Our client, an industry leader, wanted to streamline its development processes by introducing platform engineering for its development teams. The company recognized the potential of automation to increase efficiency and productivity and introduced a developer self-service portal.
This initiative aimed to automate various developer processes, such as the creation of AWS organization accounts and Microsoft Co-Pilot accounts (ChatGPT/OpenAI for internal use), reducing the time required from several days to just one hour.
However, the introduction of new technologies is often associated with challenges, especially in terms of user acceptance and effective use by the teams.
The biggest challenge for the company was to ensure that employees could seamlessly transition to using Developer Self-Service. Despite the clear benefits of the new system, there was considerable resistance and discomfort towards change among the workforce.
Our clients' employees were used to traditional processes and were reluctant to adopt new technologies because they did not understand them and feared a steep learning curve. This resistance threatened to undermine the potential efficiency gains from the automated system.
The company also recognized the need for a central knowledge base where developers could easily access information and resources related to the new services. The lack of such a platform led to confusion, inefficiency and a fragmented approach to problem solving and information sharing within the development team.
To overcome these challenges, our client needed a change management strategy supported by Confluence and Jira Service Management as key tools. The strategy needed to enable faster user adoption and foster collaboration between the company's teams.
Confluence was used to create a central knowledge base. This platform contained all the necessary documentation, guides and resources related to Developer Self-Service. It included step-by-step instructions for creating AWS Organization and Microsoft Co-Pilot accounts, FAQs and troubleshooting tips. Confluence enabled the development team to easily access up-to-date information, share knowledge and collaborate more effectively.
How was this implemented with Confluence?
Jira Service Management played a crucial role in streamlining support and request management. This tool allowed developers to quickly create tickets for any issues that arose when using the new developer self-service portal. The use of Jira Service Management ensured that support requests were efficiently managed, tracked and resolved, significantly reducing downtime and frustration for the development team.
In addition, JSM is closely linked to the Confluence knowledgebase and allows users to get answers to their questions before submitting a request to the main service desk. This is because Jira Service Management can retrieve content from Confluence and offer it directly as a solution to the question before a new request has to be created.
Find out more about the Developer Self-Service in the Success Story: How BSH provides cloud infrastructure - Container8
The implementation process was structured and phased. It began with stakeholder engagement, where key stakeholders were identified and interviewed to find out their concerns and expectations. This step was crucial to generate support and enthusiasm for the new system.
The interviews were also necessary to find out what pains, challenges, hopes and benefits each stakeholder group has in their current position and daily work. This research also allowed the developer self-service development team to implement key features based on the stakeholder interviews. This in turn increased the chances of success of the change.
To ensure the successful introduction of our developer self-service tools, we created a precise Communication plan which was tailored to inform, involve and empower all stakeholders. The strategy focused on:
Our aim was to facilitate a smooth transition to these new tools, underlined by the benefits of streamlined processes and increased productivity. Through targeted communication and solid support, we expected a rapid and effective rollout across the organization.
Training and support were important components of the implementation phase. Customized training programs, including webinars and online courses, were developed and delivered via Confluence to enable employees to learn on their own.
Ongoing support was provided via a service desk (Jira Service Management), where employees could request help when needed. In addition, employees were encouraged to create their own content for the learning platform to help their colleagues with difficult tasks and share their knowledge.
The key elements of our approach include:
The change management strategy supported by Confluence and Jira Service Management led to significantly faster user adoption across the organization. Users quickly became familiar with the new self-service portal, resulting in a significant reduction in the time required to access and manage development resources.
The centralized knowledge base in Confluence became an invaluable asset to the development team as it encouraged self-learning and reduced the reliance on support tickets for information. At the same time, Jira Service Management ensured that all issues were resolved quickly, keeping developer productivity and satisfaction at a high level.
Find out more about our change management process and how we can help you introduce new tools and services to your company efficiently.
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