Implementing Atlassian Confluence E-Book

Eren Kalelioğlu

• Herausgeber: Packt Publishing
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 433

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

Implementing Atlassian Confluence is an all-encompassing guide to the essential concepts of distributed work and leveraging Confluence to create a world-class collaboration environment.
This book begins with an introduction to enterprise collaboration concepts and explains how to set up Confluence. You’ll quickly proceed to creating and maintaining dynamic content, effective cross-functional collaboration, and employing Confluence applications in scenarios such as software project management and knowledge bases.
You’ll discover how to use Jira Service Management together with Confluence, set up personal spaces, implement centralized user management, address security risks, and explore suggested solutions on Confluence. Furthermore, you’ll integrate and extend Confluence with other Atlassian and third-party software. The book also contains tips and guidance on managing Confluence adoption, enabling you to focus on your team and provide them with a state-of-the-art remote collaboration environment.
Complete with practical business scenarios, best practices, and examples, this book will help you gain a comprehensive understanding of Atlassian Confluence’s capabilities for enhancing collaboration within cross-functional teams.

Leseprobe

Implementing Atlassian Confluence

Strategies, tips, and insights to enhance distributed team collaboration using Confluence

Eren Kalelioğlu

BIRMINGHAM—MUMBAI

Implementing Atlassian Confluence

Copyright © 2023 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing or its dealers and distributors, will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to have been caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

Group Product Manager: Alok Dhuri

Publishing Product Manager: Kushal Dave

Book Project Manager: Prajakta Naik

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First published: September 2023

Production reference: 1220923

Published by

Packt Publishing Ltd.

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ISBN 978-1-80056-042-0

www.packtpub.com

This book is dedicated to my mother and father, who have been an incredible support throughout my life in reaching my dreams. I’ve always been in awe of my father’s deep knowledge of neurosurgery and the magic my mother creates on her canvas. I will forever cherish the joy of being with them.

– Eren Kalelioğlu

Foreword

I’ve known Erenfor many years as one of the most versatile individuals I’ve ever encountered. Our paths first crossed when he served as the CTO, leading the educational transformation of one of the top private education institutions. This connection was sparked by our shared enthusiasm for Atlassian products. Our collaboration continued even after he founded his start-up, which aids enterprises in creating high-performing teams using collaboration technologies. Eren is highly proficient with Atlassian products and boasts the prestigious Atlassian Certified Expert (ACE) credential. Additionally, he possesses a keen interest in the future of work.

In this invaluable book, Erentakes you on an enlightening journey, delving into enterprise collaboration and distributed and asynchronous teamwork. He showcases how tools can be pivotal allies when forming high-performing teams in cross-functional, multi-cultural, and multi-regional settings. Distributed work is a vast and multidisciplinary subject. It draws from management sciences, project management, human psychology, and various other domains. This book provides solid, practical examples from all these fields, guiding you in crafting your tool setup.

Erenoffers detailed, step-by-step instructions on setting up Confluence, organizing content, collaborating with your team within Confluence, and mastering dynamic content. Through Implementing Atlassian Confluence, you will grasp how to construct spaces for software projects, manage products, cater to personal needs, and set up a comprehensive company knowledge base.

The book offers more than just setup and usage guidelines. You will gain insights into the risks, challenges, and solutions associated with scaling Confluence. Consequently, you’ll comprehend how Confluence can serve organizations where thousands are engaged in information processing and sharing.

In Implementing Atlassian Confluence, professionals from all walks of life – be they developers, software analysts, project managers, senior executives, or CEOs – will discover insights to augment their daily operations and long-term strategies. Prepare to be inspired and chart your transformation journey.

Evren Civelek

Head of Platform&Automation for ECU SW Development

Leader of multi-cultural and multi-regional teams

Mercedes-Benz AG

Contributors

About the author

Eren Kalelioğlu is a collaboration technologies expert residing in Istanbul. With more than 15 years of experience, he’s proficient in Confluence and Atlassian Cloud products and holds the prestigious ACE credential. As a former CTO at one of the top private education institutions, he led the educational transformation via technology. Eren’s start-up, Ponsatlas, focuses on collaboration technologies and is an Atlassian Solution Partner. He’s also a proud father to his daughter, Mavi.

Acknowlegments:

Seray Kalelioğlu: For her unwavering support throughout the writing process.Mavi Kalelioğlu: For infusing energy into my writing journey.Merve & Müfit Kalelioğlu: For their constant motivation and keen interest in the book’s progress.Evren Civelek: Gratitude for crafting the book’s foreword.Packt Publishing Team: For their collective efforts to bring this book to fruition.Katarzyna Pawlak: For her meticulous role as Technical Reviewer, ensuring precision.Utku Aytaç, Kerem Kalelioğlu, Mert Çuhadaroğlu, Irmak Alp & Ponsatlas Team: For supporting the growth of Ponsatlas while I penned this book.Confidential Ponsatlas Clients: For insights into real-world Confluence challenges.Atlassian: For their inspiring culture and tools, which have shaped a significant part of my professional journey.Mina Maraşlıgil: My invaluable companion in writing, ensuring clarity and fluency.

