1708437840 <![CDATA[Blog]]> /blog english nigel@newverveconsulting.com Copyright 2024 2024-02-20T14:04:00+00:00 <![CDATA[New Verve’s Volunteering Initiative with OnHand]]> https://www.newverveconsulting.com/blog/new-verves-volunteering-initiative-with-onhand https://www.newverveconsulting.com/blog/new-verves-volunteering-initiative-with-onhand#When:14:04:00Z

We are excited to share the results of our litter-picking challenge, which we participated in as part of our community giving strategy. This initiative, driven forward by our community champions Aleks and Abraham, goes hand-in-hand with New Verve’s strong emphasis on having a positive impact on society. As part of our business philosophy, we strive to lead several initiatives that allow individuals to choose their own way of ‘giving back’ to the wider community.

OnHand, a company that facilitates on-demand volunteering, provided us with the basis of our challenge, alongside a simple way of tracking our progress. Through the months of November, December and January, our team collected 20.5 bags. This active form of volunteering was a great opportunity for our team to get together and trial a new form of giving to their community. As our team is based all over the UK, we were able to bring the benefits of our challenge to a variety of different communities. Through tracking our progress and encouraging each other through Slack, this initiative allowed us to work together and celebrate our achievements as a team. Ultimately, taking part in something community-orientated has brought us closer not only as a community but also as a team.

Below, one of our community giving champions, Aleks, shares her experience of organising and running the OnHand initiative.

What made you choose this volunteering opportunity?

I decided to complete this volunteering opportunity because it was something I could do with my family and see a big, immediate impact on my surrounding area and community. It was also a great opportunity to talk to my son about the environment, recycling and importance of minimising the amount of litter we produce.

How do you feel the initiative impacted our team and the wider community?

I think this initiative showed people that even small acts can have an impact. I feel it also made people think harder about how much we consume and dispose. Talking to my colleagues, we all shared a sense of pride for doing something that will keep our local areas clean. A few people received praise from members of the public for picking the rubbish and how much more pleasant it is to walk around clean areas. Some of my friends were inspired by how clean our local area was and they organised litter-picking with their children around their local green spaces.

What did you learn from your experience?

I learned that you can have a lot of fun with your friends and family while doing something good for the planet and community, it’s just a matter of attitude. Initiatives like this help people to get inspired and push them to do more for the environment than they would normally do.

We would like to thank the effort and consideration that our community giving champions put towards this initiative, alongside all the hard work from our team! If you would like to find out more about how we strive to help our community as a team, get in touch.

]]>
2024-02-20T14:04:00+00:00
<![CDATA[Introducing Atlassian AI]]> https://www.newverveconsulting.com/blog/introducing-atlassian-ai https://www.newverveconsulting.com/blog/introducing-atlassian-ai#When:14:12:00Z

With AI tools skyrocketing in popularity over the last year, it’s no surprise that Atlassian has now rolled out a suite of new AI-powered features for users. Atlassian Intelligence is the new powerup that works across Jira, Confluence, and more. Keep reading to learn more about Atlassian Intelligence, how to use it, and how to maximise efficiency.

2023: The Year of AI Headlines

Back in early 2023, Atlassian announced its intention to bring AI tools to its already impressive stack. A beta program was opened and the uptake among admins was high; users were keen to put the brand-new tools through their paces. This announcement came at a perfect time, as Google Trends reported searches for ChatGPT, AI and related queries peaked in April 2023.

Over the course of 2023, AI-based tools continued to make headlines - with both positive and negative connotations. Throughout the year, the ethics of these tools have also been the topic of much debate, as well as concerns about safety and privacy. In October of 2023, a precedent-setting agreement was reached with the Writers Guild of America (WGA) after one of the longest strikes in Hollywood history. The agreement made specific references to the use of AI tools and the risk that they pose to writers’ job security.

In the world of academia, further concerns were raised over plagiarism and unethical conduct using AI tools. Reports of students using ChatGPT to write assignments and the counter-measures that could be put in place showed that technology was advancing at a faster pace than regulation. Artists also protested their works being used to train image-generating AI tools.

These discussions made it clear that AI could be useful in a number of real-world applications, but only with the right safeguards. This was the backdrop for the release of Atlassian Intelligence, which was touted as a ‘human-AI collaboration tool’. The ethos of the tool is that it is to be used as an additional colleague, which makes perfect sense for the highly collaborative Atlassian stack.

Atlassian Intelligence Features

As Jira and Confluence are both geared towards collaboration and maximising efficiency, Atlassian Intelligence aims to take this a step further. One of the factors that make this possible is Atlassian’s back catalogue of organisational data and expertise.

The tools are powered by OpenAI, leveraging data already stored in your Jira and Confluence space. This gives users the chance to harness contextual cues when asking questions.

Confluence is an excellent collaboration tool, but if you have a lot of documentation or are unsure of where certain definitions or reports live, then Atlassian Intelligence can do a lot of heavy lifting for you. The contextual definition icon will appear when you highlight words within your Confluence space. It will then fetch information from across your documentation to serve up that definition - for example, defining a company-specific acronym. You can even use it on other users’ names to discover who they are and what they do within your organisation.

The search bar in Confluence can now also be used to ask company-specific questions. Using the documentation, Atlassian Intelligence can answer questions about a variety of topics - such as the launch date of a product, whether a decision was made in a meeting, and more.

Likewise, the summarise feature can save precious time when reading through intensive documentation, as the AI works to pick out the most important information. One feature we’d like to see added to this tool would be a summary of changes from document versions - this would help highlight which updates had been made in a newer version.

Writing Assistance

In terms of generating writing, Atlassian Intelligence can author documentation and comments too. There are a plethora of options available in edit mode in Confluence or when replying in tickets in Jira. Summarise or improve what you’ve written, look for action items or change the tone of your message with just a click.

