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After months of waiting, Angular 9 is finally here. This is a major release that effect the entire platform. This includes the framework, Angular Material, and the CLI. The most notable change is Ivy, the new default compiler and runtime.
Version 9 moves all applications to use the Ivy compiler and runtime by default. Ivy improves bundle size, allows for better debugging, adds improved type checking, faster testing, enables the AOT compiler on by default, and improves CSS class and style binding. With Ivy, both small apps and large apps will see largely improved bundle size savings.

Rather than me repeating the official announcement, I will let Maximilian Schwarzmüller from Academind walk you through the changes in this great video.
 
Jimi Wikman
In the last 3-4 years I have noticed an increase in the speed of which things are done within companies. By that I do not mean that we produce things faster, I mean that we take decisions or share information faster. That may sound like a good thing, but as always when things are done fast the quality drops. What I see however is even worse and that is that people, often young people, are getting hurt.
Management is not an easy profession, regardless of position in an organization. There are important decisions to make, ton of information to absorb and people that need to be cared for. This is nothing new, but what is relatively new is a sense of urgency,  that seem to spread to an almost frantic pace these days. In some cases it's more like full panic mode even.
I have seen organizations that spend more time in meetings than actually do anything on a management level. Some organization even take this to a whole new level. The lack of proper communication and a complete lack of trust within the organization lead to hundreds or even thousands of people who spend most of their days shuffling information back and forth in meetings.
This is a very, very dangerous situation because when managers process information with no context and little to no actual knowledge of the topic they process then poor decisions are taken. If you add a constant stress to that situation where managers spend 30+ hours in meetings with other managers then the decisions quickly become erratic and irrational.
I see this in many large organizations these days and I hear it from friends and colleagues in other organizations as well. Most agree that while this has always been the case in management to certain extent, it has never been as bad as it is today. No one seem to think that this is something that will change anytime soon either. Quite the opposite as we have seen this slowly escalate over the years and it has come to the point where people are getting hurt mentally and physically.
I have seen people pass out in meetings and more than one person that leave mid day to never come back to their work again. I see daily people in the development areas with dark rings below their eyes and tired eyes. I hear people almost weekly that ask to leave their assignment due to health issues or mental fatigue.
Everywhere I see the same tragic trend and that is that management is running frantically making poor decisions with little to no communication. People are frustrated, confused and more often than not they are becoming defensive as their managers mistrust everything they do. More often than not there will be control mechanisms that are implemented to control rather than improve the work.
This will make people feel like they are constantly being judged and mistrusted. With an increased pace from the managers demands that comes with unclear information and little to no access to clarification there is no wonder people are breaking down. In some companies there are even activity based offices as icing on the cake to make things even more stressful for the already battered employees.
People are getting hurt from this and you have most likely seen more than one employee cringe when you mention the Agile word or the Activity based Office. That is not because they are against these things, it's just that they are so abused by managers to avoid taking proper responsibility for making sure that communication and interaction are working.
 
There is still hope!
It is easy to blame the managers for the situation, but the fact is that most managers are really, really great people. They are also suffering from the situation of an increased pace and stress.  I know more than one manager that have taken a time out in the bathroom where they silently cried over their hopeless situation. So the managers are not the problem, it is the collective sense of urgency and lack of control.
 
Step 1 - Reduce the meetings.
Meetings are the cause of many issues today. We have meetings for almost everything with little to no thought of why we have them. Many managers are easily in 20-30+ hours every week and most meetings include 10+ people where half is just there to make sure they do not miss information. If you want to measure something, then this is something to measure to reduce waste of resources and cost.
Make it mandatory with one full day with no meetings. This allow managers to process the information and make educated decisions what to do next. For best effect, make it the same day for everyone.
Also follow up on meeting statistics to make sure that no more than 15 hours each week can be allocated to meetings. That is 3 hours each day, which should be more than enough if you have the communication and information strategies in place.
 
