A superb piece of challenge administration software program is value its weight in gold. It may make every thing somewhat simpler. From serving to PMs keep linked with their groups to producing notifications for pressing issues, when used correctly, software program can increase general productiveness.
Unsurprisingly, a handful of main options in recent times have emerged because the go-to alternative for PMs. Specifically, Excel, Confluence, and Jira stand out, particularly for Agile groups. However are they nearly as good as you would possibly assume?
To PMs and Agile groups worldwide, the title Excel is a well-known one. At this time, there are effectively over 750 million Excel customers throughout the globe, dispersed throughout quite a few fields from engineering to finance. Created by Microsoft, Excel has now change into synonymous with any kind of labor that makes use of spreadsheets.
It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that everyone acknowledges Excel.)
This ubiquity isn’t with out good purpose. Excel has change into a staple for these working with information because of its wide-ranging functionalities. This consists of its capability to create prolonged spreadsheets, its hundreds of in-built formulation able to dealing with complicated information evaluation, and its huge array of information visualization capabilities.
That stated, Excel falls brief for Agile groups and PMs. Although inexpensive and succesful, in digital-first environments the place effectivity is king, relying solely on Excel for challenge administration is detrimental. Updating initiatives requires customers to manually entry and save the most recent model of a file, reviews should be laboriously generated, and very important collaboration capabilities like chats and file sharing can’t be accomplished.
In brief, Excel wasn’t particularly designed for the PM, so absolutely the grass have to be greener on the opposite facet?
Enter Jira and Confluence. Trusted by over 65,000 firms globally and created by Atlassian, it presents the right, complete answer for PMs for all levels of a challenge from initiation to closure.
Jira was clearly designed for challenge administration, not like Excel.
Better of all, not like Excel, PMs can even relaxation straightforward understanding that every thing was catered for challenge administration in thoughts. Confluence can be utilized as a knowledge-sharing platform to share concepts, charts, and paperwork each inside and past the crew. Concurrently, Jira will be finetuned for any challenge, providing PMs the ability to trace points, customise workflows, lay out roadmaps, and set permissions accordingly.
However like Excel, they aren’t with out flaws proper out of the field. The duo lacks one key operate: permitting customers to control, analyze, and visualize information past the slim parameters provided by Jira and Confluence.
This causes many to resort to switching forwards and backwards between Excel, Jira, and Confluence. Whereas this appears acceptable on paper, it might probably result in regarding issues.
The ping pong between the three options is extra problematic than what you’d initially assume. It may trigger regarding brief and long-term points resembling:
Inconvenience
Shifting between apps could appear doable every day however when you think about the long-term image, that point provides up. It may be extremely time-consuming, taking away time that might in any other case be higher spent on extra value-adding work.
Satirically, the very software program you invested in to make work extra productive will begin to do precisely what it was not supposed to do.
Inconsistency
On prime of being a productiveness killer, utilizing a number of totally different apps concurrently additionally will increase the chance of human error and may diminish a challenge’s single supply of reality (SSOT), the follow of making certain that the most recent data will be present in a single location. A research by Asana in 2021 discovered that in groups that switched between apps, as much as 24% of labor was unintentionally duplicated whereas 27% of work-related messages have been neglected.
An SSOT is essential in making certain that everybody in a crew is aware of precisely what they and others are presently engaged on because it establishes each transparency and readability. However with out this, disruption turns into the norm.
Frustration
All these points mixed create issues that (unsurprisingly) foster a extra tense work surroundings. With app switching inflicting extra issues than it’s value, with extra frequent errors, duplicate work, and time-wasting, the idiom “too many cooks spoil the soup” holds true.
Software program is supposed to make life simpler. However when bombarded with an excessive amount of, it makes every thing extra tense.
So, for PMs eager to take their expertise to the subsequent degree, the subsequent step is obvious. They’ll must one way or the other unite each side and entry Excel-like capabilities inside Confluence and Jira to convey out the perfect of each worlds. Attaining this union can allow PMs to do the next:
Information Visualization and Analytics
Bringing the ability of Excel to the Atlassian ecosystem is an enormous deal and can’t be overemphasized. The dearth of sturdy information manipulation instruments has all the time been an unfulfilled need for a lot of Jira and Confluence customers and bridging this hole could flip the duo into probably the most highly effective options presently available in the market.
With the assist of Excel’s toolkit in Jira and Confluence, PMs could have now the newfound capability to conduct complicated analyses with the assistance of formulae resembling SUM and Bitwise. They’ll even be capable of create Gantt charts and elaborate tables with out ever needing to change to a different, exterior app.
Reduces Dangers
By eliminating the necessity to soar round Confluence, Jira, and Excel, any points related to switching between apps are minimized. This consists of each duplicate efforts and human error (e.g. misunderstandings).
Moreover, an SSOT can now be correctly established. Group members will be capable of freely edit Excel-like spreadsheets and charts on Jira and Confluence and as soon as accomplished, can heave a sigh of reduction, understanding that the modifications they made will probably be instantly saved and mirrored for everybody.
Enhances Safety
Eliminating the necessity to swap between apps additionally helps higher safe delicate information. That is particularly the case for groups coping with delicate information (e.g. well being data, monetary info) and is essential for anybody involved with sustaining their model picture.
By accessing Excel inside Confluence or Jira, any related information can even be saved throughout the Atlassian ecosystem which is named being extraordinarily safe. This additionally reduces the variety of locations the place information is saved, serving to decrease the variety of potential exploitable entry factors for a knowledge breach.
Bridging Excel with the duo is extra easy than what you’d anticipate. Ricksoft particularly has acknowledged the significance of this problem and has crafted a particular answer for PMs: the Excel-like Suite.
Break up into three distinctive options, every app was designed to resolve a selected set of issues.
The suite brings Excel’s energy to any Confluence or Jira doorstep.
Excel-like Tables for Confluence arms PMs and Confluence admins with highly effective Excel-like capabilities from filters to CQL searchability, reworking their areas into one thing greater than a easy file and knowledge-sharing platform.
Excel-like Problem Editor for Jira helps PMs deal with hundreds of various points all on the similar time. With the flexibility to bulk edit mixed with the potential to type, filter, freeze, and extra, PMs can now harness the ability of Excel to take the reins of any challenge, no matter complexity.
Excel-like Tables for Jira, much like its sibling answer, brings Excel tables to Jira’s doorstep. Conducting information evaluation, charting graphs, and using pivot tables – all this may now be accomplished with out the effort of switching to a different utility.
Your Subsequent Transfer
A superb PM is a PM who always seeks to enhance each themselves and the way they strategy managing a challenge. Supercharging Jira and Confluence with the ability of Excel is a certain approach to take action.
After all, what we’ve talked about about Ricksoft’s answer solely scratches the floor of what’s potential. To dive deeper into what’s potential, try Ricksoft’s huge number of free assets!