Efficiency, collaboration, and adaptability are essential ingredients for success in any industry, and achieving these often relies on effective sharing of knowledge.
How do you make sure the knowledge possessed by each member of your organization is shared and retained? How do you communicate important information to others and make sure projects stay on track? Atlassian’s answer to these questions is the System of Work, a strategy for collaboration across all teams and departments.
In this blog, we’ll walk through how Atlassian’s System of Work helps teams retain, share, and use knowledge to achieve their goals.
What Is Atlassian’s System of Work?
Atlassian introduced the System of Work at its flagship Team event in 2024 as a comprehensive framework designed to optimize how teams operate, encouraging efficiency, collaboration, and adaptability.
Atlassian’s intention is for this system to be more than just a suite of tools—rather, they see it as a methodology rooted in helping organizations capture knowledge, streamline workflows, and drive productivity.
By leveraging the system's robust architecture, teams can document critical information, align around shared objectives, and eliminate the fragmentation typically associated with managing diverse projects and departments.
Atlassian makes this possible by providing platforms that are intuitive and interconnected, making it easier for teams to work smarter, not harder.
Back to topHow Does Atlassian’s System of Work Improve Team Productivity?
Reducing Context Switching
Context switching refers to the process of shifting your attention from one task to another, often rapidly or frequently. Each time you switch tasks, your brain has to "reset" and refocus on the new task. This shift can occur when you're interrupted, juggling multiple projects, or trying to manage competing priorities.
Studies show that it can take anywhere from 15 to 25 minutes to fully regain focus after a context switch. Frequent interruptions can add up, significantly reducing the amount of time you spend in a state of deep, productive work.
The introduction of Atlassian Home is one way teams reduce context switching with the System of Work. Atlassian Home provides a hub for each user to navigate between their most used spaces and tools, connecting all their work across Atlassian.
Additionally, with the integrations between tools like Jira, Trello, Bitbucket, and Confluence, Atlassian creates a seamless ecosystem where teams can collaborate effectively. For example, marketing teams can align with product and engineering teams by sharing campaign plans, product roadmaps, and technical documentation in one shared space.
Introducing a Central Source of Truth
Atlassian tools work together to form a single source of truth where all organizational knowledge is stored, organized, and easily accessible. This eliminates silos and ensures that teams have access to accurate, up-to-date information. With centralized knowledge, decision-making becomes faster and more informed, reducing the risk of errors caused by outdated or fragmented data.
At the heart of the System of Work lies Confluence, the knowledge repository where information is not only stored but curated and made accessible to all. It bridges the knowledge gaps between Jira, Trello, Bitbucket, and other Atlassian tools, creating a hub for documentation, brainstorming, and strategy planning.
Confluence ensures that teams have a reliable source of context-rich information, eliminating silos and enhancing decision-making. By anchoring processes and people together, Confluence transforms dispersed data into actionable insights, empowering teams to achieve their goals with precision and clarity.
Improving Scalability
As organizations grow, so do their systems, processes, and knowledge bases. Atlassian’s tools are designed to scale with the organization, ensuring that teams eliminate tool bloat and cost redundancy even as they expand or evolve.
AI agents created with Atlassian’s Rovo help teams optimize for scalability even further by allowing them to automate repetitive tasks and streamline workflows.
As organizations grow globally and teams aren’t always located in the same physical location, Atlassian’s System of Work ensures that remote and cross-functional teams can access knowledge from anywhere. This inclusivity drives engagement and productivity, as team members can collaborate and contribute regardless of their location or role.
Retaining Information
By documenting processes, decisions, and learnings in Confluence, organizations create a repository of institutional knowledge that can be referenced over time. This is particularly valuable for onboarding new employees, preserving expertise, and maintaining continuity during team transitions.
Back to topImplementing the System of Work: First Steps
Atlassian’s System of Work delivers a comprehensive framework that redefines how teams achieve productivity, collaboration, and effective knowledge management.
It eliminates inefficiencies such as context switching and fragmented data, replacing them with clarity and seamless collaboration. This transformation results in faster decision-making, improved scalability, and a strengthened ability to retain institutional knowledge.
If your team is ready to dive into the System of Work, one of your first steps will be establishing a solid knowledge base. Discover Confluence tips and best practices in our blog to give your team the foundation for success.