Step 2 - Establish trust.
Control is a big problem if there is no trust in the organization. The reason for that is that no matter how well the development teams are doing it will not matter of the management chain can not feel sure about that. If all managers are always sitting in meetings, then how will they get the information they need and how will they have time to forward this information up the management chain? The first step is of course to free up time by reducing the time spent in meetings.
The second thing is to clarify responsibility. It is very difficult to provide the right information if you do not know what is expected from you. Once you know what information you need to provide, then the flow of information will improve with relevant information.
Once you clarify responsibility and expectations you will reduce confusion, which in turn will reduce frustration. Clarity also will make it possible to provide accurate information from the development teams when it comes to estimations. This will make it easier for manages to feel that they can trust the information from the development teams. This is done by having clear role definitions and a proper process for clarifying requirements for the development teams.
 
Step 3 - Establish proper communication channels.
The last "easy" fix is to make sure you have communication channels. One thing that I see often is that just to implement a documented decision process will improve the understanding in the organization a lot. If you can understand what a decision mean, why it was taken and who took the decision, then it is much, much easier to understand. Verbal decisions are easily misunderstand, easy to override and easy to ignore. So make sure that important decisions are clearly documented and easily accessed.
No common way of working is also a big problem. You should define a baseline for everyone to avoid that everyone in your organization create their own way of working. This is especially important in the handover points where you handover information between different groups. If this handover is done in dozens or hundreds of different ways, then that will not only cause confusion and frustration, it will cost thousands upon thousands of dollars.
Having a common way of working does not mean that you can not have different ways of working. It just mean that you can understand the reason for having a different process as there is some need that the common way of working can not fulfill. The changes are not arbitrary as they are when there are no common way of working.
 
Step 4 - Take care of your people
No matter where you are in the organization you have people around you that you work with every day. Make sure you take a moment on a regular basis and look at the people around you. If you see someone that does not seem to feel well, then make sure you act on that. You can support the person by talking to them and listen to their problems, you can tell your manager or your managers manager and you can contact HR. 
If we fail to see the people around us that are slowly being broken down from stress, then that person could end up being sick. Some refer to this as "hitting the wall", others being "burned out". This is one of the most devastating events in  a persons life and it is something that you never really get over.
 
So take care of yourself, the people around you and please, please....
stop running, because people are getting hurt.
 
Jimi Wikman
This is a repost from Atlassian's blog where the latest updates to the Atlassian cloud platform is posted. It is reposted here since the Atlassian blog does not have an RSS feed and so we can discuss the changes to the Atlassian Cloud architecture. You can follow these posts withe the tag "atlassian cloud changes".
Atlassian Cloud
Your cloud-hosted products are supported by the Atlassian Cloud platform. This section usually includes changes related to multiple Atlassian Cloud products, site administration, and user management.
Email users with suggested account changes  
From the Change details button, you can suggest that a user changes their account details to make their profile more consistent and easier to identify. Read more about administering Atlassian accounts.
Give your users a Trusted permission 
From a user's Permission options, select Trusted to give certain users more responsibility. These users will be able to install and configure new products on your site and invite new users themselves.
Claim accounts after verifying a domain 
To start managing accounts on your domain, we’ve included an additional step that requires you to claim accounts after verifying that you own the domain. From the table on the Domains page, click Claim accounts next to the verified domain. Read more about verifying a domain.
Set your language and time zone for Jira and Confluence in your Atlassian account profile 
Rather than individually setting your language and time zone in Jira and Confluence, these preferences will soon come from your Atlassian account profile. Visit your account preferences to update these settings. It may take up to 10 mins before your updated preferences are reflected in Jira and Confluence.
 
