Are Your Tools Communicating Well?

[#1]

From years of experience working with Atlassian tools and apps, I come to this conclusion quite often.

Don't blame your team communication if your tools need to communicate better.

We are still stuck in the loudness of digital transformation, the adoption of different methodologies, and the pressure to push products and services faster. The build-up of urgency often leads to a build-up of tooling, for example:

A manager wants their team to plan and execute better, but the team cannot do so with the company's tooling, and they request a new tool to help them be more organized. The necessity may come from the lack of training in the existing tools, the tool's inability to handle the requirements or a particular super-user who is more comfortable with B rather than A.

It would be hard for a small company to go wild with tooling because of the lack of funds or team members, so this issue tends to be much more common (like, REALLY common) in medium and enterprise businesses.
In my previous article, I described the problem of having too many tools, but what about having too many tools that are badly connected with each other?

The easiest answer: we have an epic mess.

In the context of Atlassian tools and apps, I have absolute must-have integrations for proper tool communication.

Slack <-> Confluence/Jira/Trello

Integration between your team's communication channel and their project management tool is a crucial step towards improving awareness and limiting delays. You can set notifications based on the most needed parameters, which allows you to keep it simple (like having a notification for created/resolved) or more complex (like showing comments, edits, or status changes).

Slack <-> JSM

A short amount of integration work may significantly improve your support teams by giving them instant notifications about new tickets and updates in Slack, enabling faster response times and more efficient incident management.

Confluence <-> Jira

Syncing Confluence pages with Jira tickets ensures that all relevant documentation is readily accessible. This integration allows your team members to attach Confluence pages directly to Jira issues, creating a single source of truth for project-related information.

Trello <-> Jira

This may be a less popular usage scenario, but for teams who use both Trello and Jira, Trello's Butler automation linked to Jira can automate repetitive tasks, such as moving cards, when an issue status changes.

Properly connecting your tools offers numerous advantages, from streamlined workflows and enhanced communication to improved productivity and efficient knowledge sharing. It makes work more prominent, so your team members are focused on moving tasks forward instead of searching for the tool that hosts the information for their project.

And dramatically reduce the need for excessive tooling.

As always, thank you for reading, and I look forward to your tool integration stories and examples. 💙

[Amanda Barber]

The Slack integrations are key to keeping my team in sync. I also love to keep my notifications in Slack, so this integration keeps my inbox clean (since I've turned off most notifications to email!)

Your meme sums up their board usage quite well, lol! We view it together a few times a week but beyond that... 🫥

[Amanda Mateo]

The cat photo summed it up perfectly! Great notes/tips also. Thx

[Mike Rathwell]

Very well stated as always, @Teodora V _Fun Inc_ . I always have a communication plan crafted for any larger <insert thing> and these mechanisms do yeoman's work of implementing/executing it. Getting the right information to the right people in the right way should be on all our minds.

[Teodora V _Fun Inc_]

I can't agree more @Mike Rathwell 

@Amanda Barber some days I think boards are built for the happiness of the solo builder who tries to help the team somehow 🫠 (and is then doomed to give the same updates on a 1-hour call)

You are welcome @Amanda Mateo, glad you liked it! 

[Zaid Smadi]

Slack integrations are essential when communicating from external tools

[Schuuudi]

Speaking of “Synchronizing Confluence pages with Jira tickets”: I was hoping to find a hint in this article on how to do that. Can you give me some advice?

[Amanda Barber]

Here's a good place to start, @Schuuudi - https://www.atlassian.com/software/confluence/resources/guides/extend-functionality/confluence-jira