A COMMISSIONED STUDY CONDUCTED BY FORRESTER CONSULTING ON BEHALF OF ATLASSIAN, OCTOBER 2024 Effective Team Collaboration Is More Important Than Ever — Nurture It For Better Business Outcomes
ABOUT FORRESTER CONSULTING Forrester provides independent and objective research-based consulting to help leaders deliver key outcomes. Fueled by our customer-obsessed research, Forrester’s seasoned consultants partner with leaders to execute their specific priorities using a unique engagement model that ensures lasting impact. For more information, visit forrester.com/consulting. © Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited. Information is based on best available resources. Opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject to change. Forrester®, Technographics®, Forrester Wave, and Total Economic Impact are trademarks of Forrester Research, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective companies. [E-56244] Project Team: Nicholas Phelps, Principal Consultant Kate Pesa, Consultant Contributing Research: Forrester’s Technology Architecture & Delivery research group Effective Team Collaboration Is A Missing, Mission-Critical Capability For Enterprises Today The speed of change organizations face is continuously increasing, fueled by heightened customer expectations, growing employee needs, and swiftly evolving markets. To adapt, organizations must ensure their teams work together as effectively as possible — yet, while most respondents recognize how important collaboration and teamwork are, very few realize the benefits of them today. This study examined how teams function to better understand what makes them effective, focusing on three key pillars: Aligned goals. Calibrate expectations and progress against a common understanding of outcomes and progress. Planning and tracking work. Ensure that everyone, from leaders to individual contributors, understand where key projects are today, as well as what’s next. Share knowledge. Ensure critical information flows across and between key teams so everyone shares context and information can be found more easily. Organizations can avoid the pitfalls of poor team collaboration when they properly invest in these areas. Beyond just avoiding negative consequences, effective organizations will experience increased product quality and more positive business outcomes for their employees and customers. © FORRESTER RESEARCH, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 2 3
Rising Expectations Create Demand For Team Effectiveness Most respondents in this study agreed their ability to deliver product and services is challenged by rising expectations: both externally from customers and internally from employees. These rising expectations are blending with an increasingly volatile business environment, creating an urgent mandate for organizations to invest in supporting their employees’ and teams’ collaboration. With organizations under pressure to adapt to change more quickly than ever — they cannot afford collaboration challenges that will make this task even harder. Business And Technology Leaders Struggle With Rising Internal And External Expectations Rising customer expectations Responding to market volatility is more important than ever Rising employee expectations We need to build new products and services faster than in the past 82% 80% 69% 68% 5 © FORRESTER RESEARCH, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 4 Base: 517 global employees in line of business, development, and IT ops who work on delivering products and services Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Atlassian, March 2023
Effective Teams Are Defined By Three Pillars This study dove into team effectiveness across three key pillars: aligned goals, planning and tracking work, and knowledge sharing. With each, it’s critical that organizations think about healthy collaboration within key teams, but also about the connections between or across key business and technical teams as well. of organizations foster fully effective teams today. Nearly all organizations struggle with at least one of these pillars. In fact: Just 2% Aligned Goals Planning And Tracking Work 1 2 3 ACROSS/BETWEEN TEAMS Knowledge Sharing WITHIN TEAMS + + Base: Source: 7 © FORRESTER RESEARCH, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 6 Base: 670 global employees in LoB, development and IT Ops who work on delivering products and services. Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Atlassian, March 2023.