About the reviewers

Mina Maraşlıgil is an editor and writer with a diverse portfolio of non-fiction and fiction writing. Having experience in different areas of publishing since 2014, Mina worked as a book editor and freelance writer. For the past two years, she’s been working at Ponsatlas, an official Atlassian Solution Partner, focusing on teamwork technologies and tech writing to deliver knowledge on how human intellect can thrive with technology.

Katarzyna Pawlak is a co-founder of Appsvio, an Atlassian Marketplace Partner specializing in IT service management apps. As Chief Product Officer, she shapes a vision for their products published on the Atlassian Marketplace. As an active community member since 2017, she has been recognized as an Atlassian Community Leader. Her proudest achievements are numerous Atlassian certifications, earning her the title of Atlassian Certified Expert. Additionally, she holds certifications including Professional Scrum Product Owner and ITIL® Foundation Certificate in IT Service Management. In her spare time, she explores new places through jogging and hiking.

Sajit Nair is an Agile consultant working with technical teams to deliver quality solutions to end customers. Sajit believes in empathy and prefers openness over flawlessness at work. A musician and bike enthusiast by hobby, Sajit takes pride in delivering on his commitments to clients. Currently, Sajit is focused on building capabilities for the Atlassian Marketplace to drive project management strategies and instill shared accountability among team members for project milestones.

Table of Contents

Preface

Part 1: Preparing for Confluence

1

Introducing Enterprise Collaboration

Technical requirements

Introducing Confluence and Atlassian as a company

Introduction to Atlassian

Introduction to Confluence

Atlassian Marketplace

Accessing the service availability information and reports for Confluence Cloud

Anticipating and preparing for changes with Atlassian’s Cloud Roadmap

Confluence and Jira Software

Introducing enterprise collaboration concepts

Enterprise collaboration

Remote collaboration

Hybrid working

All-remote working

Agility

Cross-functional teams

Distributed workforce

Information silo

Information architecture strategy

Single source of truth

Synchronous communication

Asynchronous communication

Collaboration software

Which teams can benefit from Confluence?

Proof of concept – how can your company benefit from Confluence?

Confluence use cases for all types of teams

Introduction to Confluence templates

Building a Confluence team

Checking out team building tips

Identifying roles using RASCI within your team

Maintaining your Confluence team

Summary

Questions

Answers

Further reading

2

Setting Up Confluence

Technical requirements

Introducing information architecture

Defining the requirements of your knowledge management system

Defining the content types of your knowledge management system

Thinking about categorizing content

Thinking about the maintenance of your knowledge management system

Planning your Confluence site

Introduction to iterative planning

Using checklists and guiding questions for better planning

Additional tips for more effective planning

Installing and configuring Confluence

Mastering the terminology – sites and products

Installing Confluence

Comparison between Standard and Premium plans

Upgrading to the Premium plan

Understanding the different types of administrators

Managing technical and billing contacts

Configuring basic security settings

Configuring the default permissions

Configuring global permissions

Discovering security configuration

Accessing the General Configuration section

Managing users

Managing user groups

Setting up spaces – team, project, company, and personal

What spaces should you create?

What is the life cycle of a domain?

Summary

Questions

Answers

Further reading

3

Creating and Organizing Content

Technical requirements

Finding your way in Confluence

Discovering the global navigation bar

Finding content within Confluence

Discovering the Home page

Discovering the space sidebar

Managing content

Discovering the differences between edit mode and view mode

Mastering view mode

Mastering edit mode

Organizing content

Organizing spaces

Organizing pages and attachments

Summary

Questions

Answers

Further reading

4

Collaborating with Your Team

Technical requirements

Preparing a team space

Search (live search macro)

Team

Blog

Recently updated

Collaborating with your team

Mastering commenting on a Confluence page

Reactions

Sharing page

Watching a page

What is a Confluence macro?

Managing meetings

Reducing the number of meetings

Organizing more productive meetings

Managing decisions

Using Decision for simple decisions

Using Decision Report to list decisions

Using templates for managing complex decisions

Inspiring ideas for your team space

Summary

Questions

Answers

Further reading

5

Mastering Dynamic Contents

Technical requirements

Labeling pages

Getting to know macros

Exploring macros that use labels

Discovering macros that interact with pages

Adding macros to Confluence

Adding macros via the Atlassian Marketplace

Develop a new macro

Discovering Smart Links

Summary

Questions

Answers

Part 2: Building a Real Confluence Site

6

Creating a Space for a Software Project

Discovering different roles in a software development project

Creating a single source of truth for a software development project

Discovering the software project space template

Product requirements template

The Meeting Notes template

Decision document template

Atlassian’s tips on managing your software project space

Customizing Confluence’s software development template for project-based needs

Example content you can add to your space

Using Confluence as a hub with external tools

Using Confluence and Jira together for software project management

The step-by-step guide to creating a software project space on Confluence

Summary

Questions

Answers

7

Creating a Space for Product Management

Exploring product management roles

Product manager

Product owner

Product designer

Product analyst

Remote product management challenges

Prioritization and roadmap visibility

Cross-functional collaboration

Customer feedback collection

Knowledge transfer

Product releases and change management

Cloud-based tools used by product managers

Exploring the product management templates in Confluence

MVP ideation

Product launch

Product requirements

Creating a single source of truth for product management

Why do product managers need an SSOT?

