RON ROMAIN • PROGRAM MANAGER • ATLASSIAN • @URBANHICK

Cutting through the noiseBreaking down hierarchical communication channels and silos

H O W AT L A S S I A N TA C K L E D I T

C O M M U N I C AT I O N I S H A R D

H O W I T W O R K S

Agenda

B E N E F I T S

Communication is hard

Communication is hard

You have a lot of teams

They all communicate quite well within themselves

Communication is hard

But communication easily breaks down between geos, products or businesses

You’ve developed some communications silos and hierarchies. Within these silos comms work well, but start break down between

silos and as you travel up the hierarchy.

Communication is hard

Communication tends to be constrained to relatively closely related/located teams

So in large organizations communication tends to naturally flow up a hierarchy then over to another silo, and possibly back down.

Communication is hard

What we need is to flatten these classic hierarchical communications structures

Bringing it back to the source of the information, the teams themselves. Allowing for quicker and more accurate

communication.

Communication is hard

What you want is a communications web

Communication is hard

Communication is hard

Ensuring it’s easy to find, accurate, up-to-date and complete

Where anyone can sources needed information

How Atlassian Tackled it

We’re growing, a lot

300+ Active Projects

Over 1/2 of which have been here less than a year

12 Different GeosAcross the globe, all in different timezones

1200+ Employees

With many more in the pipeline

Communication and transparency were

getting hard

So we implemented Project Central

Central locationCommon languageCommunications tool

Project Central

• What are we doing?

• Why are we doing it?

• How do we judge success?

• When will it ship?

• How are we tracking?

• Who is the full-time owner?

• Better communication channels and shared understanding around what we’re doing through a common language and process.

• Updated on a weekly basis.

• All “projects” will be discoverable in the same central location

Project Central

Common scale across Atlassian

Designed to be a cross section of every “project” that's in progress at the team level (2-6 Engineers).

Anything over 1 person month of effort or larger makes it in.

Open Company, No B%llshit

Communication

If you slip a date, or go off-track call it out

No big-brotherFTO’s shouldn’t feel like they’re being watched or monitored

Keep info honest

In the end, it’s simply a platform for better communication

How it works

Built on JIRA

How it works

6 Standard Questions

Components & LabelsCommon definition of how to define/describe a project

Standard and ad-hoc grouping via components & labels

Data stored in a JIRA project and tickets so the power of JIRA and existing integrations can be used

Same 6 questions on all tickets, no further customisation, keep it simple.

Used to group by business/product, program of work, or ad-hoc grouping

Custom integrationsCustom reportsWeekly emails

Communication channels (Pull)

Using Confluence and the JIRA issues macro an endless number of reports/views can be created

Weekly customized emails generated every Sunday to inform subscribers of the current project status

Any system that has access to JIRA data can display Project Central information

Every ticket you’re watching

Weekly Emails

Any dependancies

Highlights new projectsRaises visibility of new projects

Highlights important changes

Sends a short update for every project you’re “Watching”

Sends a short update for any dependancies your projects have

Highlights any new projects kicked off this week

Custom Reports JIRA Issues Macro

w/any JQL search

Include any fields

Benefits

Better visibility =

less duplication

Shared language =

better shared understanding

Pull communication channels not Push

Thank you!

RON ROMAIN • PROGRAM MANAGER • ATLASSIAN • @URBANHICK