Development team working at desks with monitors and laptops in a bright loft office

Case Study · Manufacturing

Change Management for Developer Self-Service and Knowledge Base with Confluence and Jira Service Management

See how our customer revolutionized their development processes with Confluence and Jira. Maximum efficiency through a central knowledge base and automated processes.

The Story

Our customer, a leading company in its industry, 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, for example creating AWS organization accounts and Microsoft Copilot accounts (ChatGPT/OpenAI for internal use), reducing the time required from several days to just one hour.

However, introducing new technologies is often accompanied by challenges, especially with regard to user acceptance and effective use by the teams.

Interior of a factory hall with orange robots, conveyor systems and yellow floor markings

The Challenge

The biggest challenge for the company was ensuring that employees could transition seamlessly to using the developer self-service. Despite the clear benefits of the new system, there was significant resistance and unease about change within the workforce.

Our customer's employees were used to traditional processes and were reluctant to adopt new technologies because they didn't 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.

The Approach

To address these challenges, our customer needed a change management strategy supported by Confluence and Jira Service Management as key tools. The strategy was meant to enable faster user acceptance 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 the developer self-service. It included step-by-step instructions for creating AWS organization and Microsoft Copilot 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?

Smart Courses plugin for on-demand video courses, product-related (for example developer self-service) and topic-related (for example cloud, DevOps). Smart Courses for Confluence is a plugin that adds interactive learning features directly into Atlassian Confluence. It allows our customer to create and deliver training content, including courses, quizzes, assessments and certificates, all within the Confluence platform.
Structured knowledge organized into categories, product-related (for example developer self-service) and topic-related (for example cloud, DevOps).
Refined plugin for a website-like feel in Confluence, allowing the customer to improve the user experience without compromising knowledge transfer. This is achieved through a dedicated menu, page structure and links to the self-service, the company intranet and other key tools.

Jira Service Management played a crucial role in streamlining support and request management.

With this tool, developers could quickly create tickets for any issues that arose when using the new developer self-service portal. Using Jira Service Management ensured that support requests were managed, tracked and resolved efficiently, significantly reducing downtime and frustration within the development team.

In addition, JSM is closely linked to the Confluence knowledge base and lets users get answers to their questions before submitting a request to the main service desk. That's because Jira Service Management can pull content from Confluence and offer it directly as a solution to the question, before a new request needs to be created.

Learn more about the developer self-service in the success story: How BSH Provisions Its Cloud Infrastructure – Container8

Three results from the stakeholder workshops: a wall covered in sticky notes, a persona card, and a "What's in it for me?" analysis with quotes per audience

Implementation

The implementation process was structured and phased. It began with stakeholder engagement, bringing in key stakeholders from various departments early on to secure support and input.

We conducted interviews with stakeholders to find out what pains, challenges, hopes and benefits each interest group has in their current position and daily work. This research also allowed the development team behind the developer self-service to implement important features based on the stakeholder interviews. That in turn increases the chances of the change succeeding.

The AWS self-service portal in Jira Service Management: request type selection on the left, the form for a new AWS account on the right

Communication Plan

To ensure the successful rollout of our developer self-service tools, we created a precise communication plan tailored to inform, involve and empower all stakeholders. The strategy focused on:

• Audience segmentation: tailored messages for executives, IT and development teams, support staff and all employees, to address specific interests and concerns.
• Using multiple channels: email campaigns, the intranet, interactive workshops and feedback surveys, to effectively reach everyone.
• Developing engaging content: a launch announcement laying out the project's importance; user guides and FAQs hosted on Confluence for easier access; a schedule of training sessions to make sure users were well prepared; and success stories to highlight early adopters and the benefits achieved.
• Feedback loop: collecting feedback and acting on it is essential for continuous improvement.

Our goal was to enable a smooth transition to these new tools, underscored by the benefits of streamlined processes and increased productivity. Through targeted communication and solid support, we expected a swift and effective rollout across the whole company.

Three ways of sharing knowledge: a blog post about cloud automation, the Academy portal in Confluence, and a demo video

Training & Support

Training and support were key parts of the implementation phase. Tailored training programs, including webinars and online courses, were developed and made available via Confluence so employees could learn independently.

Ongoing support was provided through a service desk (Jira Service Management), where employees could request help as needed. In addition, employees were encouraged to create their own content for the learning platform, to help colleagues with difficult tasks and spread their knowledge.

Key elements of our approach include:

• Tailored training sessions: interactive workshops and webinars tailored to different teams and roles ensure relevant and effective learning experiences.
• Accessible resources: a central repository on Confluence with user guides, FAQs and tutorials that enable self-paced learning.
• Ongoing support: a dedicated Jira Service Management portal through which users can easily submit requests or issues, to ensure timely support.
• Peer learning: fostering knowledge sharing through internal forums and discussion groups, to create a collaborative learning environment.

Result

The change management strategy supported by Confluence and Jira Service Management led to significantly faster user acceptance across the whole company. Users quickly became familiar with the new self-service portal, leading to a substantial reduction in the time spent accessing and managing development resources.

The centralized knowledge base in Confluence became an invaluable asset for the development team, as it fostered self-learning and reduced dependence 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.

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