How to create an SSOT optimized for product management using Confluence

Using Confluence in conjunction with product management tools

Project management tools (e.g., Jira and Trello)

Communication tools (e.g., Slack and Microsoft Teams)

File storage and sharing tools (e.g., Google Drive and Dropbox):

Design tools (e.g., Figma and Adobe XD)

Code repositories (e.g., GitHub and Bitbucket)

Leveraging Confluence and Jira for effective product management in remote and asynchronous teams

Scenario 1 – project planning and tracking

Scenario 2 – managing product requirements

Scenario 3 – collaborative decision-making

Scenario 4 – team and project spaces

Scenario 5 – documenting and sharing knowledge

Summary

Questions

Answers

8

Setting Up a Knowledge Base

Exploring the fundamentals of a knowledge base

Distinguishing different types of knowledge bases

Identifying the audience for a knowledge base

Acknowledging the importance of a knowledge base

Recognizing the risks and disadvantages of not having a knowledge base

Establishing a knowledge base with Confluence

Exploring the benefits of a cloud-based and mobile-friendly knowledge base

Understanding the role of a knowledge base in problem-solving for remote teams

Realizing the value that a knowledge base adds to remote teams

Understanding the role of governance in a knowledge base

Summary

Questions

Answers

Further reading

9

Setting Up a Personal Space

Understanding personal spaces

The benefits of creating a personal space

The role of personal spaces

A concrete example of using personal spaces

Enriching personal spaces

Maintaining personal spaces

Creating, deleting, and managing personal spaces

Creating and deleting personal spaces

Managing personal spaces

Addressing remote team challenges with personal spaces

Tackling asynchronous communication

Setting guidelines for personal spaces

Strategizing, implementing, and overcoming challenges with personal spaces

Strategizing with personal spaces

Implementing personal spaces

Overcoming challenges with personal spaces

Personal spaces of employees leaving the company

Summary

Questions

Answers

10

Connecting All Teams with Confluence

Constructing a comprehensive company space with Confluence for distributed teams

Creating a company-wide knowledge repository

Facilitating company culture and community building

Enhancing accessibility, organization, and inter-departmental collaboration

Implementing security measures and access controls

Maintaining regular updates and active content

Confluence for project and program managers, PMOs, and portfolio management in remote teams

Connecting and managing concurrent projects

Archiving and learning from completed projects

Planning future projects

Confluence for program and portfolio management

PMO content and ideas

Leveraging Confluence as a project knowledge bank

Designing a Confluence space as a collective lesson-learned repository

Building a comprehensive company handbook with Confluence for remote teams

Creating an interactive table of contents

Detailed document examples

Tips for an effective handbook

Learning from other companies’ handbooks

Why Confluence is a good choice for managing your company handbook

Creating a human resources space in your company that will attract the interest of all teams

Why Confluence is an optimal tool for HR resources

Benefits of centralizing HR resources for remote teams

Risks of not having a centralized HR resource space

Maintaining updated HR resources

Access management and stakeholder roles

The outcome for remote teams and companies

What can you include within your HR resources space?

Summary

Questions

Answers

Part 3: Scaling Business

11

Introduction to Scaling Confluence

Understanding the concept and need for scaling Confluence

Why choose Confluence for scaling your business operations?

Identifying teams that require Confluence scaling

Exploring the challenges and risks of scaling Confluence

Recognizing potential risks

Crafting and implementing an effective scaling strategy

Crafting a scaling strategy

Implementing your scaling strategy

Monitoring and adjusting your strategy

Optimizing user management in Confluence

Strategies for centralizing user management

Implementing automation and tools

Regular training and support

Ensuring security while scaling Confluence

Identifying security requirements in scaling

Implementing robust access control

Auditing and monitoring

Data security and backup in Confluence Cloud

Security checklist essentials for scaling Confluence

Strategies for maintaining secure Confluence operations at scale

Summary

Questions

Answers

Further reading

12

Assuring Security and Compliance

The basic concepts of information security

The advantages of the Confluence Cloud edition over the Server and Data Center editions

Atlassian Cloud security shared responsibilities

What security risks should remote teams be aware of when using Confluence Cloud?

