The world of work is undergoing significant change in 2021. New technologies such as Jira and Confluence enable teams to collaborate remotely and manage projects over long distances. In addition, flexible working hours, a balanced work-life balance, and flexibility are increasingly being prioritized.
Covid-19 has further intensified this trend, making remote work the new focus for the business world. Along with this, it has become even more important that teams can collaborate more easily and projects can be managed regardless of the workplace.
“Over 1/3 of employees say they would leave their current employer for more flexibility and home office.”
Source: Bitkom
Collaboration with and by remote teams
The question many companies are now asking is: “how do I enable my team and external employees to collaborate productively and efficiently?” A question that, of course, cannot be answered easily and simply. Every company and team has adopted certain workflows, defined their project management, and developed an internal communication.
What are the benefits of location-independent work?
The transition to remote work therefore comes with several challenges. In addition, some advantages and disadvantages need to be considered and analysed.
- Germany is facing a genuine shortage of skilled workers. In particular, in the IT industry, well-trained employees and specialists are often only available abroad. Location-independent job offers are often the only way to access suitable skilled workers.
- Remote work makes people happier and more productive. No long commutes and stressful on-site hours give your employees more freedom.
- Cost savings through the use of smaller office spaces. (Of course, just a small benefit on top.)
What challenges does “Remote Work” bring with it?
Of course, location-independent work is not the holy grail for making your company fit for the future. Rather, there is a number of challenges that need to be solved first:
- How can it be ensured that projects, tasks and goals are achieved?
- Due to the lack of personal contact, communication in your team may suffer.
- Remote vs. on-site. Some of your employees may perhaps prefer to come into the office after all.
- Different time zones can make collaboration more difficult.
- Developers in different countries often have different skills, methods and approaches, yet everyone still has to work together somehow.
- When handling sensitive company data, location-independent work can also lead to legal hurdles.
- Team meetings must be adapted to the new environment and time availability.
Simple project management of your remote teams with Jira and Confluence
Location-independent work does not only mean that your teams can now work from anywhere in the world. First, work structures must be created that make this possible. In addition to fast internet and an equipped home workspace, this also includes the right tools for collaboration.
Atlassian's Jira Software is particularly well-suited for project management. Confluence, on the other hand, is the perfect tool for documenting projects. The two tools combined are like eggs and bacon, Simon & Garfunkel, or Tintin and Snowy – very good on their own, but simply brilliant together!
Jira Software – Project management made easy
Large projects often involve several internal (and external) teams (including remote ones) working on a wide variety of tasks. As a result, the project is usually broken down into smaller components. In such cases, clear project communication must be ensured.
A unified area that manages all tasks solves this problem comprehensively. Your team members can view the status of tasks, managers can monitor overall project progress, create new tasks and assign them to members, set deadlines, and estimate delivery dates.
Jira makes exactly this possible. You can check project progress at any time, monitor ticket and task status, and lend a hand to your team whenever problems arise. In addition, Jira creates the necessary transparency within the project. This means that every (external) team member has access to the same information without having to contact the task owner. With this feature, individual tasks can be handled more efficiently and productively.
Efficient management of your project team with Jira
With Jira, it is almost impossible for your team to forget individual tasks or tickets. Whenever you – for example, create a new ticket – the assignee receives a notification by email (or Slack). If you add comments or attachments, or change the status of a task, another notification is sent to the relevant people.
In addition, individual tasks are always displayed on a Kanban board. This allows project managers to keep an eye on the status of the entire project at all times. This makes it easy to generate reports and document project progress.
Confluence: A knowledge base for your entire team
To be able to handle projects efficiently, it is important that every team member (remote and on-site) has access to a detailed knowledge base.
Confluence is ideal for this. With this app, Atlassian has provided a kind of Wikipedia on steroids for businesses. You can use it to share project information with all team members. With Confluence, you can create project spaces (e.g., for a homepage redesign project) and further subdivide them using additional subpages. You can upload important files directly and share them with your team, exchange ideas, and edit pages in real time with multiple team members.
In addition, you can customise Confluence to your heart's content and extend it far beyond its standard features using plugins.
Find out more here about how you can customise Confluence: Personalising Confluence.
Customer communication with Jira and Confluence
In addition to collaborating with internal and external, remote teams, you can also use Jira and Confluence to communicate with your customers. For example, you can create project spaces that can only be edited and viewed by the project team. This ensures that all other sensitive company data remains protected. Furthermore, spaces offer the option for your customers to record important information directly in their designated space.
Furthermore, Confluence facilitates the structuring and provision of project files, enabling even more efficient and productive collaboration.
Summary - Managing Remote Teams with Jira and Confluence
With digitised project management and documentation tools, any team can work location-independently. Productivity and enjoyment of work are also increased. Jira and Confluence help you improve collaboration among your internal, external, and remote teams. Where individual employees are located in the world no longer matters.
Do you need support with integrating Confluence or Jira into your company and team? As an Atlassian Platinum Solution Partner, we are happy to advise you on integration. Find out more about our approach and methodology on Atlassian Services.