As we write this blog in Confluence, we figure it’s only fair to ask Atlassian Intelligence to tell us more about it. The following paragraph has been written by Atlassian Intelligence:

“Atlassian Intelligence is a helpful assistant developed by Atlassian. It provides concise responses to user requests using the provided context only. Atlassian Intelligence can help you write by providing suggestions, tips, and guidance on various writing topics. It can assist with grammar and spelling checks, offer ideas for structuring your content, provide examples of effective writing styles, and even suggest improvements to make your writing more concise and engaging. With Atlassian Intelligence’s assistance, you can enhance your writing skills and create high-quality content.”

Our team have found these language and summarisation skills to be the most useful features of Atlassian Intelligence. When communicating on Jira tickets, Atlassian Intelligence has been assisting our teams in ensuring they provide all the required information, with the right tone and in a concise manner.

Technical Features and Virtual Agents

On the more technical front, Atlassian Intelligence can also convert natural language to JQL and SQL. This allows technical experts and less technical users to find issues and dependencies in Jira Software and Jira Work Management. By using natural language to SQL, more users can gain insights into Atlassian Analytics - expanding access from data science teams. This can be used by business teams to gain knowledge on customer service metrics, issue tracking, team health, and more.

Finally, virtual agents are now available. These chatbots can currently run scripts, raise issues, and report metrics. Their next power-up will be the ability to review code within Bitbucket. While this won’t replace colleagues who review code, they will make that job easier by scanning syntax, generating pull requests, and aligning code conventions.

Safety, Privacy and Security with Atlassian Intelligence

Many of the questions we have around the use of AI relate to our safety, privacy and security. This is especially pertinent when dealing with sensitive or copyrighted information stored in Confluence or Jira. Atlassian has put together a trust page, specifically outlining how Atlassian Intelligence uses data.

The information that the AI model uses is sent over secure channels and not used to train Atlassian Intelligence in any other instance. Your data is still secure and private, without any additional risk while using Atlassian Intelligence.

Atlassian Intelligence will also respect permissions, so users who don’t have access to pages will not see data generated by those pages. If you’re concerned about data residency, Atlassian Intelligence respects this and won’t send any data outside of your region.

How to Enable Atlassian Intelligence

Admins have the power to enable Atlassian Intelligence in the existing admin panel at admin.atlassian.com. It’s simple and you have the option to restrict access to certain sites or products.

Atlassian Intelligence has the power to help your team to be more efficient and productive, if used correctly. While we’ve used summaries and editing, we’d always caution ensuring that you check and double-check any outputs. As with any new technology, there are limitations and areas that will be improved over time - so don’t hit send on that Atlassian Intelligence authored comment before giving it a human review.

Interested in finding out more about our services? Contact us today.

]]>
2024-01-17T14:12:00+00:00
<![CDATA[10 Jira Best Practices]]> https://www.newverveconsulting.com/blog/10-jira-best-practices https://www.newverveconsulting.com/blog/10-jira-best-practices#When:14:53:00Z

​Jira, a powerful project management tool developed by Atlassian, is typically used by software teams as a means of software development and bug tracking. Due to the versatility of the tool, it empowers a variety of teams to efficiently manage tasks, projects and workflows. With the advanced collaborative features available, many teams rely on Jira for the smooth execution of their projects.

Whether you’re using Jira for software development, project management, or any similar process, following best practices can significantly enhance your team’s productivity and reduce roadblocks. These best practices are designed to help your team make the most out of Jira’s features and capabilities, ensuring that no matter the task, it can be carried out efficiently.

1. Define goals and objectives

Before looking into setting up your Jira instance, it’s crucial to have a clear understanding of your project’s goals and objectives. With the flexibility that the tool offers, it can be used for a wide variety of project tasks, therefore, it’s vital that the team understands the overarching goals of their project. This clarity will allow your team to build a Jira configuration that best aligns with their needs, and as a result allows them to complete objectives.

2. Train users

By providing Jira training and resources to your team members, you can ensure that they can navigate the tools confidently and make the most out of its capabilities. Since Jira offers such a wide array of features and functionalities, many users may first be intimidated by just how extensive the tool is. However, with the appropriate training, you will ensure that team members can navigate Jira confidently and use the functions to their advantage.

3. Customise workflows

Teams are able to reflect their specific workflow stages through tailoring features such as statuses, transitions and permissions. As team needs change every day, it is vital that users take the time to reflect this within a workflow in order to prevent potential roadblocks. In addition to this, taking the time to customise your workflow facilitates a collaborative environment, as each team member can see the status of everyone else’s workload.

4. Use agile methodologies

Jira supports any agile methodology, such as Scrum or Kanban, allowing teams to follow along with the built-in features to streamline their work. Tools such as agile boards, backlogs, and sprint planning are available to assist your team with managing their projects and ultimately delivering high-quality results in a collaborative environment.

5. Name and organise issue types

A project typically consists of many moving parts, which can make it difficult to track progress at times. By using Jira’s functionalities to set up naming rules for issues and organising them into standardised types, your team create consistency within the process. By ensuring that each issue is organised into a category, your team can gauge the importance of said issue and work more efficiently.

6. Integrate with other tools

While Jira boasts a mass of features that your team can take advantage of, you should always look into the integrations available. These integrations allow you to combine tools that address the specific needs of your team, for example, an integration between Trello and Jira allows teams such as software and marketing to collaborate. This has the potential to streamline workflows and ensure that information flows between systems.

7. Automate repetitive tasks

Jira offers easy-to-use automation functions that allow teams to automate tasks that are repetitive and time-consuming. By automating tasks, you not only give team members the opportunity to spend their time on higher priority tasks, but also reduce the risk of human error. An example of such automation could be issue assignment, where you can create rules that assign issues to appropriate team members based on specific criteria.

8. Add descriptions and checklists

Teams should seek to communicate effectively through detailed issue descriptions and checklists. Including detail within your descriptions, such as the appropriate documentation and contacts, reduces the need for back-and-forth communication and fosters a more streamlined process. In addition to this, checklists are a great way for a team to clearly display process steps in an organised and transparent way.