Security measures on Confluence

Atlassian site and Confluence security settings

Securing user accounts

Securing Confluence spaces

Securing Confluence pages

Security on Atlassian Marketplace apps

Securing the Confluence Cloud mobile application

Securing integrations

Atlassian Access

Additional recommendations for security

Summary

Questions

Answers

Further reading

13

Integrating and Extending Confluence

Integration with Atlassian tools

Using Confluence and Jira Software together

Using Confluence and Jira Service Management together

Using Confluence and Trello together

Integration with non-Atlassian tools

Using Confluence and Microsoft Teams together

Using Confluence and Slack together

Smart Links

Using Confluence with other tools

Extending Confluence

Installing applications via the Atlassian Marketplace

Developing an app

Summary

Questions

Answers

14

Challenges and Solutions

The challenges of remote collaboration

Understanding the importance of focusing on people

Managing Confluence adoption

Solutions for remote collaboration

An iterative approach

Open work and distributed work

Working with consultants

Tips when working with consultants

A sustainable approach to Confluence

Supporting open work

Training and developing people

Managing financial aspects

Summary

Questions

Answers

Further reading

15

What’s Next?

Predictions for remote collaboration

Short-term predictions

Medium-term predictions

How to improve in Confluence and remote working

Artificial intelligence in remote collaboration

Atlassian Intelligence

Atlassian partners and Ponsatlas

Atlassian Solution Partners

Atlassian Training Partners

Atlassian Marketplace Partners

Ponsatlas

Summary

Questions

Answers

Further reading

Index

Other Books You May Enjoy

Preface

In the digital age, the way teams collaborate and communicate has undergone revolutionary changes. The advent of platforms such as Confluence by Atlassian underscores this evolution. At its core, Confluence is a cloud-based platform renowned for its reliability, maturity, and constant evolution. Developed by Atlassian, it offers an avenue for teams, irrespective of their physical location, to collaborate with speed and security from both computers and mobile devices.

Confluence’s adaptability is one of its strongest traits. Its flexible nature means it can be tailored to various purposes and scenarios. Today, countless organizations worldwide harness the power of Confluence for diverse functions, including remote work, distributed collaboration, and corporate knowledge management. While Confluence has long established itself as a trusted system, what’s notable is Atlassian’s commitment to its evolution – with nearly weekly updates and enhancements.

Cultural diversity and multilingualism aren’t barriers to Confluence. It’s been crafted to resonate with people from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Its scalability, from catering to small teams to being the backbone of multi-thousand-employee corporations, is a testament to its versatility.

Implementing Atlassian Confluence is not just another dry, technical manual. Instead, it presents a holistic view, enabling you to grasp both the overarching themes and intricate details of Confluence. Drawing from over a decade of experience, this guide merges theoretical constructs with practical insights.

Beyond mere functionalities, the book ventures into the strategic realm of how Confluence fits into the broader spectrum of remote and distributed work. The aim is to offer you more than just an understanding of features; it’s about harnessing Confluence’s potential to redefine collaboration and productivity. Peppered with practical tips and hands-on advice, the book serves as a comprehensive guide, crafted to assist every professional looking to leverage Confluence to its maximum potential.

Who this book is for

Implementing Atlassian Confluence is designed for anyone aiming to strengthen the remote collaboration muscles of their company or team using Atlassian’s Confluence platform. This book will serve as an invaluable guide for all of the following:

Company executives and entrepreneurs aiming to drive digital transformationProfessionals responsible for company transformation and the integration of remote work strategiesHeads of remote, and those actively engaged in future of work discussionsTeam leaders, managers, and decision-makers looking for optimized collaborative processesSoftware developers, particularly those working in remote settingsAny individual keen on mastering Confluence and enhancing their proficiency in this tool

While a basic understanding of Atlassian and Confluence would be beneficial, this book is crafted to be accessible to individuals from diverse backgrounds. Experience in remote or distributed work will provide a contextual foundation but isn’t strictly necessary. We expect you to be an adept computer user, meaning that you can readily implement the strategies and tips outlined.

By delving into this guide, you will address the coordination challenges that distributed teams often face. This book offers solutions to reduce cognitive load, elevate productivity, and boost motivation – enhancing the overall distributed work experience. After finishing this book, you will have knowledge akin to having received one-on-one consultancy from an expert. This newfound understanding will empower you to structure and use Confluence more effectively.

Professionals across all fields and sectors can benefit from this guide, with teams engaged in knowledge-intensive sectors such as software development and technology finding it particularly useful.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Introducing Enterprise Collaboration, offers a comprehensive introduction to Atlassian, Confluence, and the vital principles of enterprise collaboration, with a particular emphasis on remote collaboration. You will gain insights into how Confluence can aid organizations in enhancing their remote collaboration experiences. The foundation laid in this chapter equips you with a robust understanding of Atlassian’s values, the challenges of contemporary collaborative environments, and how to harness Confluence’s capabilities effectively for distributed teams. By the end of the chapter, you will be well versed in Confluence basics, key modern collaboration terms, and best practices for assembling a team dedicated to Confluence development and maintenance.

Chapter 2, Setting Up Confluence, delves into the foundational steps for successfully launching Confluence. It emphasizes the importance of organization and structured planning, especially given the rapid accumulation of diverse information on the platform. Through introducing key principles such as information architecture (IA), the chapter provides a roadmap for initiating a Confluence environment that is both user-friendly and efficiently organized. Topics covered include a detailed look into information architecture, guidance on Confluence site planning, steps for installation and configuration, user management techniques, and insights on setting up various types of spaces such as team, project, company, and personal spaces.

