Atlassian Knowledge Hub

Atlassian in the Enterprise

Atlassian’s suite - Jira Software, Jira Service Management (JSM), and Confluence - offers a strong foundation for both service management and work management. As organisations seek more flexibility, many are moving away from monolithic ITSM platforms and towards tools like Jira that can flex across IT and non-IT use cases.

What makes Jira attractive to IT leaders?

• Unified tooling
  One system for tracking development, support, and business operations.
  
  
• Scalability
  From a single team to hundreds, Jira supports organic growth.
  
  
• Marketplace ecosystem
  Integrate with tools like Tempo, Zephyr, Insight, or extend via APIs.
  
  
• Cloud-first roadmap
  With Atlassian focusing on Cloud, many are reassessing their current deployment models.

But to deliver value, these tools need to be more than technically implemented - they must be operationalised within your organisation’s processes and culture.

Where Jira and JSM Fit: Service & Work Management

Atlassian’s strength lies in its ability to support both Service Management (JSM) and Work Management (Jira Software and Jira Work Management) across the enterprise.

• ITSM and ESM: Jira Service Management covers the core ITIL processes out of the box - Incidents, Service Requests, Changes, and Problems - and can scale to support HR, Facilities, Finance and more.

• Work Management: Jira isn’t just for development. It provides a structured way to manage marketing projects, transformation programmes, business operations, and strategic planning - allowing business teams to benefit from workflows, SLAs, approvals, and reporting.

This dual use means IT leaders can rationalise tooling, reduce hand-offs, and offer a more consistent digital experience for internal users and customers alike.

Getting Jira to Work for You, Not Just with You

Jira can reflect almost any process - but that’s part of the challenge. Without a clear design approach, many Jira instances become inconsistent and hard to govern.

From our experience, a successful Jira or JSM implementation requires:

• Clear outcomes and reporting needs defined at the outset
• Adoption-focused design - users need clarity, not complexity
• A scalable operating model - templates, automation, and conventions that don’t collapse at scale
• Early wins that build confidence while setting the stage for broader change

We’ve helped teams move from fragmented, email-based ticketing to structured ITSM solutions using Jira Service Management. Others have consolidated siloed work tracking tools into unified Jira configurations with clear reporting for execs and team leads.

Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

Some of the most common failure points we see when organisations self-implement include:

• Over-customisation
  Making Jira mimic a previous tool rather than embracing its strengths

• No shared design model
  Teams implement in isolation, creating sprawl and inconsistency

• Lack of stakeholder involvement
  Leading to low adoption and fragmented usage

• Inadequate reporting: Making it hard to answer executive-level questions

By contrast, organisations that succeed with Jira have clear governance, a modular design approach, and a focus on adoption - not just tooling.

When Migration is More Than a Technical Exercise

Moving to Atlassian Cloud is often positioned as a simple lift-and-shift. But for most organisations, migration is an opportunity to clean up, standardise, and rethink.

Common triggers for migration include:

• End of support for Atlassian Server
• The need to reduce internal maintenance overhead
• A desire to consolidate toolsets post-merger or restructure
• Security and compliance requirements

Migrations we’ve delivered (e.g. for Rainforest Alliance, Aurora Commerce, and others) show that success comes from treating migration as both a technical and operational transformation - with clear change management, user enablement, and governance.

Rainforest Alliance Case Study - Read More  >>
Aurora Commerce Case Study - Read More  >>

What Operating Model Works Best?

There is no one-size-fits-all model, but we typically recommend:

• Templates and schemes that allow for flexibility but maintain consistency
• Decentralised ownership with central governance
• Common design language - naming conventions, field configurations, issue types
• Dashboards and KPIs mapped to actual decision-making needs

Your Jira or JSM setup should reflect your team structures and approval flows - but it should also be teachable and replicable across new teams without needing an admin every time.

Reporting, Metrics, and Executive Visibility

Visibility drives trust in the system. That means meaningful reporting from day one - not just raw data.

Using tools like Tempo Timesheets, Jira Dashboards, and Confluence, BDQ helps IT leaders:

• Track demand across IT and business teams
• Monitor time logged for tax reporting or customer billing
• Compare planned vs actual effort for better resourcing
• Build real-time dashboards for SLAs, team performance, or backlog health

When properly configured, Jira becomes not just a work tracking tool - but an executive reporting system built on live operational data.

Real-World Applications: What We’ve Seen Work

BDQ has delivered outcomes across a range of sectors and use cases:

How BDQ Can Help

We help IT leaders get more from their Atlassian investment. Not just tools - but outcomes.

Our expertise spans:

• ITSM and ESM solutions with Jira Service Management
• Work management platforms using Jira and Confluence
• Migrations from Server to Cloud with zero downtime
• Adoption strategies, templates, and operating models
• Training, superuser enablement, and enhancement support

We work with enterprises, mid-market organisations, and high-growth teams to implement structured, scalable, and reportable Atlassian environments that actually get used.

Conclusion

Atlassian tools are built for flexibility - but real value comes when that flexibility is channelled into structured, scalable solutions. For IT Directors and Heads of IT, this isn’t about adopting the latest platform - it’s about enabling visibility, control, and collaboration across increasingly complex organisations.

Whether you’re delivering IT services, coordinating cross-functional programmes, or preparing for a cloud migration, the opportunity is clear: to consolidate tools, align teams, and build systems that reflect how your business actually operates.

With the right operating model, governance, and user adoption strategy, Atlassian can evolve from a team tool into a platform for enterprise work management and service delivery.

If you're at a turning point - whether due to growth, technical debt, or strategic transformation - now is the time to rethink how Jira, JSM, and Confluence fit into your digital operating model.

The tools are there. The question is: how will you use them?

This guide is part of BDQ’s Knowledge Hub, aimed at IT and service leaders looking to modernise internal service delivery, improve employee experience, and connect service management with the way work actually gets done.