How to properly escalate issues with Atlassian

Every company has individual needs regarding its internal systems, wants special features and finds bugs, which may go unnoticed by other organizations because of differing workflows. Atlassian listens to their customers and offers a variety of possibilities to report certain issues to the developer teams and to push their implementation. What you can do, to escalate an issue:

Requirements for a successful escalation

First of all, you should be able to answer two major questions with ‘yes’:

  1. Did you create an issue on http://jira.atlassian.com? (Atlassian calls this JIRA instance JAC)
  2. Did you describe the case on http://answers.atlassian.com and asked a question?

If there is no issue on jira.atlassian.com and no question on answers.atlassian.com, your request is not very likely to be processed, only if you’re very lucky.

Analyze the options: Wait and see, increase priority, or establish a workaround.

It’s the nature of software development, that not all possible features can be implemented and that there are open, unfixed bugs. If customers, who have already done the steps above, approach us, we ask them the following questions:

  • When did you create the issues? Is it still pending or did Atlassian or somebody else already answer?
  • In your view, what could be the best possible solution for your problem?
  • Have you discovered any workaround during discussions or during the whole process? What is it? What disadvantages come along with it?
  • What problems have to be faced by your company, if the issue is not solved?
  • How much are you willing to pay for a solution of the issue?

If Atlassian doesn’t solve the issue directly, you should analyze, whether the bugfix or feature request is really worth the time and money, to increase the priority. Sometimes, waiting is not the worst option.

Increase the priority of an issue

If you need a solution and there is no workaround, you can increase the priority of the issue:

  • Collect votes on JAC: Ask your colleagues and your Atlassian partners to view the issue and vote for it.
  • Comment on the issue: Add comments and describe why a solution is important and helpful for your team. Find other teams, that add their opinion.
  • Increase the visibility via social media: Publish blog articles and tweets about your issue and collaborate with others that comment (retweet, likes, social support).
  • Lobby Atlassian yourself: Speak to Atlassian employees and describe your issue. Make it clear to them, why this issue is important. Also send them the link to the JAC issue via e-mail.
  • Get professional support: Contact an official Atlassian-partner like //SEIBERT/MEDIA, that knows the best contacts for you.
  • Get attention through our Enterprise Wishlist: Get your issues on our Enterprise Wishlist. We have lists with issues, that our bigger customers want to be solved. Whenever there is an opportunity, we bring these lists to Atlassian’s attention. Some examples can be found on our Feature Wish List.
  • Call Atlassian: If you are eligible for telephone support, call Atlassian and get a direct contact. If you don’t know whether you’re eligible for telephone support, don’t know the number of the telephone support or don’t want to do it yourself, just contact us. We are happy to help you.

Solve the issue on your own

It depends what it is about, but there are some possibilities for you to solve the issue on your own - from simple to complex:

  • Make use of a workaround.
  • Configure the system or the underlying infrastructure.
  • Make changes to the software interface. You can make major improvements of the interface using Theming (an example for Confluence).
  • Develop a plugin or modify the properties of the software. Don’t  underestimate this option. Atlassian uses plugins itself, wherever possible, to enrich the possibilities of its systems.
  • Change the core of the system. Atlassian offers paying customers full access to the source code. This should be the last resort, but it gives you full control over the whole software.

With the help of these measures, you are able to modify everything in your Atlassian system - from the interface to the core of the product.

What happens, if obviously nobody is interested in the bug?

Yes, a solution of an issue with a partner or with own resources costs money. The free option is to continue complaining about it.

Our advice: Leave your comfort-zone. Drive the solution forward together with the community, a partner like //SEIBERT/MEDIA or do it on your own. You want to talk about it? Feel free to contact us!

Further information

You want to introduce Atlassian tools or extend licenses? You have questions regarding technical or organizational aspects? We are official sales partner of Atlassian and one of the biggest Atlassian Experts worldwide. With the experience of hundreds of Atlassian projects we would be happy to support you with all issues around the entire product portfolio of Atlassian. Just contact us without any commitment.

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