How to improve your Sprints, Real-Time Live collaborative diagramming

It’s good to talk

Well, that was the marketing campaign of one major Telecoms giant, their marketing pushing the idea that live communication was way better than SMS or text messages. In some respects, they are completely right.

Text messaging or reams of pages of text cannot replace the energy and spontaneity of a live conversation. When colleagues or friends, maybe even a Team, are on a live conference video call, sparks fly, and one idea bounces off another in-between bouts of humor and sometimes a little gossip. But the point is that live human interaction is where the best ideas and solutions come from.

Team working on diagramming

And this is the case in diagramming. Sure someone could design and draw a superb BPMN or UML solution for a particular project. Still, it is important to remember that design is an individual’s vision of a solution.
And just like a live conversation, It’s when two or more get to collaborate on a diagram live that the ideas really start coming together, especially now working from home is the new normal for many.

Other solutions

Sure other diagramming applications did allow live collaboration, but they are not embedded inside Confluence, and that’s the point. The novelty of jumping in and out of Confluence to make diagram changes really starts to wear thin when deadlines are looming.

Live collaboration, the challenge

Being an embedded solution in Atlassian Confluence, this feature was challenging to engineer at first, but our software engineers and developers made a breakthrough, and we did it. Live collaboration inside Confluence while maintaining all of the advantages Atlassian Confluence offers combined with draw.io’s features and technical Use Cases.

Examples of some workflows that really benefit

Resistance diagrams

Effective team working always depends on effective communication. Now we have real-time feedback. No more asking people for their opinions. Now everyone can express their thoughts independently, meetings flow more smoothly, and ideas flow more naturally.

“What if” scenarios

We have all been there, The Teams have worked hard, and now you have an elegant, flawless solution. The code works perfectly. In fact, it’s a work of art. And then, the client utters the immortal phrase, “We need a few changes,” “The spec has been modified. ” Usually, this is accompanied by a sinking feeling in your stomach, but now you can throw the diagram open to the client and say, ok, sketch out the changes, and let’s see what we can do.”

In fact, part of the client’s team can interact with some of your dev teams, explaining the changes while you continue with the main presentation to the remaining audience, all live and all on the same diagram.

Project Launches

Now live collaboration allows the dev teams to work hand in hand with the client, and initial requirements can be clarified. As a result, process visualization becomes more straightforward and less error-prone.
Project launch meetings have a number of objectives:

• To educate project team members and project managers,
  and to assign the responsibilities to the project team.
• To establish the assigned project manager as the focal point for communications.
• To prepare the first cut of a project plan as the tangible deliverables.
• Clarify project requirements and deliverables with the client, the acceptance criteria.

But now throw in interactive diagramming, and these goals become much easier to nail down as each contributor can actively visualize their understanding of the project.

Rather than trying to describe your ideas and thoughts to someone else to diagram, individual team members can now actively sketch out their thoughts.

Brainstorming

If ever there was a Use Case and a feature that were a perfect match, it is these two. Realtime live collaboration on a whiteboard, no more trying to explain your idea verbally to the team and controller of the whiteboard marker. Now you can sketch out your vision with no ambiguity or misunderstandings, just real-time open communication.

To learn more about how draw.io can help with Brainstorming.

The future

In fact, there is no limit to the number of workflows that can benefit from Live real-time collaboration.

Keen to learn more, visit our YouTube Channel for a constantly updated playlist of how-to videos.
Visit our one-stop tutorial shop to pick up all the ins and outs of draw.io diagramming.
Or book a free no-obligation demo to learn more about the limitless ways in which draw.io can make life easier and more productive for you and everyone in (and outside) your company!
Happy diagramming!