In a world where teams are distributed, information is scattered, and transformation is continuous, organisations are looking for a better way to connect strategy with execution. Atlassian, the company behind Jira, Confluence, Trello, Bitbucket, and other popular collaboration tools, has introduced what it calls the system of work.
But this is more than just software. Atlassian’s system of work is a philosophy, a set of principles, and a connected toolset designed to help organisations scale collaboration, deliver outcomes faster, and build a shared understanding across departments.
Whether you are a CEO, CTO, CIO, CFO, CMO, or an engineering leader, understanding this system can help you break silos, improve visibility, and enable your teams to work toward common goals.
What is Atlassian’s system of work?
Atlassian defines the system of work as the “connected foundation of teamwork.” It is how teams:
- Connect their daily work to company goals
- Plan and track together in real time
- Share and find knowledge quickly
- Use AI as a teammate, not a tool
This system is powered by Atlassian’s suite of tools, including Jira, Confluence, Jira Service Management, Trello, Bitbucket, Compass, and its newest AI product, Rovo. It’s not a product you buy, but a way of working you adopt.
Let’s explore its four key principles.
- Align work to goals
Most organisations struggle with alignment. Strategy is defined at the top but rarely translated clearly to the teams doing the work. Atlassian’s system of work solves this by making company goals visible, measurable, and connected to daily tasks.
- Every initiative is linked to a goal in Jira or Jira Align
- Goals are shared transparently across the organisation
- Progress is tracked in dashboards that CXOs and teams can access in real time
The result? Better prioritisation, reduced waste, and a clearer line of sight between investment and impact.
According to Atlassian’s research, companies with aligned goals see a 75% success rate on major projects, compared to 57% without alignment.
- Plan and track work together
Work is no longer linear or isolated. Product teams, design, IT, security, and marketing all contribute to value delivery. Atlassian’s tools help organisations plan together, track together, and adapt together.
- Jira is used to break work down into issues, epics, and stories
- Project tracking is done in agile boards, roadmaps, and timelines
- Dependencies and blockers are visible across teams
With everything in one system, leaders can forecast more accurately, make faster decisions, and reduce duplicate work.
Teams that plan transparently in Jira are 4.6× more likely to hit their delivery timelines.
- Unleash collective knowledge
Knowledge is one of the most under-leveraged assets in a company. Employees spend hours each week searching for answers, asking repetitive questions, or sitting in meetings that could have been a document.
Atlassian promotes a culture of open documentation and asynchronous collaboration through Confluence and Loom.
- Teams use Confluence to document decisions, processes, onboarding, retrospectives, etc.
- Instead of meetings, they record Loom videos or write Confluence pages
- These pages are linked directly to Jira tasks and goals
This not only improves productivity but also builds a knowledge base that future employees can benefit from.
Fortune 500 companies lose 2.4 billion hours annually due to information search. Atlassian cut 500,000 meeting hours by adopting asynchronous knowledge sharing.
- Embed AI teammates
In 2024, Atlassian introduced Rovo, its new AI assistant that sits inside Jira, Confluence, and Jira Service Management. Unlike traditional chatbots, Rovo acts as a teammate.
- It answers questions based on your company’s documentation
- It summarises long Confluence pages or Jira tickets
- It can automate repetitive workflows (like onboarding, ticket triage, status updates)
Atlassian’s philosophy is to embed AI into every team’s daily workflow, not as a separate tool, but as an extension of the team.
Employees using AI teammates like Rovo report saving 1 hour per day on average.
Why CXOs should care
Atlassian’s system of work is not just a toolset. It is a strategic operating model for the digital enterprise.
Here’s how different CXOs benefit:
When implemented well, it transforms how companies make decisions, manage change, and deliver value.
Implementing Atlassian’s system of work in your organisation
So how do you go from theory to practice? Here is a practical roadmap we follow at enreap when we help clients adopt the system of work.
Step 1: Define and publish company goals
- Use Jira or Confluence to document top-level objectives and key results (OKRs)
- Make them visible to all teams
- Review progress weekly or monthly
Step 2: Standardise planning across teams
- Implement agile planning in Jira (Scrum, Kanban, or hybrid)
- Align epics and stories to goals
- Use dashboards for real-time reporting
Step 3: Create a culture of documentation
- Set up Confluence spaces for every department
- Move decisions, processes, onboarding docs, and meeting notes to Confluence
- Replace recurring meetings with asynchronous updates (Loom + Confluence)
Step 4: Embed AI teammates
- Integrate Rovo into Jira and Confluence
- Create AI agents for HR, IT support, onboarding, or product FAQs
- Train teams to use AI search before asking humans
Step 5: Measure, iterate, improve
- Track key metrics: time-to-value, alignment scores, work visibility, meeting reduction
- Run regular retrospectives on the system of work itself
- Improve incrementally
What outcomes can you expect?
When organisations fully embrace Atlassian’s system of work, they typically see:
More importantly, CXOs gain real-time clarity on where the organisation is heading and how each team contributes to business outcomes.
How does enreap help enterprises implement the Atlassian system of work?
At enreap, we specialise in helping enterprises design, implement, and optimise their system of work using Atlassian tools.
Our services include:
- System of work consulting & maturity assessment
- Jira, Confluence, Jira Service Management implementation
- Cloud migration & performance optimisation
- Workflow automation & DevOps pipeline integration
- Dashboarding, reporting, and CXO visibility enablement
- AI enablement with Rovo agents and knowledge graph training
- Change management and training for teams & leaders
We’ve helped organisations across industries, from manufacturing and banking to software and healthcare, align strategy, improve collaboration, and deliver measurable outcomes using Atlassian’s system of work.
If you’re a CXO or digital leader looking to transform how your teams work, now is the time.
Let’s build your system of work together.
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Let’s connect strategy with execution. Let’s replace silos with systems. Let’s make work visible, measurable, and meaningful.
