Atlassian tools help us to deal with everyday internal management tasks. We have improved these products for better collaboration and productivity. Now we don’t have to create projects, iterations or invoices manually. There is no more loss of important data and concern about the transparency of the workflow. We have implemented specific features to make the most of Jira and Confluence software.
Automation
Processes automation simplifies workflow and saves time that is extremely useful working with deadlines. That’s why we have automated the following features:
- Projects creation
We have developed a JIRA add-on that helps us stay productive and deliver projects in time. The add-on creates JIRA projects automatically when the new customer’s request is received. The add-on also creates project’s Confluence space with a pre-configured pages’ structure. It helps to store information about projects and customers like contracts, requirements and so on. There are two types of projects – Software and Business. - Iterations automation
We have implemented JIRA add-ons that help us to work with iterations easily. One of them automatically creates iterations based on RFPs. If there are unfinished iteration tasks, another JIRA plug-in will transfer them into the next iteration after closing this one. For example, it can be moved at the end of a month or a quarter. - Invoice generation
Our JIRA add-on generates invoices in a certain status and with a responsible person.
Customization
Every company has its own specific customization needs to personalize working process and make it convenient. Exposit employees work in different offices that requires easy access to the latest updates, reports and corporate data. Our team is constantly expanding so it was important for us to make a collaboration on projects comfortable.
- Dashboard customization
We have developed a JIRA add-on for customization of dashboards with tasks and statistics for each employee according to his position and department. It helps us in project progress measurement and time management. - Greeting message
Every new member of Exposit team sees a greeting message. It includes general information about the company, our projects, working process and other internal questions. - Reports
We have implemented a JIRA add-on that allows to export reports by iteration with customized fields and corporate substrate. It supports Word, Excel and HTML formats. - Exposit Info Block
We have added Exposit Info Block containing three tabs with the links to information in Confluence. Here we can find a Welcome letter and useful documentation.
Other specific features
While working with JIRA and Confluence, our employees have had a lot of suggestions to develop additional extensions in accordance with the specifics of our company’s work processes.
- Subtasks
We have implemented extending functionality for subtasks creation. When we create a subtask or iteration task, most of the fields are copied from the parent page. Parent synchronizes data obtained from subtask as well. The JIRA add-on also allows to move subtasks to any other project. - Mail Handler
We have developed JIRA add-on that allows parsing letters, creating new issues based on them or adding a comment to an existing issue in JIRA. Mail Handler can also divide letters by stop words, keep the subject of the letter in the name of the created task and filter spam.
Atlassian products like Jira and Confluence are best used in conjunction, so make sure this interplay is effective.
We have used the following technologies to implement the functionality mentioned above:
- Java technologies including Spring, Groovy and Velocity;
- JavaScript technologies including Angular, JQuery and Backbone;
- Atlassian SDK.
We would like to hear your suggestions about Atlassian software improvement and create a solution meeting your specific needs.