Chapter 3, Creating and Organizing Content, delves into the core functionality of Confluence, focusing on creating, managing, and organizing content. After setting up the Confluence environment, it’s essential to understand how to maximize the platform’s features for effective collaboration. This section provides a thorough exploration of the new Confluence editor, shedding light on the creation and maintenance of dynamic content. By highlighting real-world collaboration examples, you will gain practical insights into content organization. Key topics explored include navigating within Confluence, strategies for content management, and effective methods to systematically organize content.

Chapter 4, Collaborating with Your Team, offers a comprehensive guide to establishing a virtual workspace for a globally distributed team. Recognizing the challenges faced by teams operating across diverse time zones, this section elucidates how Confluence can be harnessed to simulate the collaborative ambiance of a physical office. By walking you through the creation and configuration of a team space, the chapter equips you with the expertise needed to structure collaborative platforms for your teams. The topics covered encompass the foundational steps of preparing a team space, fostering collaboration among team members, overseeing meetings and decisions, and presenting innovative ideas to enrich the team’s virtual workspace.

Chapter 5, Mastering Dynamic Contents, dives deep into the realm of dynamic pages in Confluence, highlighting their potential to transform a static knowledge base into a vibrant and interconnected hub of information. Dynamic pages, characterized by their capability to auto-update and interact with other Confluence pages, bring forth the efficiency of organizing and reusing content across the platform. By emphasizing the significance of such pages, this chapter offers step-by-step guidance on converting static pages into dynamic ones. From the rudiments of labeling pages and acquainting oneself with macros to advanced topics such as implementing label-driven macros, exploring page-interactive macros, and harnessing the power of Smart Links, this chapter is a comprehensive guide to fully utilizing dynamic content in Confluence.

Chapter 6, Creating a Space for a Software Project, navigates the intricate landscape of establishing a dedicated Confluence space for managing software projects. Building on the foundational knowledge of dynamic content and macros from previous chapters, this section zeroes in on the unique challenges and demands of remote software development. With Confluence at the helm, teams can overcome these challenges by centralizing project materials, fostering collaboration, and effectively tracking progress. The chapter offers a deep dive into the roles within a software project, presenting strategies to craft a unified project hub that integrates seamlessly with tools such as Jira. Whether you’re exploring the in-built software project space template or seeking to optimize it for bespoke requirements, this chapter provides a roadmap. By its conclusion, you will be equipped with the knowledge to leverage Confluence for end-to-end software project management, ensuring that remote teams operate in harmony and projects culminate successfully.

Chapter 7, Creating a Space for Product Management, delves into the realm of product management in a remote setting. This chapter spotlights the pivotal role of Confluence as a beacon for seamless collaboration and organization. Recognizing the multifaceted responsibilities of product management teams, from planning and forecasting to marketing and enhancement, the essence of this chapter is the centrality of a unified platform. With Confluence, teams can weave a tapestry of shared knowledge, ensuring everyone remains in sync despite geographical disparities. This chapter emphasizes Confluence’s prowess in fostering active collaboration, providing real-time feedback mechanisms, and serving as the bedrock for product management endeavors. Structuring spaces tailored to specific teams or projects, will unearth the potential of Confluence to transform it into your team’s flexible powerhouse. By the chapter’s end, a blueprint will emerge on harnessing Confluence as the linchpin for effective, remote product management operations.

Chapter 8, Setting Up a Knowledge Base, unveils the significance of a knowledge base as the epicenter of an organization’s vast informational landscape. In today’s digital era, especially in remote work settings, a centralized hub of vital operational details, organizational procedures, and domain expertise is indispensable. Using practical examples, such as the onboarding process within an HR department, you will appreciate the knowledge base’s power to expedite processes and its role in bridging informational gaps. As we journey through this chapter, the democratizing effect of a well-structured knowledge base emerges, ensuring equal access to crucial information for every team member irrespective of location or role. The chapter underscores the knowledge base’s pivotal role in bolstering transparency, promoting continuous learning, and driving unified organizational objectives, particularly in the realm of remote work.

Chapter 9, Setting Up a Personal Space, introduces the concept of personal spaces within Confluence, a beacon for individuals amid the evolving digital workplace. With the lines between office and home blurred, mastering tools such as Confluence’s personal spaces is no longer a luxury but a necessity. Such dedicated spaces serve as personal repositories, ensuring efficient management of individual tasks, ideas, and projects. By delving into this chapter, you will grasp the immense potential of these personal realms within Confluence. Beyond merely a digital storage space, they embody transparency, structure, and individualized workflow management. Embark on this journey to unravel the intricacies and potentials of setting up your personal space within the vast digital expanse.

Chapter 10, Connecting All Teams with Confluence, emphasizes the importance of interconnectivity and cohesion when using Confluence within a distributed organization. We’ll focus on creating a cohesive environment where every space, be it for software projects, product management, or personal use, seamlessly interacts with one another. Dive in to discover the intricacies of creating a company handbook that speaks to everyone and setting up an HR space that caters to all teams. This chapter aims to provide you with the tools needed to establish a unified, collaborative ecosystem within your organization.