Jira platform
Changes in this section usually apply to all Jira products. We'll tell you in the change description if something is only for a specific Jira product.
Jira admins: We made a change to time tracking 
Time tracking is a core feature of Jira Cloud products. We’ve looked into how people use this feature and found that the large majority of Jira Cloud sites never interact with the feature’s toggle or try to disable the feature. So, we removed its toggle in Jira’s system administration settings.
From now on, time tracking is always enabled in Jira Cloud products.
You can control whether the feature is used in your projects by:
Showing or hiding the Time tracking field in your classic projects' field configurations. Learn more about field configurations. Adding or removing the Time tracking field on your next-gen projects' issue types. Learn how to customize an issue’s fields in next-gen projects. New user profile cards 
When you hover over someone’s name in directories, on dashboards, and in user picker fields, you’ll now start to see rich profile cards with more information and a link to the user’s profile (if you have permission to see it).
Tame your site’s custom fields
See the number of custom fields on your site, so you know if they’re getting out of hand. We've introduced icons to illustrate each type of custom field so you can easily identify them. We’ve also grouped screens and contexts for each custom field into a single Screens and contexts column to make them easier to edit and make the page more readable. Head to Jira settings > Issues > Custom fields to check it out.
Click a field’s screens or contexts links to:
Edit its name and description. Associate it with screens. Create, edit, or delete contexts. Set or edit its default value. Learn more about custom fields.
Next-gen: Epic panel in backlog 
You can now manage epics on the backlog of your next-gen project via the Epics panel, similar to how epic management works in classic Jira Software projects. Changes you make in the panel on the backlog will reflect on the Roadmap, and vice-versa.
Having trouble with next-gen projects? Better help is here. 
We improved our in-product help experience. Try the Help button in the navigation bar to see help articles related to your next-gen project or service desk.
Change Jira wallboards background color to black
This change is to fix the problem identified in the issue JRACLOUD-73231. Wallboard backgrounds are now black to improve the visibility of gadgets.
Portfolio for Jira - Team Offset Change 
Portfolio has changed how it schedules work for teams to better reflect planning reality.
Previously, if one of the teams in the plan had an active sprint that had already started in the past, Portfolio would schedule work for that team in the past. However, just because that team had an active sprint that’s already started, Portfolio would go ahead and schedule work for other teams in the plan, even if these teams didn’t have an active sprint that’s started in the past.
We’ve changed this so work will no longer be scheduled for the other teams in the plan that don’t have an active sprint. Rather, Portfolio will now schedule work for these teams starting the next day.
Portfolio for Jira - Scheduling Team Sorting
When scheduling work, Portfolio now prioritizes teams that have associated issue sources over teams that don't. Also, teams without issue sources will only be considered if they have capacity to complete work earlier.
Portfolio for Jira - Scheduling with Adapted Sprint Dates 
Previously, the capacity of the last day of a sprint would be fully allocated to the sprint itself. This makes a 2-week sprint on a board have 11 work days of capacity in Portfolio.
We've now improved capacity calculation so that the capacity of a sprint's last day will no longer be allocated to the sprint itself. A 2-week sprint will now have 10 work days of capacity.
 
Jira Software
We're rolling out a new type of project known as next-gen. By default, any Jira Software licensed user can create their own next-gen project. These projects don't affect existing Jira projects, shared configurations, or your schemes. You can manage who's allowed to create next-gen projects with the new Create independent projects global permission. Read more about next-gen projects.
GitHub app on the Atlassian Marketplace 
We've partnered with GitHub to build a new and improved integration, which you can install at the Atlassian Marketplace. This replaces the DVCS connector in Jira's system settings. Current GitHub integrations set up under the old method will continue to work, but new integrations must be set up using the app on the Atlassian Marketplace. We're rolling out this update gradually, so it may not be on your Jira Cloud site yet.
This won't affect GitHub Enterprise integrations, which must still be set up via the DVCS connector.
Next-gen: Create child issues on your roadmap 
You can now add child issues directly on your roadmap. Just hover over an epic, click the + icon, and give your issue a name. Learn more about managing epics on the roadmap.
 
Jira Service Desk
New issue view for Jira Service Desk 
The new issue view groups key actions and information in a logical way, making it easier for you to scan and update requests. Learn more about the new issue view.
Use keyboard shortcuts in your queues 
Use keyboard shortcuts to navigate around your queues and get your work done faster. You can now move through issues, select their fields, and go to the issue view from your queues just by using your keyboard!
Customer portal request details page redesign
We have redesigned the customer portal request details page to make it easier to use. You’ll notice we have added a rich text editor, sorted the activity stream from old to new, and have moved the location of the request fields, share button, approval and comment boxes.
Maintenance complete on the customer portal user profile page 
We have just completed some maintenance on the customer portal user profile page.
We also introduced a new layout that is easier to use on mobile devices. Go team!
Easier configuration for the new issue view
If you have the new issue view, you can now easily configure how your issue view looks for each request type.
From your service desk project, go to Project settings > Request types and you'll find the new layout for making changes.
Global create can select request type and raise on behalf of 
You can now create a request on behalf of your customers and set them as the reporter. Use the global create button ( + ), then select Raise this request on behalf of and add in your customer's email.
Automatically clear the value of a request's field when changing its status in your next-gen service desk
We improved our “Update a request field” workflow rule. Now, you can use the rule to clear your request’s fields when someone moves the request using a specific transition.
 