9. Keep backlog organised and updated

As a project progresses, many teams may be tempted to focus on their current issues rather than updating their backlog. However, you should not underestimate how important a backlog is – it’s a place where you can list ideas, implement tickets and add enhancements. Without a well organised backlog, your team may struggle to follow their initial goals and objectives and end up facing roadblocks along the way.

10. Make use of reporting features

Jira’s reporting and dashboard features allow your team to gain valuable insights into their progress and performance. Through visualising the information that’s relevant to the teams objectives, you can gain a better understanding of progress and allows you to identify roadblocks, allowing you to enhance your team’s efficiency as a result.

While these best practices are important, they need to be adapted to suit the needs of your team and the nature of your project. By regularly assessing your project and keeping up to date with challenges, Jira will act as a valuable asset for your teams collaboration.

If you would like to learn more about how Jira can help your team, get in touch. Our expert solutions team can answer any questions you may have.

]]>
2024-01-11T14:53:00+00:00
<![CDATA[Using Jira Service Management for Change Management]]> https://www.newverveconsulting.com/blog/using-jira-service-management-for-change-management https://www.newverveconsulting.com/blog/using-jira-service-management-for-change-management#When:15:43:00Z

​Wondering how your team can use Jira Service Management (JSM) to enhance their change management rituals? As a tool that encourages collaborative, intuitive and integrated processes, JSM looks to the future of change management processes. We have put together this helpful breakdown which examines the principles of change management and how JSM can be used as a tool to streamline your processes.

What is change management?

Change management, a service management practice essential to IT teams, can often be difficult to implement. At its core, change management refers to the process an organisation takes to adjust critical systems and services. This practice puts emphasis on minimising risks and disruptions to IT services, no matter the scale of such changes i.e introducing the implementation of a new tool across an organisation.

A common way to integrate this practice is through a change management workflow, this allows a team to outline their process and prevent potential roadblocks. Such workflows set out a company’s goals and give stakeholder’s an understanding of prospective transitions. This in turn allows the team to prepares an organisation as they move from the planning stages to a functional endpoint.

Common types of changes faced by an organisation
Common types of changes faced by an organisation


Introduction to Jira Service Management

With its built-in capabilities, JSM offers teams an intuitive service desk that prioritises risk assessment and approval routing. Software changes can be complicated in nature, and often hinge on both Agile and ITSM principles. Atlassian has aligned these two practices to provide teams with a fully-realised service management system fuelled by automation.

Through integrating JSM with CI/CD tools, such as Bitbucket, Atlassian has streamlined workflows in a way that considers change within a software environment. With this integration, teams can run software changes without the lengthy bureaucratic procedures often associated with change management. In addition to this, your organisation can use Confluence for cross-functional planning, allowing the relevant teams to collaborate and achieve a common goal.

How can you adopt change management into your Jira workflow?

Through JSM, teams can make use of a change management workflow template that ensures requests are recorded, assessed and approved on their journey. Wondering what initial steps to take before you’re ready to develop your own workflows? Atlassian outlines these basic steps for a change management process:

  1. Change request: a proposed change is requested, with the corresponding risk assessment, expected implementation and affected systems.
  2. Change request review: review completed by a change manager, decides on the likelihood of success and the risks involved.
  3. Change plan: the team outlines expected outcomes, resources, testing requirements in order to create a plan for the change.
  4. Change approval: the plan undergoes review, leading to a final decision.
  5. Change implementation: the team goes forward with the plan, documenting procedures and results along the way.
  6. Change closure: the change manager reviews the process and the results, communicating this with the change team.

While not all change management processes will follow this journey, it provides teams with a good starting point. JSM allows users to adapt the workflow to suit their particular needs whenever they arise.

What features does Jira Service Management have to offer?

In addition to having access to a workflow, teams can set up enforced approvals to ensure they miss no vital steps within the process. While any agent or admin has the ability to transition an issue through a review stage under the default settings, this can be adjusted. JSM gives you the option to enforce approvals, making it impossible to move an issue without it being reviewed by one or more specific team members. Furthermore, the built-in change calendar allows teams to schedule and view changes by day, week, or month. This creates a space where users can visualise the project in a different dimension, and plan for risks accordingly.

An example of a change management workflow within JSM
An example of a change management workflow within JSM

With its adaptable workflow and automations, Jira Service Management works with teams to build their change management process. If your team is interested in how JSM can help you, get in touch, our expert solutions team can talk you through any questions you may have.

]]>
2023-10-24T15:43:00+00:00
<![CDATA[How to Use Jira for Project Management]]> https://www.newverveconsulting.com/blog/how-to-use-jira-for-project-management https://www.newverveconsulting.com/blog/how-to-use-jira-for-project-management#When:13:27:00Z




Jira, a highly customisable and collaborative software, can be used in a variety of ways to assist your team with their project management. Based on Agile principles, this Atlassian tool works hand-in-hand with your team to deliver on your project needs. Wondering how your team can use Jira’s capabilities to their advantage? We’ve written this helpful blog analysing some of Jira’s best project management functions and outlining how your team can implement them.

What is Jira?

Although Jira started as an IT tool, it now supports project management within a wide variety of departments, ranging from HR to Finance and Sales. Jira allows teams to track issues, which act as single work items that are designated to members of your team. By splitting tasks into issues, your team is able to keep track of progress and identify any potential roadblocks along the way.

How can your team start or improve their project management workflows with Jira?

With the mass of functions available, your team might find it intimidating to first start using Jira for their project management needs. However, this software is very intuitive, even offering templates as a means for your team to configure their projects according to their needs. Jira also offers your team the ability to employ a project plan according to their departmental needs, such as time-based project for teams in Sales departments, in addition to iterative projects needed by software teams. Creating issues within Jira allows you to plan and set out tasks, and even create smaller sub-tasks that can be assigned to teammates. These issues can be further classified through the use of epics - a feature that describes a group of issues that relate to the same, larger body of work. With the advanced project planning features, your issues can be organised according to priority, allowing your team to create a comprehensive plan.