The Cost Of Not Investing In Team Effectiveness We examined the state of collaboration within and across three key teams: developers, IT operations (IT ops), and line of business (LOB) to better understand key areas of collaboration that need support, as well as the consequences of failing to do so. Without effective team collaboration, organizations’ performance, customer experience (CX), and bottom-line business results suffer. We found that organizations that haven’t invested in supporting collaboration, called low-effectiveness orgs, are far more likely to struggle with fractured strategies, frustrated employees, worse productivity, and poorer business performance. Most Respondents Struggle To Support Collaboration, Despite Seeing It As Critical agree it’s important to easily find and share knowledge across teams. agree that visibility into projects and goals of other cross-functional teams is important. agree it’s important that teams align behind shared goals. say they share information freely across the enterprise today. have seamlessly integrated tools that enable cross-team visibility today. say their organization fully support collaboration across teams currently. 86% 24% 84% 82% 27% 30% “There’s so much disruption and miscommunication between the internal departments. The software teams don’t talk to the product development teams or the procurement team or the buyers — and because of that, they are in their own little wells, and it makes our job so much more difficult trying to keep the customer happy.” — Technology innovation director at a technology hardware organization 9 © FORRESTER RESEARCH, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 8 Base: 670 global employees in line of business, development, and IT ops who work on delivering products and services Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Atlassian, March 2023
Ineffective Teams Face Significant Friction Among low-effectiveness orgs, IT ops and development teams are 12 times more likely to lack aligned goals with development teams, and seven times more likely to lack alignment with LOB colleagues. They are much more likely to lack visibility into development teams’ work and lack context and information from LOB. They are four times more likely to struggle to understand development road maps, five times more likely to lack context and information, far more likely to lack aligned goals, and nine times more likely to lack integrated tools. IT Ops And Development Challenges IT Ops And LOB Challenges IT ops and development goals are not aligned 62% ∆ 12x ∆ 7x ∆ 4x ∆ 7x ∆ 7x ∆ 5x ∆ 7x ∆ 22x ∆ 9x 61% 59% 63% 67% 70% 66% 66% 60% 5% 8% 8% 9% 9% 15% 13% 3% 7% High effectiveness High effectiveness High effectiveness Low effectiveness Low effectiveness Low effectiveness IT ops workflows are disconnected from development IT ops and LOB goals are not aligned IT ops lacks visibility into the work that development teams are doing IT ops is often lacking context and information from LOB teams LOB And Development Challenges LOB has limited visibility into development’s road map LOB is often lacking context and information from development teams LOB and development goals are not aligned LOB tools are not well integrated with development tools 11 © FORRESTER RESEARCH, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 10 Base: 517 global employees in LOB, development, and IT ops who work on delivering products and services Note: Showing top responses Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Atlassian, March 2023
Dysfunctional Team Practices Self-Perpetuate And Harm The Business Low-effectiveness teams struggle with misaligned goals, lack of visibility into each other’s work, and limited information sharing. They also face poor crossteam knowledge and insight sharing, employee engagement and experience, and downward pressure on operational efficiency, trust, and creativity. These teams were also far more likely to see collaboration challenges result in customer churn, organizational cost overruns, poorer customer growth, worse CX, revenue performance, and more. Negative Consequences Of Team Friction Experienced During Build And Delivery Of Products And Services Knowledge and insight sharing across teams Engagement and frustration levels of employees Efficiency of operations and workflows Ability to quickly respond to changes in the market Creativity and innovation levels Ability to access data to figure out where and what to improve Speed to market Development cycle time Trust levels across teams Negative Business Consequences Of Poor Collaboration Customer churn Organizational costs Customer experience Customer growth Operational efficiency Overall revenue Innovation Company brand/ reputation High effectiveness High effectiveness Low effectiveness Low effectiveness 52% 51% 48% 48% 51% 50% 48% 47% 50% 50% 46% 47% 48% 49% 42% 47% 45% 17% 19% 25% 14% 14% 22% 19% 13% 14% 22% 22% 17% 17% 24% 18% 13% 16% Base: Source: 13 © FORRESTER RESEARCH, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 12 Base: 517 global employees in LOB, development, and IT ops who work on delivering products and services Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Atlassian, March 2023