Confluence
Your editing experience just got an upgrade 
The new Confluence editor allows anyone to create beautiful, powerful pages effortlessly. Check out the editor roadmap to learn more.
We're extending editing improvements to all pages on Android 
The editing improvements we made to blogs a few months ago are coming to the rest of your Android mobile pages, too. In addition to being faster and more reliable, your new pages are also responsive, optimized for readability, and have advanced tables. Some macros are still missing as we rebuild them, but you can check the list of changes and track updates to macros on our docs site.
Convert legacy editor pages to the new editor 
Our goal is to allow you to convert your pages from the legacy editor to the new editor without data loss and with little to no changes to the look and feel of the content, which is why you’ll have control over which pages get converted and when. You'll also have the option to preview any page before converting it. We want you to feel comfortable with the process. You'll also have the chance to restore a page to its previous, legacy editor version after conversion. Learn more
Annotate images in the new editor 
Annotate images by adding text, inserting shapes and lines, using brushes, or adding a blur to a certain area.
Confluence Cloud recent pages drawer 
We’ve made it easier to get to the pages you visited or worked with most recently. A new action has been added to the global sidebar that presents you with a list of your recent pages; interaction-specific tabs help you narrow the list based on your actions, like visited, edited, or saved as draft.
Share pages directly with your team 
It’s now easier to share pages with everyone on your team, all in one go. When you click Share on any page or blog post, Confluence now lets you add a team – no need to enter each person individually. Learn more
Jira issue URLs are converted to smart links 
When you paste a Jira issue link into a Confluence page, the URL is converted to a smart link that displays the page icon and the page title. This works if the Jira and Confluence sites are linked or if they are both cloud versions.
Convert pages to use the new editor 
You can now convert your existing pages that were created using the legacy editor to use the new editing experience! Learn more
Confluence navigation just got better 
Get to information faster with improved navigation – making what you need visible from anywhere in Confluence. Learn more
Align and resize images in tables in the new editor 
When images are inserted in table cells, you now have the ability to align and resize them.
Portfolio for Jira plan macro 
The Portfolio for Jira plan Confluence macro lets you embed a Portfolio for Jira Server and Data Center plan in a Confluence page. Join key stakeholders in the spaces where business goals are built and tracked, and share how work is progressing across multiple projects and teams.
Improved expand element replaces the macro 
Content creators just got a better way to control the way information is presented. The existing expand macro has been replaced with a quicker, easier way to include the expand functionality. Insert the improved expand element using /expand or by inserting the element from the editor's Insert toolbar.
 
Bitbucket
Bitbucket Cloud: App Management UI Refresh 
The Connect App authorization screens have been updated to adopt the latest UI patterns documented in the Atlassian Design Guidelines.
New Code Review - Limit the amount of rendered diff content 
Limits the amount of pull request content rendered in the diff and file tree to improve browser performance. Limits include the overall # of files and # of lines for the entire diff. Learn more
Jimi Wikman
Restyaboard is rather similar to Trello and other Kanban based services. Unlike most of them however Restyaboard is open source and it comes with a lot of functionality. If you like the simplicity of Trello, but you need a bit more functionality or you just don't want that additional cost, then Resyaboard could be a viable alternative.
Restyaboard is easy to work with and the features are pretty impressive. They have put together an extensive list of features that is then matched with Trello for comparison. You can check that out here.
Restyaboard is open source so you can download it from GitHub. You can also get it installed in the Cloud by using Digital Cloud's droplet feature. Some of the plugins comes with an additional cost so that is something to keep in mind however.
Overall this is not a bad Trello alternative. There are other alternatives out there, but Restyaboard sticks out a bit because it is open source and since you can have local installations rather than cloud based.
 