What functions does Jira have to offer?

Workflows

One of Jira’s main functions are the customisable workflows it offers to allow your team to organise their processes. Within a Jira workflow, you can track your issues from creation to completion, allowing you to control the set of rules that your issues follow as they transition through different work stages. During this time, your team has complete control of how the issue behaves as it moves through the lifecycle, including the ability to add automations to repetitive processes. Workflows also encourage effective communication within the team through the ability to add statuses and updates.

Jira Workflow
Jira Workflow


Filters and automations

Jira offers a plethora of advanced filtering capabilities designed to save you and your team time and make your workflow more effective. By taking advantage of the detail you can add into your issues, your team can benefit further down the line by filtering through a variety of information, such as assignees, due date and epics. Furthermore, Jira offers a wide range of automations designed to make your project more manageable. These automations are carried out according to rules set by you and your team, meaning that you can customise them directly to the needs of your project.

Issue backlog in Jira
Issue backlog within Jira

Visualise progress

Through a wide variety of templates, your team can easily visualise progress in order to gain a better understanding of the project workflow. This also allows the team to identify any patterns that have caused roadblocks in the past and amend their workflow for more efficiency in the future. Through this, Jira also provides teams with visual reports that provide valuable insights into their project process. By using this functionality, the team is able to analyse roadblocks and gain deeper knowledge into how their project typically functions.

Timeline visualisation in Jira
Timeline visualisation in Jira

What’s next for Jira?

Despite already having a multitude of features at your disposal, Jira is constantly looking to improve your user experience. Recently, a new feature has been introduced where users can change the workflow, or issue type, of a request type. In addition to this, Jira administrators can now create a customisable announcement banner that is displayed to the users in their instance. Users can also look forward to the opportunity of using custom domains in their cloud site, a feature that is currently under works by Atlassian.

As a highly customisable software, Jira has a lot to offer your team and their specific project needs. If you would like to find out more about how your team can get started with Jira, get in touch, our expert team can answer any questions you may have!

]]>
2023-09-27T13:27:00+00:00
<![CDATA[My Software Development Internship Experience at New Verve ]]> https://www.newverveconsulting.com/blog/my-software-development-internship-experience-at-new-verve-david https://www.newverveconsulting.com/blog/my-software-development-internship-experience-at-new-verve-david#When:13:24:00Z As part of our long-established relationship with the University of Glasgow Internship Hub, we were able to connect with new interns for both the marketing and the products department. This allows us to take a mentoring role and aid students in their career path while building meaningful connections.

The blog below details key experiences from our product intern, David, and his time at New Verve.

Why did you apply for this internship?

When I set out to find the perfect internship, I had a few things in mind. After working in big corporate setups, I wanted to gain experience in a different setting. That’s why New Verve Consulting caught my eye – a smaller, more close-knit team where I could really dive into everyday software development tasks.

But that’s not all! The tech stack they currently use, featuring the likes of React and AWS, had me completely onboard. These technologies are still arguably core pillars of web application development, and I was eager to improve my skills with them. This internship presented an ideal prospect for not only acquiring proficiency with these software tools but also utilising them in a practical setting.

What was a typical day like for you at New Verve?

I’d kick off my day by checking my emails and seeing what meetings were on the agenda. Then, I’d make my own to-do list for the day. Having a plan helped me stay on track and organised. We have this cool thing in agile development called product stand-ups, where we talk about what we were working on. But we didn’t just talk about work – we’d also catch up on things like how our evenings and weekends went. It was a nice way to connect, especially since we were all working remotely. We’d do this twice a week, and I even got to lead one of them every week! Following this, we had pair programming sessions, where we could ask questions, sort out problems, and review each other’s code. Working together made everything feel easier, fun, and ultimately more efficient.

The rest of my working day was mostly spent diving deep into coding. I’d research stuff, read documents, and write code. It was where the real action happened – turning ideas into actual things. There were moments of triumph when everything worked perfectly, and times when I scratched my head, wondering why something wasn’t working right. But that’s the beauty of coding – it’s a mix of creativity, logic, and problem-solving magic. Of course, coding was just the beginning. After that came the testing phase, where I ran tests, spotted bugs, and fixed them, turning my code into something robust and reliable ready for PR. And you know what the best part is? It’s the feeling you get when everything finally comes together.

Sometimes, I’d mix things up by joining virtual-coffee sessions. These were essentially informal chats with other co-workers outside the products team, where we’d talk about all sorts of things and get to know each other better.

Was anything different from what you expected from a development role?

While my expectations were largely in line with my past internship experiences, I was pleasantly surprised by the extent of my interaction with other team members, finding myself engaging more frequently with them in a remote setting compared to when I worked in a hybrid environment. Moreover, I was also impressed by the wide range of tasks that I had the chance to dive into. From coding to testing, DevOps, reviews, and resource/team management. Arguably, this diverse involvement resulted in a more complete work experience and has strengthened several valuable transferable skills that I will definitely apply in various contexts going forward.

What did you think of remote working at New Verve?

Remote working at New Verve was definitely a pleasant surprise. I found myself not only adapting to it quickly but thriving in this setup. Working from the comfort of my own space significantly increased my productivity. I was able to concentrate better and accomplish tasks more efficiently, having a very positive effect on my mental well-being. While remote work can sometimes create a sense of isolation, I was pleasantly surprised by the robust communication channels established at New Verve. Regular online meetings, chats, and quick catch-ups virtually erased any concerns I might have had about feeling disconnected. The developing team was always just a message away, ready to provide help and guidance.

Moreover, the company’s organisation for remote operations was, in my opinion, solid and robust. Unlike some experiences I’ve heard about, where remote work can feel disjointed, New Verve had a well-established system in place bringing the major benefits of remote working. This went from task assignments to updates and collaboration, ensuring strong teamwork.

I really enjoyed remote working at New Verve, and I believe this to be a major selling point for working here.

