What's New page

[Christopher Tom]

This question is in reference to Atlassian Documentation: What's New

I like the newly condensed page of what's new. What's glaringly missing is the ability to get detailed information about any item. For example, under JIRA Software, it talks about "Parallel Sprints" but fails to provide a link for more information like 1) what are parallel sprints, how to I active a parallel sprint, etc.

This needs to be addressed immediately!

[Rachel Robins]

Hi Christopher and Steven, 

Thanks so much for your feedback (and sorry it has taken me a little while to get back to you, I didn't see this question until this morning).   I'm pleased to hear you like the condensed view of What's New.  

You've probably noticed that we're deploying updates to our Cloud products a lot more frequently these days. Our aim with the simplified What's New page is to provide you with a single source of accurate information that you can check out quickly - without needing to wade through a large amount of content. 

Getting the balance between short, pithy updates and providing a full explanation is a challenge, and in the case of Parallel Sprints, it seems we've haven't got it quite right this time.  I'll pass your feedback on to the rest of the team so we can do better in future. 

A related question for both of you...  Hypothetically, if we were to move the What's New information in-app (so all users could see it, without leaving JIRA, Confluence or Bamboo), how much detail would you like to see and would you like to see it in the app, or kept seperately in documentation? 

[iceman]

Hi @Steven Behnke and @Christopher Tom, thank you so much for your feedback. We really appreciate it.

We're still trying to get the right mix of information to include in the new condensed view of What's New, and your feedback definitely helps us get there fast. Rest assured we'll keep your suggestions in mind moving forward.

I'm glad you guys found the Using Parallel Sprints page in JIRA Software Cloud space, thanks to my colleague @Rachel Robins.

The caveats of Parallel Sprints still remain though. The only change is that the feature has been moved from JIRA Software Labs to the new JIRA Software configuration page, since it is now a stable feature. You can now enable/disable Parallel Sprints in the new configuration page.

Thanks again, Steven and Christopher. Do let us know if you need anything else.

[Steven F Behnke]

Dear @Rachel Robins,

I think you're going to suffer from the 'too many clicks' problem. This needs to be fast and accessible, period. This will be essential to getting users to understand new functionality. 

I'd like all updates to be in the same place, all the time. Even if it's just bug fixes. 

Perhaps with 'small' updates you can put a small, static indicator over the Help icon...image2016-1-21 1:41:16.png

And with larger updates you can put our nice new assistive orange friend? I personally think it's important to be noticeable without being obstructive. image2016-1-21 1:41:37.png

I always though HipChat had the right idea with their Help menu... It's large and sometimes allows them to place large, visual information on it. I think this could drive update news.

image2016-1-21 1:57:36.png

By the way, I hope you do pass the feedback along... I still don't know where to look for more information about this important new feature. Parallel Sprints has been a huge request for a long time from a lot of customer but it's always been implemented with caveats as a Labs Feature. If it's been moved out of Labs... does that mean it no longer has caveats? Or was it released as-is? Guess I'll just have to test it out myself. This is a bad example, normally updates are good and welcome news.

[Rachel Robins]

Thanks again Steven, for your really thoughtful feedback. It really helps us.   I've passed your comments about parallel sprints on to my teammate in the JIRA team, so stay tuned. 

UPDATE: My colleague just got back to me - You can find out all about Parallel Sprints right here:

https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRASOFTWARECLOUD/Using+Parallel+Sprints
 

[Steven F Behnke]

Thanks a million. I wasn't looking in the right space, of course it's in JIRA Software Cloud. >_<

[Steven F Behnke]

Completely agreed. I fail to find a great page on this feature, I've only been able to find the small LABS pages from when it was still in beta.