Fostering More Effective Team Collaboration Requires Focus And Investment Investing in stronger team collaboration represents an opportunity to differentiate today and adapt to market changes in the future. Organizations who do this well prioritize integrating technology and information sharing, promote leadership visibility, and focus on aligning workflows and goals across key business and technical teams to foster more aligned ways of working. Effective Teams Differentiate Via Integrated Technology, Open Info Sharing, And Team Cohesion More effective teams are far more likely to support tools that are easy to use and wellintegrated across the enterprise. Open access to information helps keep teams aligned across the organization and provides greater visibility into project progress and work intersections, which effective teams excel at. My organization lacks automated workflows between teams Technology Integration Information Sharing Team We struggle to easily find information and knowledge across teams We struggle with the ability to easily bring other collaborators into projects and tasks My organization lacks technology that enables seamless collaboration and communication We struggle with visibility into projects and goals of other cross-functional teams We lack strong interpersonal connections between teammates My organization’s tools are not easy to implement, adopt, and use We struggle to easily share information and context with stakeholders My organization does not have well-integrated tools We lack a shared context and understanding We do not have autonomous or flexible ways of working My organization does not leverage a common set of tools “If leaders increase their visibility, that helps foster more connection. I think one important aspect [of collaboration] is you get exposed to work with some senior people in the organization, which not only improves their visibility, it also improves your visibility. It helps you learn and get the information firsthand from somebody who’s been there, done that.” — VP of product management at a financial services organization 69% 73% 73% 69% 64% 72% 70% 66% 67% 69% 61% 63% 1% 4% 3% 2% 2% 5% 2% 7% 3% 3% 3% 4% High effectiveness teams Low effectiveness teams 15 © FORRESTER RESEARCH, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 14 Base: 670 global employees in LOB, development, and IT ops who work on delivering products and services Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Atlassian, March 2023
— TECHNOLOGY INNOVATION DIRECTOR AT A TECHNOLOGY HARDWARE ORGANIZATION “Ultimately, [effective collaboration] starts at the top, because the higher you are, the more authority you have. So, the more power you have to say, ‘This has to be,’ then using this method or using this process. When that message is then communicated and the guys who are subordinate to them, directly or indirectly, definitely utilize those concepts.” Leadership Sets The Tone For Effective Teams Leadership plays a critical role in driving team collaboration by removing obstacles and supporting their employees, creating increased trust and transparency across the organization.1 To accomplish this, leadership needs visibility into relevant teams’ work, clear authority to make decisions, and defined roles and responsibilities. When done successfully, organizations will face fewer challenges among employees and customers. Effective Teams Ensure Leadership Is Informed, Accountable, And Empowered Leadership often lacks visibility into department- and team-level work Disagreements are difficult to resolve because decision-making authority is unclear Role and responsibilities are often unclear High effectiveness teams Low effectiveness teams 75% 71% 73% 6% 2% 3% 17 © FORRESTER RESEARCH, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 16 Base: 670 global employees in LOB, development, and IT ops who work on delivering products and services Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Atlassian, March 2023.
— VP OF PRODUCT MANAGEMENT AT A FINANCIAL SERVICES ORGANIZATION “[Adopting collaboration technology] has been very helpful and is used for any project management, technology, and business communication. It makes things easier and you’re not dependent on someone to go ahead and give you an update.” Connected Technology Helps Overcome Distributed Work Challenges Effective teams are nearly twice as likely as less effective teams to say their business and technical groups use many of the same tools. Turning to a connected system of work is part of how these organizations overcome challenges with modern work environments. For example, highly effective organizations are much less likely to struggle with an increasingly distributed workforce and less likely to struggle with collaboration across teams. Effective Organizations Manage Collaboration And Distributed Work Challenges Better Distributed work has created new challenges for teams to work together Teams are far more effective at collaborating within their own teams than with other teams More teams than ever are involved in bringing products and services to market High effectiveness teams Low effectiveness teams 79% 77% 76% 18% 29% 25% © FORRESTER RESEARCH, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 18 19 Base: 670 global employees in LoB, development and IT Ops who work on delivering products and services. Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Atlassian, March 2023.
Invest Now To Reap Long-Term Rewards Investing in initiatives to help teams work better together represents an opportunity for differentiation. However, most organizations have work to do to shore up their team collaboration capabilities. It’s also important to note that when organizations make these investments, they often pay off. Respondents whose organizations invested in improving knowledge sharing and in aligned technology say those investments have been effective or very effective in improving their performance. “Which of the following initiatives has your organization invested in to help address issues with collaboration and alignment between teams?” Investing in technology platforms that serve the needs of multiple departments Implementing new technology solutions for better cross-team collaboration Increasing knowledge sharing between teams “How effective have these initiatives been in improving your organization’s product and service build and delivery process?” Increasing knowledge sharing between teams Implementing new technology solutions for better cross-team collaboration Investing in technology platforms that serve the needs of multiple departments 41% 76% 37% 71% 34% 67% Effective/Very effective 21 © FORRESTER RESEARCH, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 20 Base: Variable global employees in LOB, development, and IT ops who work on delivering products and services Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Atlassian, March 2023.