How did you find the work culture?

From the first day at work, colleagues were approachable, open, and always ready to lend a hand. One of the things that really stood out to me was the flexibility in working hours. It wasn’t about clocking in and out, it was about finding a balance that worked for me. This flexibility gave me the freedom to choose when I was most productive and strike a balance between work and life. Despite sometimes having a lot on our plates, stress wasn’t the norm! Following agile practices, the team planned tasks using story points and estimates, which meant we always had plenty to do, but it was spread out in a way that made things manageable and enjoyable. I even got to participate in one of the sprint planning sessions with my manager and got to assign tasks and estimates to other team members as well as myself.

Another awesome aspect was the freedom and flexibility to explore different areas. I started with more front-end work and gradually ventured into back-end development. Guidance was regularly provided during catchup sessions with my manager, where we’d discuss how things were going, exchange ideas, and figure out areas where we could all improve. This support ensured that I was on the right track and constantly progressing.

And then there was the summer social – a highlight of my time at New Verve. We came together for a terrarium workshop, shared a delicious lunch, and had a blast with drinks. This event was great to get to meet most of the team in person and at a more informal level.

Can you tell us some of your highlights from working at New Verve?

Undoubtedly, a highlight was my involvement in a real product like CRUMBS. I collaborated closely with experienced developers to modify and extend the codebase with new features and bug fixing, enhancing the software’s overall utility. This hands-on engagement allowed me to traverse the entire software development lifecycle – from conceptualization and meticulous design, to the process of implementation, rigorous testing, and bug fixing. The knowledge and proficiency gained from this experience is truly immeasurable. It has provided me with insights that will come in handy in my future work within and outside university. The mentorship provided by both Abraham Cabrera Valdivia and Victor Lee was also key in enabling me to navigate challenges effectively.

New Verve’s work environment allowed me to move away from just coding and embrace a diverse array of other roles and responsibilities. This went from code reviewing and independent research to participating in conceptual design and ‘shadowing’ of resource management and sprint planning sessions. Being able to experience the resource management side of things certainly helped me with work time estimations and will be a good skill to have when or if I lead teams in the future. Furthermore, being able to do stuff like writing this blog post demonstrates the company’s commitment to multifaceted growth, as opposed to limiting workers to just their role.

How have you made the most of your internship experience?

I’ve maximised my internship experience by going beyond coding. Throughout my time at New Verve, I’ve consistently sought opportunities to broaden my horizons.

During our weekly catchup meetings, I spoke with my manager, Victor Lee, about additional areas of interest that I would like to be tasked with or simply learn about. While coding remained the most relevant and central focus, I actively did or learned about other tasks mostly relevant to software development. This included shadowing my manager to gain insights into project management dynamics, actively engaging in sprint planning sessions, and even taking the lead in product stand-ups.

Moreover, during virtual-coffees, I would normally ask other employees to describe their roles and daily routines within the company so as to better understand the company’s inner workings. What I am trying to say here is that my internship wasn’t confined to a single and limited track but rather a flexible and dynamic work experience where I got to work outside pure programming and further enhance my technical skills.

How do you feel about your career after this internship experience at New Verve?

This role provided the perfect bridge between the theoretical knowledge I gained at university and the hands-on practical tasks in the real world. It’s like taking all those concepts from lectures and turning them into actual working products. Learning about resource and task management was like unlocking a whole new level of understanding. Coding is just a part of the unique challenges that come with software development. I also learned how all past skills learned while working with bigger-scale products are applicable to smaller products like CRUMBS and vice versa.

From diving into APIs to embracing agile practices, these skills are like assets that I can carry forward in my career. As technology evolves, having a diverse toolbox will be super valuable in staying adaptable and relevant. Whether I choose to work on pure software development in the future or not, the exposure to agile practices and an iterative development process will certainly be of use, especially where agility and adaptability are crucial.

If you were to sum up your time at New Verve in a sentence what would you say?

My time at New Verve was a fantastic journey where I further developed my technical skills and connected with wonderful people always eager to lend a hand.

]]>
2023-08-31T13:24:00+00:00
<![CDATA[How to use Jira for Business Teams]]> https://www.newverveconsulting.com/blog/how-to-use-jira-for-business-teams https://www.newverveconsulting.com/blog/how-to-use-jira-for-business-teams#When:11:12:00Z

Jira, a powerful Atlassian tool typically used within software development and IT teams makes managing projects simple, but did you know that other teams can also use Jira to their advantage? In addition to following Agile methodology, Jira gives teams the resources to efficiently progress in their tasks in any sector of a business. Teams from Marketing and HR, all the way to Legal and Finance can utilise the extensive features of Jira to streamline their operations.

Another resource for teams to consider is Jira Work Management, which is specifically tailored to the needs of business teams rather than software developers. Those with non-technical experience can easily manage projects, processes and tasks with efficiency. To assist with any questions, we have put together this helpful blog to help your team explore the benefits of Jira and Jira Work Management.

How can your team utilise these tools for their business needs?

As a tool that prioritises the importance of collaboration and visibility within tasks, Jira can be used in a variety of business contexts to achieve efficiency. In addition to this, the specialised nature of Jira Work Management allows teams to better understand their processes. Check out some main features of this tool and how it can assist your team:

Functions for visibility and collaboration

Jira Work Management boasts many features designed to make projects more manageable for teams. Such features include a variety of ways to view tasks, such as list view, which provides key information at a glance. On the other hand, calendar view allows team members to visualise tasks in accordance to their deadlines, ensuring that all collaborators have an understanding of upcoming tasks. Through providing a team with consistent visibility, Jira assists with the consistent progress of business teams.

Visualise and track progress

With the automations tools available within Jira, teams can easily track their progress and display any tasks in progress to facilitate an open and collaborative environment. Through data measuring capabilities, teams can monitor performance and project process to ensure that tasks are completed at an optimal level. Jira Work Management also allows such performance results to be presented in a visual format through dashboards and reports, making analysis intuitive.