 
Jimi Wikman
This is a repost from Atlassian's blog where the latest updates to the Atlassian cloud platform is posted. It is reposted here since the Atlassian blog does not have an RSS feed and so we can discuss the changes to the Atlassian Cloud architecture. You can follow these posts withe the tag "atlassian cloud changes".
Atlassian Cloud
Your cloud-hosted products are supported by the Atlassian Cloud platform. This section usually includes changes related to multiple Atlassian Cloud products, site administration, and user management.
See location details in the audit log 
The audit log has a new Location column that displays the IP address where the activity took place. Read more about audit logging.
Email users with suggested account changes 
From the Change details button, you can suggest that a user changes their account details to make their profile more consistent and easier to identify. Read more about administering Atlassian accounts.
Give your users a Trusted permission 
From a user's Permission options, select Trusted to give certain users more responsibility. These users will be able to install and configure new products on your site and invite new users themselves.
Claim accounts after verifying a domain 
To start managing accounts on your domain, we’ve included an additional step that requires you to claim accounts after verifying that you own the domain. From the table on the Domains page, click Claim accounts next to the verified domain. Read more about verifying a domain.
Set your language and time zone for Jira and Confluence in your Atlassian account profile 
Rather than individually setting your language and time zone in Jira and Confluence, these preferences will soon come from your Atlassian account profile. Visit your account preferences to update these settings. It may take up to 10 mins before your updated preferences are reflected in Jira and Confluence.
 
Jira platform
Changes in this section usually apply to all Jira products. We'll tell you in the change description if something is only for a specific Jira product.
New user profile cards 
When you hover over someone’s name in directories, on dashboards, and in user picker fields, you’ll now start to see rich profile cards with more information and a link to the user’s profile (if you have permission to see it).
Next-gen: Epic panel in backlog 
You can now manage epics on the backlog of your next-gen project via the Epics panel, similar to how epic management works in classic Jira Software projects. Changes you make in the panel on the backlog will reflect on the Roadmap, and vice-versa.
Having trouble with next-gen projects? Better help is here. 
We improved our in-product help experience. Try the Help button in the navigation bar to see help articles related to your next-gen project or service desk.
Advanced search (JQL): Search for content updated by a specific user
Use the updatedBy() function to search for issues that were updated by a specific user, optionally within the specified time range. For example, if you want to find issues updated by John Smith between June and September 2018, enter issuekey IN updatedBy(jsmith, "2018/06/01", "2018/08/31"). Read more about the updatedBy() function.
Portfolio for Jira - Scheduling Team Sorting 
When scheduling work, Portfolio now prioritizes teams that have associated issue sources over teams that don't. Also, teams without issue sources will only be considered if they have capacity to complete work earlier.
 
Jira Software
We're rolling out a new type of project known as next-gen. By default, any Jira Software licensed user can create their own next-gen project. These projects don't affect existing Jira projects, shared configurations, or your schemes. You can manage who's allowed to create next-gen projects with the new Create independent projects global permission. Read more about next-gen projects.
Enforce CSFR protection on Agile 2.0 mutations 
If a user attempts to perform any JSW create/update action with a stale Xsrf token, they will be presented with an error flag with a message:
Our session has expired
Refresh the page and try again
GitHub app on the Atlassian Marketplace 
We've partnered with GitHub to build a new and improved integration, which you can install at the Atlassian Marketplace. This replaces the DVCS connector in Jira's system settings. Current GitHub integrations set up under the old method will continue to work, but new integrations must be set up using the app on the Atlassian Marketplace. We're rolling out this update gradually, so it may not be on your Jira Cloud site yet.
This won't affect GitHub Enterprise integrations, which must still be set up via the DVCS connector.
Next-gen: Roadmap issue hierarchy
You can now expand an epic on your roadmap to see its child issues and their statuses. Learn more about managing epics on the roadmap.
Next-gen: Create child issues on your roadmap 
You can now add child issues directly on your roadmap. Just hover over an epic, click the + icon, and give your issue a name. Learn more about managing epics on the roadmap.
Next-gen: Environment system field in JSW
Add Jira’s built-in Environment field to your issue types in next-gen projects. In your project, go to Project settings > Issue types and drag the Environment field into the Description section of the issue layout.
 