Collaboration Investments Pay Off For Organizations A majority of respondents whose organizations had made investments in improving the integration of technologies between technical and business teams said those efforts had significantly improved teams’ overall productivity; collaboration and communication; knowledge and information sharing; and decision-making. Respondents also reported that technology integration investments lead to outcomes including better product quality, improved collaboration and employee experience, and better business impact. Benefits Of Collaboration Investments Improved overall productivity Better business impact of new products and services Improved collaboration and communication Improved decision-making Improved employee experience Higher-quality product releases 54% 52% 50% 51% 50% 54% Base: Source: 23 © FORRESTER RESEARCH, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 22 Base: 670 global employees in LoB, development and IT Ops who work on delivering products and services. Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Atlassian, March 2023.
Collaboration Investments Improve Business Performance Improved collaboration is critical for business and technical teams and is a benefit on its own. But organizations who have invested in improving effectiveness also see improvements to business performance, including more satisfied customers and employees, a greater ability to respond and innovate around customer needs, and more impressive revenue and growth results. Benefits Of Collaboration Investments Improved customer satisfaction Better responsiveness to customer needs Improved innovation Better employee engagement Better revenue performance Improved growth potential 63% 60% 59% 63% 60% 58% 25 © FORRESTER RESEARCH, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 24 Base: 517 global employees in LoB, development and IT Ops who work on delivering products and services. Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Atlassian, March 2023.
Key Recommendations Align goals to promote effective teamwork. Instead of focusing on legacy metrics that solely evaluate operational efficiencies or isolated measures, organizations should establish shared goals. In addition, organizations should not only track work, but also track impact. If teams are working together to achieve well-defined, shared OKRs, teamwork will improve and collaboration will benefit all parties. Give teams the tools to improve outcomes. As this survey suggests, collaboration and engagement contribute higher levels of customer satisfaction. Ensure that your teams’ work is connected to business outcomes with the right tools that will amplify their collaboration. Provide clear visibility into team progress and individual contributions to create alignment with your purpose. Leadership must lean into collaboration and visibility. Improving enterprise visibility requires significant logistical and technical changes, but leaders set the tone for collaboration. Leaders should work to ensure their organization shares information at scale to bridge the gaps between business, IT, and development teams. Key Recommendations (cont.) Value connections between teams and business functions above all else. Evaluate your tools and how they serve effective teamwork. Doing so can reduce costs and technical debt. Your enterprise should develop a strategy to eliminate redundancies, standardize when possible, and above all, ensure it is extensible, so teams have flexibility and connection. 27 © FORRESTER RESEARCH, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 26
Methodology In this study, Forrester conducted phone interviews with three decision-makers and an online survey of 670 decision-makers at organizations in the United States, Germany, United Kingdom, and France to evaluate the state of collaboration across business and technical teams. Survey participants included decision-makers in LOB, development, and IT ops who work on delivery products and services. Questions provided to the participants asked about challenges, consequences, and benefits of fostering collaboration. Respondents were offered a small incentive as a thank-you for time spent on the survey. The study began and was completed in March 2023. Note: Percentages may not total 100 due to rounding. COUNTRY United States 42% Germany 20% United Kingdom 19% France 19% NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES 100 to 499 14% 500 to 999 22% 1,000 to 4,999 29% 5,000 to 19,999 21% 20,000 or more 14% COMPANY REVENUE $500M to $999M 39% $1B to $5B 40% >$5B 20% TOP 4 INDUSTRIES Technology and/or technology services 18% Retail 17% Financial services/ insurance 17% Healthcare 17% DEPARTMENT LOB 30% IT Ops 31% Development 38% RESPONDENT LEVEL C-level executive 9% Vice president 16% Director 24% Manager 27% Demographics Endnotes 1 Source: What Makes A Future Fit People Strategy?, Forrester Research, Inc., May 11, 2023. 29 © FORRESTER RESEARCH, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. © FORRESTER RESEARCH, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 28
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