Jira use cases for your team
Jira use cases for your team


Take advantage of templates available

Both Jira and Jira Work Management offer a wide variety of templates to help your business team with successful project management. From iterative workflows to project construction, these tools were created not only to help your team, but to also facilitate cross-departmental collaboration. In addition to helping teams save time templates can also allow departments to gain a better understanding of the key components associated with their projects.

A process timeline with Jira Work Management
A process timeline with Jira Work Management

Such tools have proven to be invaluable to business teams across a wide range of departments. The built-in capabilities of both Jira and Jira Work Management allow users to collaborate efficiently while maintaining steady progress and visibility within their work.

Interested in how Jira can be used to help your team? Get in touch with our expert solution team that can answer any questions you may have regarding Jira.


]]>
2023-08-29T11:12:00+00:00
<![CDATA[My Marketing Internship Experience at New Verve]]> https://www.newverveconsulting.com/blog/my-marketing-internship-experience-at-new-verve https://www.newverveconsulting.com/blog/my-marketing-internship-experience-at-new-verve#When:09:12:00Z ​Each year, our marketing and products departments take on interns from the University of Glasgow Internship Hub. We love this program, as it allows us to connect with the next generation of developers and marketers - taking a mentoring role in their career path.

This blog comes to you from our Marketing Intern, Julita; it details her time with New Verve and the skills she’s learned through the internship.

Why did you apply for this internship?

I applied for this internship while I was approaching my last semester at the University of Glasgow. As a Business Management & Psychology student, I was very interested in the marketing sector. I believe that effective marketing allows businesses to gain a better understanding of consumer behaviour, with many opportunities for creativity also presented when addressing customers.

While I was researching opportunities on the Internship Hub, I knew that I wanted to focus on something marketing specific so that I would gain a better understanding of what a role within this sector entails. Upon seeing New Verve’s job posting, I was intrigued by the B2B nature of the company, which would significantly change the perspective of Marketing that I was accustomed to as a user.

In addition to this, I also had limited experience within the tech sector and the opportunity to gain experience within this was a very exciting prospect. Knowing that this internship would show me a side of marketing that would be entirely new for me, I was very keen to apply and experience new challenges.

What was a typical day like for you at New Verve?

To begin each day, the marketing team would complete a daily stand-up, in which we would run through the tasks on our boards and update the team on our progress. We would also use these meetings as an opportunity to socialise and catch-up with other team members, which made me feel much more connected to my team. I found these stand-ups extremely useful, as they allowed me to talk through my daily tasks, as well as ask any questions and receive answers immediately.

A typical day within New Verve varied as I progressed through the internship. Throughout my first two weeks, many of my daily tasks were centred around learning about the company and ensuring that I feel comfortable with the tools that they use. Throughout this training, those on my team held meetings with me to make sure that I understood the different components of the business, and were always available to answer any questions I had.

In addition to this, the work I completed within New Verve was also quite varied, allowing me to gain experience in tasks such as blog and case study writing, social media posts and reporting analytics. New Verve wanted me to gain experience in many aspects, which I would be able to keep with me for the rest of my career. In addition to this, my team encouraged me to tell them which tasks I find the most interesting, so that they could cater my experience to what would be the most beneficial to me.

Was anything different from what you expected from a marketing role?

As this was my first marketing role, I wasn’t sure what exactly to expect upon starting my internship. Despite having a keen interest in marketing, as well as technical knowledge from my University course, I was unsure about the reality of working on a marketing team. From the outset, I was surprised about the wide variety of tools that are available for Marketing teams to use to assist and monitor their progress with tasks.

As a student, I never had access to such a vast catalogue of apps, such as Trello, that would allow me to complete tasks while still being creative. Furthermore, I was surprised at the amount of information available on analytics and reports. As someone who is interested in consumer behaviour, such a detailed breakdown of consumer patterns was very interesting to me.

After expressing this to my manager, Louise Reilly, she gave me the opportunity to dive deeper into the analytics and explore consumer reports on a wide variety of platforms, including the New Verve website and their social media. Overall, the support that New Verve gave me to explore my topics of interest allowed me to gain a much better understanding of what it means to work in marketing, and made me much more confident that this is something I would like to pursue.

What did you think of remote working and the flexibility at New Verve?

Having completed a year of my University course online following the COVID-19 outbreak, I knew that I enjoyed the flexibility that remote learning allowed. However, I was anxious about how being remote would translate into a professional situation. Needless to say, the entire team at New Verve was extremely welcoming and made an effort to get to know me, easing my concerns about feeling disconnected from my team when working remotely.

In addition to this, the daily stand-ups gave me an opportunity to refocus on what my goals for each day were, allowing me to stay productive and plan my day. Our team also conducted several sprints, in which we would set goals for the upcoming weeks and discuss our marketing strategy.

Overall, I really enjoyed the remote working aspect of the internship and the flexibility that came with it; I felt connected to my team and was able to reach out for help at any time.

How did you find the work culture?

The team at New Verve is extremely friendly and welcoming. During my first week, many people reached out to me over Slack to personally welcome me to the team and I had introductory meetings set up with every department so that I would feel more comfortable within the company. I was also assigned a buddy that could answer any questions I had outwith the marketing team, which showed the effort and consideration that New Verve made to make interns feel part of the team.

The work culture is very supportive and easy-going, with weekly socials allowing people from different departments to socialise and get to know each other. This was also supported by a Slack extension named Donut, which would set up fortnightly meetings between two randomly assigned co-workers, allowing the team to have valuable one-on-one time with those outside of their immediate team.

I felt extremely supported throughout my internship, and felt that I could reach out to anyone on the team if I had a question. In addition, my 1-2-1 meetings with Louise allowed me to reflect on the work I have been doing and allowed us to provide feedback for each other, which was very valuable. There is a sense of equality and comfort in the company which makes it easy to talk to anyone regardless of their position.

Can you tell us some of your highlights from working at New Verve?

