Getting Git Right 2014

On 22nd September 2014, Atlassian is in Singapore for the 1st time to host Getting Git Right 2014 . Atlassian is well-known for their developer tools such as JIRA, Confluence, etc. The team spent the afternoon in town to talk about how Git together with Stash can help developers work more productively and deliver products faster.

Git makes you happy

Stash is a Git repository management software to enable users to collaborate on their code better. Revision control and source code management is becoming increasingly essential for development teams big or small. It helps developers to collaborate more efficiently, hence the proliferation of Git adoption for developer teams and increasing interest in products like Stash.

Who uses Git

The Atlassian team shared their best practices on development workflows such as how to integrate Git into the system and how to use Git for faster releases. The revision control provides users with records of changes made to projects thereby empowering them in tracking and recovery of source code.

git log

A lucky attendee walked home with our Intel® NUC mini server with Atlassian Git Essentials (JIRA+JIRA Agile+Bamboo+Stash) pre-installed. Our Git Essentials Mini-Server is targeted towards startups and small teams as it is both energy-saving and space-saving.

NUC winner

Win free copies of the newly published JIRA 6.x Administration Cookbook

Readers would be pleased to know that we have teamed up with Packt Publishing to organize a giveaway of the new JIRA 6.x Administration Cookbook that we have reviewed recently (See Book Review: JIRA 6.x Administration Cookbook).

Three lucky winners stand a chance to win a digital copy of this book each.

How to Enter?

All you need to do is head on over to the book page and look through the product description of the book and drop a line via the comments below this post to let us know what interests you the most about this book. It’s that simple.

The first 3 valid respondents will get an e-copy of the Book.

Deadline

The contest will close on till 17th Sep 2014. Winners will be contacted by email, so be sure to use your real email address when you comment!

Book Review: JIRA 6.x Administrator Cookbook

JIRA 6.x Administrator Cookbook

I was excited to receive an invitation from Packt Publishing to do a book review on JIRA 6.x Administrator Cookbook.

Being an Atlassian Expert, it can be scary to see such books coming into the market because the tricks of the trade are being wiki-leaked. However, it also means JIRA has matured and is getting increasing adoption.

I think the tagline for the book “Quick answers to common problems” is quite apt. It contains a lot of recipes to questions that we encounter day-to-day. Some of the answers are similar to what we are doing for ourselves or have done for our customers.

The book is well structured with clearly illustrated steps and notes to highlight salient points. The e-book also contains coloured screenshots that makes it easier to see the highlighted text.

Some interesting topics include:

How to reset the JIRA administrator password
Using Javascript with custom fields
Creating custom fields with custom logic
How to migrate JIRA to another environment

There are also chapters covering:

JIRA workflows
JIRA security
JIRA customizations
Integration JIRA with other applications

This book has a lot of practical recipes and is useful for those who want to administer their own JIRA instance.

For those who are keen to pick up JIRA add-on development, you can also check out the JIRA 5.x Developer Cookbook

Deploying Atlassian tools for the Enterprise

Over these years, the customer base of Atlassian have evolved from a small companies who hosted their server under someone’s table to large enterprises. Their tools are being used by NASA for space exploration projects and Rakuten for development of the Japan’s biggest online marketplace.

Many customers have been demanding for improvements for robustness such as clustering, high availability and higher levels of support. So if you are deploying Atlassian products, you might be interested to know their new offerings:

JIRA/Confluence Data Center

Designed for high availability and performance at scale
Provides active-active clustering to ensure users have uninterrupted access
Increases concurrent usage capacity without sacrificing performance
New nodes can be added without taking the system offline
Data Center is available at US$24,000 per year for every 1,000 users
Together withthe introduction of the Data Center, there are 3 flavours available for different types of users
- Server (previously known as Download)
- Cloud (previously known as OnDemand)
- Data Center (new license)

Different flavours of deployment

For differences between Server and Cloud editions, check out our Infographic- Atlassian OnDemand vs In-Premise.

Technical Account Management Programme

Provides 1:1 guidance to help with operational activities, governance and strategic planning to get the most from your Atlassian investment
A Technical Account Manager (TAM) from Atlassian will be assigned
Available 1 day per week for US$60,000/year

Premier Support

Provide access to a dedicated team of senior support engineers with enhanced SLAs and availability
Has intimate knowledge of your environment to quickly address and manage critical incidents
Premier support is available for US$35,000/year

For on-site support in Singapore, we have specialised local support plans as well.

For those who are keen on JIRA Data Center, there are some other useful resources:

How we are using JIRA for Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA)

The Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) has come effect from 2nd July 2014

The PDPA establishes a data protection law that comprises various rules governing the collection, use, disclosure and care of personal data. It recognises both the rights of individuals to protect their personal data, including rights of access and correction, and the needs of organisations to collect, use or disclose personal data for legitimate and reasonable purposes.

Data Security

We recently completed an enhancement for Data Request Tracking with JIRA.
This enhancement tracks all requests and facilitate the approvals that is pertaining to personal data.

Some of the steps required are:

create a new issue type “Data Request”
create a new project for Data Request
add those fields that you need to track
associate the fields to the screens
copy the default workflow and change it with the Workflow Designer
associate the schemes to the project
If you need reports, you can create a dashboard and add some of the built-in gadgets

By using a centralised application instead of emails to track all the requests, it provides visibility in the handling of all requests and fulfils the audit requirements.

We thought it was useful and adapted it for ourselves. Hence, if you have previously submitted your personal data to us, you know your data is safe.

If you are using JIRA, you can start tracking your Data Requests today!

Akeles Consulting

Achieving Knowledge Excellence in Learning EnterpriseS

Posted by akeles