Atlassian Cloud Jira and Confluence to replace on-premise tools ahead of early 2025 retirement

The Division of Enrollment Management (DEM) has selected Atlassian Cloud Jira and Confluence to replace the current on-premise Jira and Confluence platforms as the university transitions away from the current versions. Atlassian Cloud was selected because of its ability to meet the Division’s identified needs while lessening the learning curve for end users already familiar with Jira and Confluence. This is expected to reduce potential disruptions to users during their day-to-day work. Now that a replacement product has been selected, Office of the Registrar (RO) IT portfolio manager Brittney Trimmer will work with project manager Christina Cline to ensure a smooth transition for DEM and its external SIS partners. The Division is also in the process of identifying an external implementation partner, which will assist in creating and executing the implementation plan. Work to identify a replacement for the on-premise versions of Jira and Confluence has been ongoing for months. In mid-November 2023, a cross-functional evaluation team consisting of representatives from across DEM and its external SIS partners put forth a recommendation that outlined requirements, pros, and cons of the tools evaluated and their recommendation. In addition to reviewing the Atlassian Cloud products, the team also assessed the benefits and drawbacks of using GitLab to track work and monitor project progress and using the UW–Madison KnowledgeBase (KB) database to house documentation. Earlier work focused on identifying features that are key to users to ensure parity in a new product. Currently, the Division of Information Technology (DoIT) maintains both Jira and Confluence using on-premises servers; large price increases and a vendor shift to cloud support make continuing to do so infeasible. At this time, no action is required. Further details, including training opportunities and action items, will be communicated as the implementation plan unfolds and the January 31, 2025, sunset date approaches.