One of the main highlights from working at New Verve has definitely been being able to see the content I have made, such as blog posts and case studies on the website. It’s very rewarding to see the end product of the tasks I have completed and has been a huge learning curve for me. I have especially enjoyed completing case studies, as they require a bit more problem solving and allow me to learn about solutions that New Verve has offered in the past. The learning opportunities and support throughout this internship have been immense, and I felt like I was given the independence to pursue what I was interested in.

Another highlight for me has been the socials; it’s clear that New Verve puts a lot of effort into maintaining its work culture, and this is reflected through both the in-person and remote socials. The socials gave everyone an opportunity to wind down and learn more about each other, and were very valuable to me throughout my internship.

How have you made the most of your internship experience?

This internship experience has allowed me to reflect on what I enjoy about marketing, and pursue the aspects of it that I find the most interesting. The marketing team encouraged me and assisted me with any opportunities I wanted to follow, and even recommended Atlassian courses I could undertake as part of my enablement. Throughout the internship, it was clear that New Verve always considered what was in my best interest and gave me the freedom to grow and learn.

I felt that I have truly made the most of my internship by asking questions and finding out more about different areas of marketing. Looking back, I’m proud of the work I’ve completed and I’m so thankful to New Verve for providing me with the tools and support along the way. I was given opportunities to be responsible for certain tasks within the department, and this allowed me to further learn how to prioritise my workload and take responsibility in a real-life professional setting.

How do you feel about your career after this internship experience at New Verve?

After an extremely positive experience at New Verve, I feel even more sure of pursuing a career in marketing. By being able to gain valuable insight into the industry under such a supportive environment I had the best opportunity to learn about what a job in marketing would look like. I was lucky enough to have been offered to stay with New Verve in a permanent position, and I greatly look forward to what the future with the company brings, as well as staying within such a supportive working environment.

If you were to sum up your time at New Verve in a sentence - what would you say?

New Verve has supported me and allowed me to progress in such a valuable way; it’s clear that the company values its workers and aims to grow with them.

]]>
2023-08-10T09:12:00+00:00
<![CDATA[Integrating Jira Service Management and Confluence]]> https://www.newverveconsulting.com/blog/integrating-jira-service-management-and-confluence https://www.newverveconsulting.com/blog/integrating-jira-service-management-and-confluence#When:09:05:00Z

Jira Service Management and Confluence are both powerful, Atlassian-made tools but have you ever thought of using both tools together? You can streamline your Jira Service Management output and enhance your customer support experience by utilising Confluence’s native knowledge base capabilities.

By integrating Confluence and Jira Service management you can save your team time while still providing your top quality support. In this blog, we’ll take you through why you should be using these tools together, give you some helpful tips and explain the benefits for your team and customers.

Introduction to the tools

Jira Service Management (JSM) is Atlassian’s answer to service request management. It’s a service desk tool that allows you to easily receive, track, manage, and resolve requests from your customers and your team. By organizing and prioritizing these requests in a single place, JSM makes it simple to categorize service requests, incidents, problems, and changes and keeps your team on track with service-level agreements.

Confluence is a remote-friendly team workspace where teams can build, organise, and collaborate in one place. From projects, company policies and beyond, Atlassian’s wiki space allows company-wide collaboration with comments, mentions, notifications, and co-editing so everyone is kept up to speed.

Why integrate Jira Service Management and Confluence?

Create a knowledge base with Confluence

Using Confluence as a knowledge base allows you to store FAQs, how-tos, troubleshooting articles, and other helpful info that your team and customers may need to refer to. Confluence’s native features make this process very easy to get started and organise your space. The tool includes article templates, extensive page customisation options, a pre-configured overview page with the Livesearch and content by label macros.

You can take your knowledge base to the next level by integrating it with your service desk. Information shared within service desk issues has the potential to get lost in the text but by integrating a knowledge base, your team can capture and document valuable information in one place.

Atlassian Support’s knowledge base powered by Confluence
Atlassian Support’s knowledge base powered by Confluence


Recommend knowledge base articles within your service portal

You can make your knowledge base even more accessible by enabling auto-search within your service desk. This assists your customers in finding relevant information about their problems and can even provide solutions that they can read within Jira Service Management.

Not only does the process provide quick answers for customers, but it can also help save your team time by easily answering common requests. Atlassian reports that using a Confluence-powered knowledge base with Jira Service Management has been shown to deflect up to 45% of customer-reported requests.

*Atlassian
*Atlassian

Of course, there may be issues that your knowledge base is unable to solve alone and that’s where the seamless integration between Confluence and Jira Service Management really comes into effect. Users can easily share articles with customers within Jira Service Management, without interrupting their workflow. Admins can also view knowledge base articles in the Knowledge Base section of your JSM and quickly jump into Confluence to edit articles if needed.

Continuously improve your customer service with insights

So that your team can keep improving their customer service, Jira Service Management and Confluence provide built-in customer feedback features and comprehensive reporting. You can use this information to develop your knowledge base by cleaning up information or adding in missing solutions.

The Confluence and Jira Service Management integration makes it easy to create new articles from useful information in a request when the solution can’t be found. With just one click, admins can create new articles directly from a service desk issue.

Not only can you fill in the gaps in your knowledge base but you can also discover where answers could be streamlined. Insights from your knowledge base usage can help you to standardize answers to common customer questions instead of offering multiple responses from different sources or pages.

Capturing customer feedback and deflected ticket data is essential in improving your customer support as it can also highlight which articles are working well. It provides data supporting the success of your knowledge base through the deflected and resolved request insight reports.

Using Confluence with your Jira Service management allows you to harness the power of both tools and create a streamlined and user-friendly output. Not only can it save both your team and customers time, but it helps you enhance your customer support experience.

Want to get started with JSM or Confluence? Or maybe you’re using the tools already but are looking to power up your solution? Well, the New Verve team can help! Get in touch to speak to one of our Atlassian experts and we can help your team get the most out of your Atlassian tools.

