Cloud is no longer a differentiator – it’s a strategic requirement for long-term success. So says Forrester’s Benchmark Your Enterprise Cloud Adoption report, and so say our customers, 90 percent of whom choose our cloud products over hosting Server or Data Center versions on-premise (on-prem). Ten years ago, moving to the cloud was about staying ahead of the curve – no longer.

This blog is part of our series on how to use Atlassian features, automations, and integrations to take time back to ship better code, faster. Click here for the full list of 12+ new features or follow us on Twitter to stay up-to-date! Picture this: you've landed in a Development team that practices DevOps religiously (or maybe you're even leading one!). But despite spending hours integrating your tools and reading your edition of the Phoenix Project, you still feel like there's something missing.

When the Coronavirus pandemic hit and the world went into lockdown, as many as one-half to one-third of workers in the United States began working from home full-time. Some people have loved it, but others have felt lonely, unproductive, and stressed while working from home with kids. As we’ve learned more about the virus and states have published reopening plans, many knowledge workers in the U.S. are ready (or being asked) to return to work.

Last night I dreamt I was back in the office for the first time. Our long communal tables in the kitchen were gone. My desk was surrounded on all sides by plexiglass – including overhead, which, for a guy my height, means stooped shoulders and a future riddled with chiropractic appointments. Nobody talked to each other except over Slack. The smell of disinfectant was inescapable. I couldn’t wait to go back home. Or at least, wake up.

The uncertainty fatigue is real. Those “how we’re handling COVID” emails from every business we’ve ever patronized have died down and many of us have settled into something resembling a routine, but most of us are still isolated from friends and family. We’re gearing up for a long summer of, yes, more uncertainty, with only the dim hope of an ambiguous return to “normal life” to cling to.

Remember that movie Groundhog Day? Where Bill Murray experiences the same day over and over and over and heartwarming hilarity ensues? Working from home can feel like a lot like that (minus the heartwarming hilarity). The hours meld together because there’s no natural divider to separate work time from personal time.

As a native New Yorker, I almost get the feeling I’ve seen this movie before. I saw 9/11 up close. I experienced the 2008 financial crash from inside Goldman Sachs. I’ve been through bomb threats, water main ruptures, and a hundred other predicaments too banal to remember distinctly. But even having worked and lead teams through all that, I still find the COVID-19 crisis challenging to navigate.

According to research by small business marketing platform, FiveStars, customer visits to local businesses in the U.S. and Canada dropped by 70 percent between March 8 and April 12. It doesn’t take a statistician to realize that losing that many customers in one month represents a serious blow. But not every mom and pop shop is collapsing. With a significant amount of determination, creativity, and reskilling, some small businesses have found unique ways to reach their customers despite the chaos.

We’re many weeks into the COVID-19 crisis and, I don’t know about you, but things still feel chaotic to me. Part of it is trying to work from home while also homeschooling a 6-year old and 9-year old. Part of it is trying to keep up with all the recommendations and requirements from our public health officials. The big reason things feel chaotic to me, though, is all the uncertainty.

Let’s face it: agile methodologies weren’t exactly created for remote teams. Early agile teams were overwhelmingly co-located in offices, mostly because video conferencing, chat, and other technology that makes remote work possible were laughably primitive and clunky at that time. These days, with so many people working remotely, gathering your team in the same room isn’t realistic. That doesn’t mean remote retrospectives are impossible, however.