a little as well I think. 

I find that if something is truly not working as it should, we get a good response. Support is trying to help. I do find that sometimes it takes me a few back and forths before we are on the same page and that can be frustrating.

If you work for a large organisation with an Enterprise account, you may also find that reaching out though your account manager might be beneficial in getting you in touch with the correct people. Be sure to subscribe to updates and engage with those posting the updates, as it leads to them learning about different use cases.

I agree with a lot of comments here, sometimes it can be very frustrating to be an Atlassian admin, if you feel you are not being listened to. On the other hand, Jira especially is such a configurable tool, fitting so many different use cases that it is hard to keep everyone happy. 

My suggestion is to use Google to find what others have done to resolve the issue you are facing. Think outside of the box. Automation is amazing and can help fill so many gaps. There are also some amazing apps out there that enhance your experience, Scriptrunner being one of my favourites; try them out and see what fits. The tools are fabulous, but they do not fit every use case out of the box and part of the fun of being a Jira Admin is to find a solution for a problem using your knowledge of what is available in a way it might not have been intended to be used :)

Keep making suggestions and asking questions, it helped in getting Jira from being a basic bug tracking tool and Confluence from being a basic wiki to the amazing tools they are today and I'm sure they will continue to grow and improve!

[Kalin U]

@Karin van Driel , I couldn't agree more with you on this one:

part of the fun of being a Jira Admin is to find a solution for a problem using your knowledge of what is available in a way it might not have been intended to be used :)

[Rohit]

This is a common challenge across. I can be wrong, but these steps will definitely help

1. Most of the things that we would need in a simplified manner, would not be possible on Jira. For that, mostly we would be asked to use Third Party plugins, which would definitely come at a cost. Sometimes, cost is too high even though we would not be using all the features of plugins

2. It so happens that we tend to look at larger problem and forget to take tiny steps towards addressing the same. I realised that the groups on this community tend to share brilliant ideas which can be reused for our own benefit. Trust me, this has given me lot of time to work on Automation & setup restrictions/conditions to pull the information in the way it.

Finally suggest this - start sharing the problems that you are facing, you never know there can be a simpler solution from some of the brilliant folks on the community.

[Stefano Vidonis]

I think the best solution is to use ATLASSIAN products as is, without special configurations as much as possible. As concerned errors-corrections I totally agree with the comments and think Atlassian is not listening their customers. Maybe has grown too big? maybe too many "strange" apps (Atlas, Compass, Align) is stealing capacity?

[Dwight Holman]

Our journey started with Jira Server in 2013 - now approaching our 10 year anniversary. Over that time I've logged quite a few tickets - like others feel a little jaded by the process.

The Question

The big question on my mind ... is how everyone handles issues reported to Atlassian and the challenges of getting them fixed in a timely manner.

For actual product defects and improvements it is not possible to 'get them fixed in a timely manner' - excepting the special cases others have shared (critical bugs, security issues, or mobile related!?). Atlassian are working to their own set of priorities and do not respond 'in a timely manner' to customer requests; unless perhaps you are a massive customer that can exert some real pressure.

Perplexingly Atlassian seem to ignore JAC tickets (https://jira.atlassian.com) with *hundreds* of votes, but implement ones that have few (or no) votes.

Expectations

Not to be discouraging, but for me a quick turn-around from Atlassian would be less than one year. It helps to align your expectations with reality.

Practical advice

Refer to the documentation AND search Community for relevant discussion before logging a support requests.

Questions: If you can solve (or work-around) an issue yourself, this is usually the fastest approach. If you want to ask a question or for assistance this usually helps clarify your question. If there is a solution or workaround - Atlassian can usually help you within a week. Sometimes it turns into a JAC ticket and you can vote for it :-\

Bugs: When you have found a defect, check for existing tickets in JAC. If there is no existing ticket, describe the problem clearly; Using the form below has worked for me:

• Summary (context, environment, etc)
• Steps to produce
• Expected result
• Actual result

Suggestions: Check for existing suggestions in JAC before you start. If you can find the idea there already, best to vote for it and wait (pray if that's what you're into).

Workshops: I have taken part in some feature workshops - to give user feedback on changes in development. This is a good idea if you have the time. But have seen features that remained 'in development' for months after this stage.

Once your ticket has been added to JAC (or you've voted for an existing one), you should focus on other tasks/projects while you are waiting.

[Keith Jones]

Like so many companies, Atlassian seems to be focused on bringing out new toys (products) to grab more market share and present a more robust product that their competitors. While leaving a skeleton crew to address the core product that enabled them to get this far. They are not unique in doing this.

One problem that I see with all of the older items in jira.atlassian.com is that they start to get quite a bit of drift from people adding their own twist to the request. (" I need something like this, but I want it to do *this* instead, using *that* field). Makes for a muddled request over time. We can help prevent that by putting in our own requests if they differ from the OP.

For the requests that have been out there for many years now, I suggest we start having anniversary parties in the thread - Maybe it will highlight the backlogged items that have vague promises of "we are working on that" stretching back over quite a few years. 

[Karin van Driel]

Unfortunately lately this is an issue of Atlassian's own making. When raising an issue with Support, they often try to tie it to a somewhat similar but not quite the same ticket, rather than putting in a new one. We can no longer raise directly ourselves, it now needs to go through support, so they are the gatekeepers now.

[Lewis Cook]

Whilst you are correct about additional asks "diluting" the focus of the original request I have also seen the opposite where there is a pretty clear use case or request and what's delivered simply isn't sufficient to that request.

I've seen the suggestion of having "birthday" parties for aged tickets and did initially think it was a great idea. Unfortunately what it'll actually be doing is spamming the hundred of jaded and frustrated jira admins watching the ticket and just adding one more email to the few Atlassian staff members who are watching/assigned the ticket. Especially if we all jump on the bandwagon!!

I guess it could be useful IF someone inside Atlassian is paying attention to update date or volume of comments on tickets...