ACE Solent is hitting January by storm in 2024, with not one but two great events. The first event was also our first virtual event. We were lucky to be joined by Zigiwave, a great software company that creates integration products.

Dan from Zigiwave (great name I must say) was explaining how and why companies often want to pair Jira Service Management with other ITSM solutions.

What an amazing time we had down in Portsmouth for our Christmas party. ACE Solent was looking to send 2023 out with a bang as we celebrated the brilliance that was the server products. They gave so many companies a great platform to work with as well as many of us, including myself, a career. ACE Solent were joined by Andy Fernandez from Hycu. They gave us a great presentation around the importance of data retention and securing your data, regardless of whether it is a SaaS product.

Only in the last year did I start to truly understand the scale of the Atlassian community. I always knew the community website existed and have loved the openness and help received from it. But this last year I felt like I wanted to do more to give back. I felt like coming a community leader was the right step. Bring small intimate events to Atlassian enthusiasts like myself to the south outside of London.

Last week we managed to see this all the way through. We finally managed to launch the ACE Solent chapter last week. This week I just wanted to discuss a little on the community, why it is vital to product success and a little on this specific event.

Last week Appfire & I filmed the latest version of Monday Coffee, a weekly digest of what is going on in the Atlassian ecosystem. I feel incredibly honoured to have been given the opportunity & thoroughly enjoyed every second.

Atlassian has been developing software for over twenty years, with Jira first coming out in 2002. Since then they have seen huge amount of ups with a few downs here and there. The trouble with all of this is that the software & therefore the business itself has a lifespan. An expiry date in which the product now is obsolete. So how does any company continue to not only make their existing products relevant, but continue to invest and create new products, keeping the company at the cutting edge?

Teams often struggle to roll up and estimate above epics. Why? mainly because it is a finger in the wind estimation because they are not able to look back over previous work for similar sized items to understand timings etc. We have all seen this issue before, so here is how I solved it in my day job.

Formerly the Point-A product, Fabric, Confluence now has access to native whiteboard functionality. During day 2 of the team ‘23 event, Atlassian announced the EAP of the new functionality. Lets quickly recap some of this stuff.

Automation is currently the rage, but that’s for good reasons. It is making our lives as humans simpler and has for thousands of years. When someone mentions automation, a first (and semi natural) response is “that sounds like too much work to set up”. We as humans are inherently lazy. We see the mountain ahead rather then what’s beyond. While no automation is perfect and yes can take time to fine tune, they are there to make simpler in areas, so we can focus on areas that need that attention.

Day two had to be the most important day of the three. It had the most number of keynotes, therefore the most number of major announcements from Atlassian. Atlassian announced a new product entering Beta, a new acquisition, great feature updates to existing products as well as the most important announcement (in my eyes), Atlassian intelligence. Check out the blog for all the hot goss

Team ‘23 did not disappoint one bit. This was my second Team event and yes it truly does live up to the hype. It was great to meet up with so many colleagues from the past as well as see all of those from vendors only spoken to over Zoom. Last week was exhausting but gave every attendee a chance to gain some real in depth knowledge of the future.

Day 3 luckily quietened down a little. Less speaker sessions but still a lot to digest. Some more partner announcments and more time spent on the expo floor to find those little gems to solve challenges you weren’t even thinking about.

Day two had to be the most important day of the three. It had the most number of keynotes, therefore the most number of major announcements from Atlassian. Atlassian announced a new product entering Beta, a new acquisition, great feature updates to existing products as well as the most important announcement (in my eyes), Atlassian intelligence. Check out the blog for all the hot goss

Check out the latest episode of Appfire’s best of show. Sergejs and I talk through the importance of tech debt and what to do for your Atlassian environment.

We are now in Vegas! The event has just kicked off and we are at the end of day one. So what has happened so far.

TEAM ‘23, THE FLAGSHIP EVENT FOR ATLASSIAN IS SET TO BE A BANGER!

I mean, come on. We all know what is happening next week. But just in case you didn’t, Team ‘23, the flagship Atlassian event is in Vegas where we will get a chance to hear all the biggest announcements with all of our fellow Atlassian enthusiasts. There are four tracks you can choose from, depending on your needs to help fit the agenda and event around you.

If you haven’t worked this out yet, you must have been living under a rock. This year, we return to Vegas, for what is guaranteed to be an amazing week. Team ‘23, the Flagship Atlassian event that will bring us all the big announcements and opportunities for us Atlassian enthusiasts to meet up and get chatting.

Before we get chatting about the schedule that was released this week in detail and where you may be able to find me, lets just remind ourselves of the four tracks you can align to.

Since it’s inception, Atlassian has always surrounded itself with agile ways of thinking. But like all, times have moved on, but the mindset of challenge the way we do hasn’t. DevOps pushes this mindset. It brings forward two major areas that have often struggled to see eye to eye in a way that is only beneficial for all members of staff and the business. In this article we learn what Atlassian did in 2022 and are doing in 2023 to improve their tools to facilitate DevOps.