Agile Journeys is an ongoing series of candid conversations with Agile professionals from across the spectrum – from technical leads and enterprise architects to Scrum Masters, Agile coaches, and transformation leaders. Each conversation dives into the realities of Agile transformations, adoption, and scaling: the frameworks that work (and the ones that don’t), the processes and tools that enable change, the techniques and tips that make a difference, and the challenges teams face along the way.
Our goal is simple: share unfiltered, practical insights from the people living Agile every day – so you can learn, adapt, and make your own teams thrive.
In this installment, we sat down with Aswin Kanhai (LinkedIn), Digital Collaboration Consultant at Sopra Steria Next, based in the Netherlands. With a background spanning ERP consulting, product ownership, project management, and Atlassian administration, Aswin now helps organizations navigate complex cloud migrations, optimize collaboration, and adapt Agile practices to their real-world contexts.
A Career Built Across Business and Technology
Aswin’s professional journey began in ERP consulting, implementing Microsoft Dynamics across Europe. From there, he moved into the fast-paced world of e-commerce, where he managed operations, projects, and cross-functional teams.
“That experience taught me how business and technology must move together. I worked closely with users and teams to solve challenges, improve ways of working, and shape processes, while also contributing strategically to sustainable growth and scalability.”
Over time, that mix of hands-on problem solving and strategic thinking drew him toward digital collaboration. He began working closely with teams on projects, where the gap between business needs and tooling became increasingly clear.
“That’s when Jira and Atlassian really came into play. I realized you could get so much more out of digital collaboration tools if they were properly configured, and that’s what I wanted to help teams achieve.”
Today, that evolution has made him a trusted Atlassian consultant, bridging technology, business, and people in transformation initiatives.
Cloud Migrations: Complexity Meets Collaboration
Aswin has led both straightforward and highly complex cloud migrations.
“The migration for a Dutch government agency with around 150 users was more contained in scope, but it still required careful preparation. I started by conducting research and outlining different implementation scenarios, then guided the organization step by step through the process.
In contrast, migrating to a large educational institution in the Netherlands, with over a thousand users and dozens of apps, required a very different approach. We faced a short timeline, new interfaces, and a large number of stakeholders with varying needs and expectations. Success didn’t come from technology alone: it came from aligning consultants and staff as one team, making decisions quickly, and keeping collaboration at the center of the process.”
That experience reflects his core philosophy: tools matter, but people and collaboration matter more.
The Power (and Pitfalls) of Atlassian Tooling
For Aswin, the real strength of Atlassian lies in the combination of Jira and Confluence: the backbone of how teams plan, track, and share knowledge.
“Those two tools are at the heart of most transformations I’ve supported. Jira gives structure and transparency to work, while Confluence makes collaboration and documentation seamless. Together, they form a system that enables distributed and hybrid teams to thrive.”
Bitbucket and other Atlassian tools add value, especially for development teams, but Aswin emphasizes that the impact really comes from how Jira and Confluence are configured and adopted.
“I’ve worked with Microsoft Planner, SharePoint, Wrike: none of them come close to what Jira and Confluence offer when properly set up. But configuration is everything. Without the right structure, complexity grows exponentially.”
He highlights ScriptRunner and eazyBI as underrated apps: ScriptRunner for automation and smart configuration, and eazyBI for powerful reporting and metrics that support portfolio-level insights and decision-making.
Agile Frameworks: Adapt, Don’t Adopt Blindly
When it comes to scaling frameworks like SAFe, Aswin stays pragmatic.
“SAFe 6.0 is a solid framework, but Jira doesn’t fully align with it out of the box. Jira Align was built for that, and while it’s not within every organization’s budget, it’s absolutely worth considering once you’re ready for that next level of scaling.
In the meantime, I often recommend starting with Jira Plans (formerly Advanced Roadmaps). It already provides strong portfolio-level visibility, and you can extend it with additional plugins or integrations to close gaps.
The key is: adapt frameworks to your context, don’t adopt them blindly. Sometimes a simple Scrum or Kanban setup, tailored to your Jira configuration, works best. And as your organization matures, tools like Jira Align can help you scale even further.”
Small Changes, Big Impact
One of Aswin’s most powerful stories came from simplifying a client’s Jira setup:
“They wanted every project to have its own scheme. That’s chaos waiting to happen. I convinced them to use just two templates — Scrum and Kanban — across all projects. Maintenance dropped, adoption soared, and nobody asked for extra features. A small change, a big win.”
Myths and Mindsets
Aswin pushes back on the myth that tools alone make teams Agile.
“It’s never just the tool. It’s always tools and people, and the system of work that connects them. You can configure Jira perfectly, but if the way your organization collaborates, makes decisions, and shares accountability isn’t aligned, it won’t work. Convincing and mindset change are as important as training, and they need to happen across all levels of the organization.”
AI as Superpower (Not Threat)
Like many, Aswin is excited about Atlassian’s AI capabilities: from Atlassian Intelligence drafting user stories to Rovo summarizing project health.
“AI gives you superpowers. It can free product owners and managers from repetitive tasks. But some clients are afraid — they ask, ‘If AI can write better stories than me, what’s my role?’ My answer: you’re still accountable. AI helps, but humans lead.”
Advice for Agile Leaders
When asked for advice to Agile leaders and coaches, Aswin emphasizes partnership and systems thinking:
“Agile leaders sometimes lean too much on theory. Don’t implement SAFe or LeSS just because the book says so. Work together with Atlassian consultants or digital collaboration experts to adapt tools and frameworks. And don’t forget the system of work: how the whole organization, across all levels, collaborates and makes decisions. That’s the real backbone of agility.”
In a retrospective style, his stop/start advice:
- Stop: relying only on theory.
- Start: shaping your system of work with the right balance of leadership, tools, and collaboration across every level of the organization.
Final Reflections
Aswin’s journey — from ERP and e-commerce, through operations management, to driving complex cloud migrations — shows how true agility isn’t born from tools or theory alone. It emerges when technology, people, and the system of work come together.
Follow Aswin on LinkedIn to explore more of his work, and discover how Sopra Steria Next helps organizations across Europe transform collaboration.
And as always, explore more insights from leaders like Aswin in the Agile Journeys series on the Catapult Labs blog.
✨ Key Takeaways
- Cloud migrations succeed when consultants and clients work as one team.
- Simplicity beats complexity: standardizing Jira setups accelerates adoption.
- Jira and Confluence are the backbone of collaboration; configuration determines success.
- AI transforms workflows, but accountability remains human.
- Agility requires more than theory: it requires leadership, tooling, and a system of work embraced across all levels.