]]>
2023-07-27T09:05:00+00:00
<![CDATA[Jira vs Plane: Which system is right for you?]]> https://www.newverveconsulting.com/blog/jira-vs-plane-which-system-is-right-for-you https://www.newverveconsulting.com/blog/jira-vs-plane-which-system-is-right-for-you#When:10:15:00Z

​The project management world is abuzz; a new work management tool has come along to challenge the status quo. Plane has begun to gain traction within the work management sector. It operates as an open-source software development tool that can be used to effectively manage issues, sprints and product roadmaps. As Plane becomes fully realised, we thought it would be helpful to investigate features within Jira vs Plane, in order to assist your team in making a decision.

Introducing Jira and Plane

Jira is a software application developed by Atlassian which is primarily used for issue and bug tracking, alongside project management. Currently, it is estimated that Jira holds around 86.6% of the bug-and-issue-tracking market. This is partly due to the functionality within the software, which allows users to define their own processes and facilitate collaboration between team members. Jira software is typically used by companies that undertake an agile approach and can be used by a variety of business teams outside of software development and IT. In comparison to the other project management alternatives, Jira offers agile support, ensuring that your team feels confident in their decisions.

Plane, on the other hand, operates as an open-source project management tool that allows teams to manage all the relevant components of their product roadmap. Unlike Jira, Plane is powered by AI and is dependent on feedback from its users and the wider community to continue improving its product. This AI component was developed using OpenAI as a base, with LangChain being incorporated as an interface. Plane is composed of a specially selected tech stack, with Next.js acting on its front end, and Django for its back end. Additionally, Gateway and Pilot act as proxy servers and an interface for building integrations, respectively.

Despite having clear similarities, it is important to consider how each of these tools can be used to best benefit your team. We have decided to analyse the long-term capabilities of each project management tool, and how we believe they will assist your team.

A comparison of Jira (bottom left) and Plane (top right) interfaces
A comparison of Jira (bottom left) and Plane (top right) interfaces

Considering the Features Available: Jira vs Plane

Structure & Integrations

Jira

One of the main reasons for Jira’s popularity is its easily accessible and intuitively structured interface. Users are able to manage projects and tasks through a centralised hub within a Jira instance, which can be easily customised to meet a team’s needs. Teams are able to manage their projects in accordance with the agile methodology by tracking issues, collaborating and streamlining their workflows. In addition to this, Jira offers a multitude of integrations designed to improve workflow. Some of the most popular integrations include development tools Git, GitHub and Bitbucket, which allow users to keep track of any code-related information stored within Jira. Furthermore, integrations with collaboration tools such as Confluence and Slack facilitate effective communication within a team.

Plane

Similarly to Jira, Plane is structured with a clean and responsive interface which allows users to create issues and track them within projects. Plane also relies heavily on agile methodology, and allows users to effectively visualise their projects and track productivity. In contrast to Jira, Plane encourages users to make use of keyboard functions with the ‘Command + K’ menu, which stores all projects in one convenient location. As for integrations, Plane is currently synced with GitHub for teams using the cloud version, with other third-party integrations being a work in progress.

Integrations within Plane
Integrations within Plane

Workflow Automation

Jira

Jira allows users to easily automate any task without the need for coding through Jira Automation. In addition to the built-in automation within this feature, users are able to create custom automation rules that follow certain triggers, conditions and actions with just a few clicks. This makes workflow automation easy and accessible to all members of a team and ensures that progress remains consistent. This automation also works across a variety of platforms such as Slack, Bitbucket and GitHub, making integration between different platforms even smoother. Atlassian is also currently working on new AI features designed to offer assistance at any stage of use.

Plane

As an open-source tool which is powered by AI, Plane also provides users with many options for workflow automation. When creating an issue, users are given an automation option of “I’m feeling lucky” to add detail to their issue based on any information given. This is demonstrated below, where the main body of a ticket was generated simply by typing “Test” as a title and selecting the “I’m feeling lucky” option. Furthermore, the AI option in the ticket allows users to search for information or ask questions related to a ticket, without the need of searching outside the software.

Automation in Plane
Automation in Plane

Security & Reliability

Jira

Atlassian has long enforced a commitment to delivering a high level of security, reliability and privacy across their products. In addition to supporting various authentication methods, Jira offers robust user access controls designed to manage permissions and restrict access to information. Atlassian undertakes a layered approach towards their data protection, with tools such as a detection program, secure software development, and external penetration testing, users can be assured that their data is secured. Reliability is also closely monitored alongside this, with teams being offered a financially-backed SLA of 99.95%.

Plane

Plane states that security is one of its top priorities, with data encryption and regular security updates engineered to protect its user’s data. As Plane is still in its early days, reliability may be an issue. However, they have open communication channels on their Discord, GitHub and Twitter, where users can raise concerns regarding any bugs, alongside leaving suggestions for improvement. Plane is aware of the limitations of being a newcomer, and seems to be eager to work collaboratively with its users to create an even more reliable project management software.

Cost

Both Jira and Plane boast similar features designed to enhance your workflow. In terms of price, Jira offers more options. Teams can choose from four different subscription levels, which are determined based on team size, and have the option to pay either monthly or annually. As of now, Plane only offers a free subscription level, with their ‘Pro’ paid subscription coming soon.

Which system is most appropriate for your team?

While Jira is much more established than Plane, there seem to be a variety of interesting features in the works for the new project management software. However, it cannot be ignored that Plane is still in the early stages of its development, meaning that those looking to take a tried and tested approach will find more benefit from using Jira.

These tools sit at the heart of business-critical operations, therefore it’s important to know you can rely on them. While Plane certainly offers some interesting new features, we’d hesitate to move to this new tool while it’s still in those early stages. It’s one to watch - but our vote is still for Jira.

If you would like more information on how Jira compares to other project management tools, check out our various blogs on Atlassian products. Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any further questions!

]]>
2023-07-11T10:15:00+00:00