$30 billion Atlassian just launched new features for its flagship Jira product that allows users to automate common tasks without having to write a single line of code.
This was made possible partly thanks to Code Barrel, a startup that Atlassian acquired in October. The startup's flagship software, an app called Automation for Jira, similarly helps its over 6,000 customers automate their most common, repetitive tasks.
Since the acquisition, Atlassian has been working to bake these automation features directly into its Jira Cloud software, which developers use to track bugs and their code progress. This officially launched on Thursday. Jira's automation features also integrate with outside tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams.
"We believe it's such a critical part of modern work that we want to make it available to all our customers as part of our standard package," Matt Ryall, Atlassian's head of product for Jira Software Cloud, told Business Insider.
Atlassian bills it as a "no-code" feature, which means that people can use the feature without having to write a single line of code. If users want to automate a certain task, they can use drag-and-drop buttons to set it up. The goal, Ryall says, is to make it as useful to as many customers as possible by letting them customize it to their heart's content.
"These are some things you can build with no code," Ryall said. "The possibilities are unlimited. We see customers doing many things with this platform. It's an incredible platform to unlock teamwork."
The 'foundation for all our products in the future'
Ryall says automation in Jira can help customers streamline their work and teams work more effectively together. As more developers need to release code faster and more often, they often have to use "arcane automation tools" that are difficult to use, he says.
"Automation is really a challenging space across the industry. Teams are trying to collaborate more," Ryall said. "There's more collaboration between small teams. As the industry moves to DevOps, it requires quite a lot of effort."
Developers often have to jump in and out of Jira to update their progress while writing code, he says. Now, he says, these new features make it easier for them to update Jira tickets while focusing on writing and releasing code. For example, they can set it up to connect to their development tools so that if they complete a task, the Jira ticket corresponding to the task will update automatically.
IT teams can also automatically set up Jira to alert people about high priority tickets, such as assigning the ticket and having Slack or a text message automatically notify the team.
"Automation being available to every customer really unlocks possibilities that we don't think would exist out there to see," Ryall said. "I'm excited to see what our customers come up with. We think automation is a big part of the future. This solution brings us much closer to reality."
Atlassian has already been working to add automation features to many of its products, and it plans to continue. For example, Atlassian's work management app subsidiary Trello recently acquired a similar no-code app called Butler. Ryall says there's also potential to make the process of releasing code to customers more automatic.
"This automation platform we're building now will be the foundation for all our products in the future," Ryall said. "These are some of the future possibilities we see for automation. It's connecting companies to customers. It's really an incredible tool. We're starting to scratch the surface of what's possible."
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