$20 billion startup Atlassian explains why it's blowing up its oldest product to evolve with today's software teams
AtlassianAtlassian cofounders Mike Cannon-Brookes (left) and Scott Farquhar (right)
- On Thursday, Atlassian announced the launch of a new version of Jira, its product for tracking the progress of software development projects.
- Jira was redesigned to progress with modern software development teams, which are becoming smaller and more agile.
- The new Jira has a Trello influence, with features that allow users to customize and build their own boards for their tasks.
Atlassian's most popular product is getting a big makeover - so big, that it's practically a different product.
The Australian tech company valued at $20 billion created its Jira software development platform back when the company was founded in 2002. With the new generation of Jira Software being announced on Thursday, less than 1 percent of the original code used to create Jira is still there, the Atlassian team says.
That's important because the world of software development has changed a lot since 2002.
Jira records the progress made in software projects, essentially like a to-do schedule for the code that still needs to be finished and the bugs that need to be fixed. It's used by developers at major companies like Cisco, Spotify, Airbnb, Square and eBay.
The new Jira has a minimalist look and various echoes of Trello, which Atlassian bought in 2017 for $425 million.
Most notably, Atlassian has introduced build-your-own boards for users and teams to customize their own workflows in the new Jira. The new layout delivers file previews to prioritize images and design prototypes, which helps as software developers increasingly work more with designers.
Built for smaller teams that ship faster
Atlassian decided to completely uproot and redesign Jira to keep up with changes in how software development teams work today.
For one, software teams are getting smaller and shipping out products more often. For another, they're increasingly becoming more agile, meaning that they're more collaborative, continuously developing and need a flexible response to change.
"We're going from bigger teams shipping a couple of times a year to smaller teams shipping multiple times a year," Sean Regan, head of growth for Software Teams, told Business Insider. "The agile manifesto is becoming possible."
Regan acknowledges that the new version of Jira has an influence from Trello. It's also integrated with Bitbucket, GitLab, GitHub and Slack.
"We combine the simplicity and beauty of Trello with the power of Jira," Regan said.
It also got easier for non-developers to use. Before, JQL or Jira Query Language was the most flexible way to search for issues in Jira, which required knowing some programming syntax.
Now, the new Jira includes filters that can help users create a custom view of their board based on issue owners, labels and more. Users can view their own board and what they need to do, as well as what the team as a whole needs to do.
Jira also will have a new roadmap feature that anyone on the team can access to find out the most up-to-date progress of the project.
"It's how fast you can make a change and if you can figure out how to respond to it," Regan said. "People need to come into it from any team and be able to get it."