Confluence is the underdog of the Atlassian stack. Not as much as it used to be, but there are still so many companies that don't use it. Or they have it, but barely touch it. They think of it as "just a documentation portal" - somewhere
Let me tell you about the worst Jira instance I've ever inherited, but just before we start a quick info. Atlassian a while ago changed the naming convention from Custom Field to Fields. 300+ (custom) Fields. Three hundred. When I started the audit, I found: * "Priority"
Introduction: Dashboards Are NOT Dead Let me address something I hear from clients constantly: "Mike, are dashboards still relevant? Should we even bother?" My answer: Absolutely yes. And here's why this question keeps coming up—and why the answer matters more than ever. After 14 years
The Clock Is Ticking: Atlassian's Data Center End-of-Life Timeline Atlassian has made it official: Data Center is being retired, and the countdown has begun. Here are the critical dates every Data Center customer needs to know: * March 30, 2026: End of license sales to new customers (16 months
Sponsored by Vilisoft Real client scenario: "Mike, we clone the same epic structure every sprint. 50 issues. Different assignees, dates, priorities. Takes us 2-3 hours of manual work every two weeks." My response: "What if I told you that could be 2 minutes instead?" Their reaction:
Sponsored by Adaptavist My reaction when I first saw HAPI: "Are you saying the left side equals the right side?" "Yes, identical behavior." "No, you're shi**ing me." That was my genuine reaction. I still smile thinking about it. After 14+ years
Confession time: People are terrified of SLAs (Service Level Agreements) in JSM. I see it constantly. "SLAs feel like a police officer watching everything we do." "We'll never meet the targets, so why set them?""It's too complicated to configure."
Let me be brutally honest: JSM Knowledge Base is outdated. It hasn't changed significantly in 10 years. The search is imprecise. The control is limited. It's... not great. But here's the reality: If you're on Standard JSM, it's your only
Controversial statement: If you're not using Forms in JSM, you're wasting time and making life harder than it needs to be. After 14+ years consulting, I use Forms in approximately 95% of JSM implementations. Not traditional request types—Forms. Why? Let me tell you what happened
Controversial take: Jira Work Management is Atlassian's best product that nobody talks about. After 14+ years consulting, I've seen every project management tool. Trello, Asana, Monday, ClickUp, Smartsheet—all of them. But here's what happened last month that convinced me JWM is special: I
The onboarding paradox: Companies spend weeks perfecting how employees join. Then when they leave? Chaos. Real story: That same 1,500-person insurance company I've mentioned in this series? Their offboarding was taking 2-3 weeks. Employees left with active access. Laptops disappeared. No audit trail. Compliance nightmares during audits.
Here's something most people don't realize: You don't need to be a developer to use the Jira API. With AI tools and simple clients like Postman, even non-technical people are automating Jira workflows today. Why am I teaching you this? After 14+ years consulting,