Chapter 11, Introduction to Scaling Confluence, delves into the realm of adapting Confluence to cater to an expanding organization. While the platform’s cloud capabilities naturally ease the process, a deep comprehension of the underlying principles remains crucial. We’ll explore the intricacies of scaling, discerning both the necessity and the strategy behind it. As we progress, the emphasis will shift from mere expansion to intelligent adaptation, ensuring that as your organization grows, so does its efficiency in collaboration. You’ll learn about the hurdles, potential risks, and how to strategically overcome them, ensuring a secure and seamless transition.

Chapter 12, Assuring Security and Compliance, emphasizes the paramount importance of security, especially when operating within Confluence’s Cloud environment. Although the Cloud version does simplify some security aspects, it’s essential to understand that no system is intrinsically impenetrable. As we navigate this chapter, you’ll be equipped with a plethora of security tips and actionable steps, ensuring a robust defense for your Confluence setup. From foundational security concepts to an in-depth analysis of Confluence Cloud’s advantages, this segment serves as your comprehensive guide to fortifying your collaborative environment.

Chapter 13, Integrating and Extending Confluence, delves into one of Confluence’s most potent features: its adaptability. Confluence isn’t just a stand-alone tool but a platform that seamlessly merges with other systems, enhancing its functionality. Whether you’re looking to integrate with other tools or add novel features to Confluence, this segment unravels the myriad of possibilities available. From instantaneous integrations to more nuanced setups, this chapter sheds light on how Atlassian has designed Confluence to be a versatile hub ready to fit within any digital landscape. So, even if you don’t find the need for extensions or integrations now, understanding their potential can be instrumental for future needs.

Chapter 14, Challenges and Solutions, leans into the more practical side of Confluence adoption, with content drawn from years of first-hand experience with Atlassian products. While Confluence offers a plethora of features and integrations, its acceptance within a company can pose its own set of challenges. This section not only elucidates the potential roadblocks you might face but also provides tangible solutions to help ease the transition. From tackling remote collaboration obstacles to leveraging consultants’ expertise, the insights shared here aim to provide a clearer path forward, ensuring the sustainable and effective use of Confluence in your organization.

Chapter 15, What’s Next?, delves into the rapidly changing landscape of the digital workspace and its profound implications on collaboration. In today’s dynamic world, platforms such as Confluence aren’t just tools; they are central to our newfound ways of working, bridging distances, and redefining team interactions. We’ll explore not only the challenges this shift presents but also the myriad of opportunities it unlocks. From personal mastery in Confluence and the evolving nuances of remote work to the promising role of artificial intelligence in collaboration, this chapter provides a glimpse into the future. Through expert advice and real-world examples, including insights from partners such as Ponsatlas, we’ll sketch a roadmap to help you navigate and thrive in this brave new world of collaborative work.

To get the most out of this book

While this book has been written to cater to various knowledge levels, having a basic understanding of Atlassian products or a familiarity with collaborative software will help you grasp concepts quicker and draw parallels to your experiences.

Ensure that you have access to an updated web browser to make the most of the examples and interactive content in this book. Furthermore, a Premium membership for Confluence Cloud is essential. For those eager to delve into advanced security and integration examples, a subscription to Atlassian’s Access product is recommended.

The chapters of this book are structured to stand alone, allowing you the flexibility to pick and choose topics most relevant to you. However, for a comprehensive grasp of the subject matter and to derive the maximum benefit, it is recommended to read the book from start to finish. Even if you’re already familiar with some sections, you might discover new insights or a fresh perspective.

Theoretical knowledge is best solidified with practical application. As you journey through the chapters, try out the examples and exercises. Should you have questions or need clarifications, compile them and reach out to the author. The more actively engaged you are with the content, the deeper your understanding will become.

Conventions used

There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.

Code in text: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: “a standard rule for naming the labels – for example, my-first-label or my-second-label”

Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. For instance, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in bold. Here is an example: “Select System info from the Administration panel.”

Tips or important notes

Appear like this.

Get in touch

Feedback from our readers is always welcome.

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Part 1:Preparing for Confluence

In this part, you’ll learn about the fundamental concepts of enterprise collaboration. Following that, you’ll discover how to configure Confluence and effectively manage its content. Lastly, you’ll learn how to engage with your team on Confluence and collaborate on dynamic content.

This part contains the following chapters:

Chapter 1, Introducing Enterprise CollaborationChapter 2, Setting Up ConfluenceChapter 3, Creating and Organizing ContentChapter 4, Collaborating with Your TeamChapter 5, Mastering Dynamic Contents

1

Introducing Enterprise Collaboration

This chapter provides a brief introduction to Atlassian and Confluence. You will also find an overview of the core concepts of enterprise collaboration and, more specifically, remote collaboration. You’ll learn how Confluence supports organizations in simplifying remote collaboration by providing a robust yet flexible platform. We aim to set a solid background before proceeding to the practical sides of this book.