Jira Service Desk
Automatically clear the value of a request's field when changing its status in your next-gen service desk  
We improved our “Update a request field” workflow rule. Now, you can use the rule to clear your request’s fields when someone moves the request using a specific transition.
New issue view for Jira Service Desk 
The new issue view groups key actions and information in a logical way, making it easier for you to scan and update requests. Learn more about the new issue view.
Use keyboard shortcuts in your queues 
Use keyboard shortcuts to navigate around your queues and get your work done faster. You can now move through issues, select their fields, and go to the issue view from your queues just by using your keyboard!
Customer portal request details page redesign 
We have redesigned the customer portal request details page to make it easier to use. You’ll notice we have added a rich text editor, sorted the activity stream from old to new, and have moved the location of the request fields, share button, approval and comment boxes.
Maintenance complete on the customer portal user profile page 
We have just completed some maintenance on the customer portal user profile page.
We also introduced a new layout that is easier to use on mobile devices. Go team!
Easier configuration for the new issue view 
If you have the new issue view, you can now easily configure how your issue view looks for each request type.
From your service desk project, go to Project settings > Request types and you'll find the new layout for making changes.
Global create can select request type and raise on behalf of 
You can now create a request on behalf of your customers and set them as the reporter. Use the global create button ( + ), then select Raise this request on behalf of and add in your customer's email.
 
Confluence
Convert legacy editor pages to the new editor  
Our goal is to allow you to convert your pages from the legacy editor to the new editor without data loss and with little to no changes to the look and feel of the content, which is why you’ll have control over which pages get converted and when. You'll also have the option to preview any page before converting it. We want you to feel comfortable with the process. You'll also have the chance to restore a page to its previous, legacy editor version after conversion. Learn more
Your editing experience just got an upgrade 
The new Confluence editor allows anyone to create beautiful, powerful pages effortlessly. Check out the editor roadmap to learn more.
We're extending editing improvements to all pages on Android 
The editing improvements we made to blogs a few months ago are coming to the rest of your Android mobile pages, too. In addition to being faster and more reliable, your new pages are also responsive, optimized for readability, and have advanced tables. Some macros are still missing as we rebuild them, but you can check the list of changes and track updates to macros on our docs site.
Annotate images in the new editor 
Annotate images by adding text, inserting shapes and lines, using brushes, or adding a blur to a certain area.
Confluence Cloud recent pages drawer 
We’ve made it easier to get to the pages you visited or worked with most recently. A new action has been added to the global sidebar that presents you with a list of your recent pages; interaction-specific tabs help you narrow the list based on your actions, like visited, edited, or saved as draft.
Share pages directly with your team 
It’s now easier to share pages with everyone on your team, all in one go. When you click Share on any page or blog post, Confluence now lets you add a team – no need to enter each person individually. Learn more
Jira issue URLs are converted to smart links 
When you paste a Jira issue link into a Confluence page, the URL is converted to a smart link that displays the page icon and the page title. This works if the Jira and Confluence sites are linked or if they are both cloud versions.
Convert pages to use the new editor 
You can now convert your existing pages that were created using the legacy editor to use the new editing experience! Learn more
Confluence navigation just got better 
Get to information faster with improved navigation – making what you need visible from anywhere in Confluence. Learn more
Align and resize images in tables in the new editor 
When images are inserted in table cells, you now have the ability to align and resize them.
Portfolio for Jira plan macro 
The Portfolio for Jira plan Confluence macro lets you embed a Portfolio for Jira Server and Data Center plan in a Confluence page. Join key stakeholders in the spaces where business goals are built and tracked, and share how work is progressing across multiple projects and teams.
Improved expand element replaces the macro 
Content creators just got a better way to control the way information is presented. The existing expand macro has been replaced with a quicker, easier way to include the expand functionality. Insert the improved expand element using /expand or by inserting the element from the editor's Insert toolbar.
 
Bitbucket
New Code Review - Limit the amount of rendered diff content 
Limits the amount of pull request content rendered in the diff and file tree to improve browser performance. Limits include the overall # of files and # of lines for the entire diff. Learn more
Jimi Wikman