Knowing Atlassian will help you better understand Confluence and get the most out of it. You will learn the company values that guide Atlassian in building, maintaining, and improving all the company’s products, including Confluence. This knowledge will help you understand the philosophy of Confluence thoroughly. All these benefits are critical when trying to master your company’s primary collaboration tool.

The primary concepts of enterprise collaboration will help you focus on the most critical problems of modern collaboration, where people work from different places within different time zones. These concepts will help you prepare for the complexities you’ll have (or you already have) while designing and maintaining a collaboration platform for your company.

Having basic knowledge of Confluence, Atlassian, which produces and develops this product, enterprise collaboration concepts, and corporate cooperation will enable you to get much more effective results with the techniques you will learn in the following sections.

After reading this chapter, you’ll come away with the following knowledge:

The basics of Confluence (and Atlassian, the company behind it)The key terms related to modern collaborationWhich types of teams and companies can benefit from ConfluenceHow exactly Confluence can simplify remote collaborationHow to build a team that will develop your Confluence site and maintain it

Technical requirements

You will need the following software to complete this chapter:

An up-to-date web browserA document processor

Introducing Confluence and Atlassian as a company

Our first goal is to familiarize you with Atlassian, the company that built, maintained, and improved Confluence. Our second goal is to introduce you to Confluence from scratch.

We will divide our tour of Atlassian and Confluence into eight parts:

Introducing AtlassianIntroducing ConfluenceExploring the competitors of ConfluenceDiscovering the different hosting options of Confluence – Cloud and Data CenterDiscovering the different Confluence Cloud plans – Free, Standard, Premium, and EnterpriseAccessing the official documentation of Confluence CloudAccessing the service availability information and reports for Confluence CloudAnticipating and preparing for changes with Atlassian’s Cloud Roadmap

Introduction to Atlassian

Knowing the company that produces Confluence can help you increase the efficiency you will get from this product. We have compiled summary information about Atlassian as follows:

Atlassian was founded in 2002 by Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar. They were inspired by the Greek titan when naming the company.Their mission is to help teams around the world unleash their potential.Atlassian created Confluence Server in 2003 and Confluence Cloud in 2011.Atlassian, which went public in 2015, has recently invested heavily in the cloud, and has powerful tools for teamwork technologies in its product portfolio.Atlassian is one of the world’s most staunch advocates of open work and distributed working, where information is only hidden if specifically needed. They have published much content based on scientific data on this subject.

Table 1.1: Atlassian offices around the world

As shown in the preceding table, the company has offices in different parts of the world. Additionally, Atlassian has allowed employees to work from (almost) anywhere since 2020. Being a 20-year-old company with more than 8,000 team members, Atlassian has more than 260,000 customers worldwide.

Atlassian, which went public in 2015, has recently invested heavily in the cloud, and it has powerful tools for collaboration and productivity in its product portfolio, as shown in Table 1.2:

Table 1.2: Products by Atlassian

As you can see, Atlassian provides different solutions for different collaboration needs. Jira and Confluence are the most popular tools; the number of tools grows continually.

Let’s talk about Atlassian’s Point A, an innovative program that’s more than just a buzzword. Point A is Atlassian’s incubator for new ideas, where collaboration with customers and partners takes center stage. By focusing on real-world challenges and iterative design, Point A reflects a bold new direction in product development. It’s about building tools that people like you really need.

Why should you care about Point A? Because it’s shaping Atlassian’s future of collaboration tools. Point A isn’t just an abstract concept; it’s a tangible path to new solutions that could become vital to your daily work. By following Point A, you’re not just watching innovation unfold; you’re potentially influencing products that may become integral to your workflow. It’s a glimpse into the future of teamwork tools, and it offers you the opportunity to be part of something groundbreaking. So far, Point A has given us some incredible success stories such as Jira Work Management, Jira Product Discovery, Atlas, Compass, Beacon, and Confluence Whiteboards. You can find more information about Point A via this link: https://www.atlassian.com/point-a.

Atlassian values

To understand Atlassian, it’s beneficial to understand its values. Atlassian has five core values. These values significantly guide the way Atlassian conducts business, develops products, and builds its brand. The company is constantly evolving and changing; however, these five values remain constant. They are as follows:

Open company, no bullshitBuild with heart and balanceDon’t #@!% the customerPlay, as a teamBe the change you seek

We highly recommend looking into the Atlassian values here: https://www.atlassian.com/company/values.

Introduction to Confluence

Confluence emerged in 2003 and is a system used by teams to store, share, and work as teams. At its core is the ethos of combining knowledge and teamwork. It allows collaboration within a single unit and between different departments in small or large companies (marketing, HR, IT, etc.). Users can combine all company-scale projects and teams.

Texts, references, images, and any content can be stored, shared, and edited simultaneously through Confluence. Because all this happens in the cloud, labor is saved and doesn’t require much extra effort. It creates an open, easy-to-use, secure platform that allows teams to brainstorm, interact, discuss, and disseminate knowledge. It helps to carry individual studies to the culture of team spirit and transforms monologue into dialogue. Planning, goal setting, executing, and learning come together in one place in an organized and user friendly manner.

Teams working from the office, remotely, or hybrid benefit from Confluence.

According to Atlassian, Confluence has four essential functions:

Break down team silosTurn conversations into actionOrganize everything in one placeBuild a culture of open teamwork

Exploring the competitors of Confluence

There are several competitors or similar products on the market. We can name a few here:

SharePoint by MicrosoftDocs and Drive by GoogleNotion by NotionCoda by CodaQuip by Salesforce

Discovering the different hosting options of Confluence – Cloud and Data Center

There are two hosting options for Confluence:

CloudData Center

Atlassian recommends the Cloud version, but the Data Center option better suits you if you have a business requirement preventing you from hosting your data in the cloud. Many companies want to strictly control who has access to data held in Atlassian products such as Confluence or Jira. These companies often choose Data Center over Cloud. Additionally, data residency on Cloud is limited for some countries, which can be a significant obstacle for companies in regulated industries such as finance or medicine. This limitation can make migration impossible, reinforcing the preference for Data Center solutions.

Although they have a lot in common, they have significant functional differences. The Cloud edition is a software as a service (SaaS) solution and offers many benefits. For example, Atlassian takes care of all the technical details to provide an always-on, continuously updated, secure system. On the other hand, you must maintain your infrastructure if you opt for the Data Center edition.

Throughout this book, we recommend and assume that you have the Cloud version.

More information can be found here: https://www.atlassian.com/migration/assess/compare-cloud-data-center.

Discovering the different plans of Confluence Cloud – Free, Standard, Premium, and Enterprise

Confluence has four different plans for different needs, namely Free, Standard, Premium, and Enterprise:

Free plan: For small teams who need essential project knowledge management solutionsStandard plan: For growing teams who need more powerful collaboration and knowledge management solutionsPremium plan: For organizations with advanced features for scaling knowledge management and achieving a high level of cooperationEnterprise plan: For enterprises with global scale, security, and governance

This book recommends and assumes that you have the Premium or the Enterprise plan. These plans have all the features that you will need when you study this book. A brief overview of the essential differences between Confluence Premium and Enterprise follows. Although these two plans are similar, they have some important differences that are summarized in Table 1.3:

Table 1.3: Differences between Confluence Premium and Enterprise

As you can see, the Enterprise plan provides the most advanced features of Confluence and a higher SLA.

You will likely need to consult documentation frequently. Confluence’s official documentation (see Figure 1.1) is one of the most reliable sources in this case:

Figure 1.1: Confluence’s official documentation

As you can see in this image, in this documentation, you’ll have reliable information presented in an efficient way, on topics such as the following:

How to set up Confluence CloudHow to create and organize workHow to collaborate on contentAnd much more…

Atlassian Marketplace

Atlassian Marketplace is a thriving online platform that hosts plugins, apps, and integrations specifically designed for Atlassian products. It’s a space where developers can share their creations, and users can find the tools they need to enhance their Atlassian experience.

The importance of Atlassian Marketplace can’t be overstated. It enables the customization and extension of Atlassian products, allowing users to tailor them to their specific needs. Whether it’s project management, code integration, or workflow enhancement, Atlassian Marketplace offers solutions that can make an Atlassian product an even more powerful part of your toolkit.

Atlassian Marketplace boasts a diverse array of features, including a user friendly interface for browsing and discovering apps, detailed reviews, and support resources. You can find both free and paid solutions, with clear information on pricing and functionality. With robust search and filter options, finding the perfect tool to augment your Atlassian experience is just a few clicks away.

Atlassian Marketplace and Confluence are tightly intertwined. Through Atlassian Marketplace, Confluence users can access a wide variety of add-ons (or plugins) that expand Confluence’s capabilities. Whether it’s new macros, templates, or integrations with other tools, AM empowers Confluence users to adapt the platform to their specific requirements.

We’ll be delving into Atlassian Marketplace in more detail in the later sections of this book. Its rich ecosystem and endless possibilities are worth exploring, and we’ll guide you through everything you need to know to make the most of this invaluable resource.

Accessing the service availability information and reports for Confluence Cloud

We expect this critical system on which your team works together to be operational. But unfortunately, no system can be 100% functional. However, in the previous sections, we saw that the service level is 99.9% for Premium licenses and 99.95% for Enterprise licenses. You can find the link to Atlassian’s Service Level Agreement in the Further reading section at the end of this chapter.

The interruptions are sometimes due to planned maintenance and unforeseen events. When such a situation occurs, our primary expectation is that the problem will be resolved as soon as possible and everything will return to normal. However, our other expectation is to be informed effectively and transparently in this painful process.

This is where Atlassian’s status page comes into play. Thanks to this tool, you can instantly monitor the service quality of Confluence and Atlassian’s other products. When there is a problem, you are immediately informed first-hand in the most reliable way without having to send a panicked email or make a phone call. Thanks to this, you know that the Atlassian team has already noticed the problem and is working on it, so the team does not become burdened with unnecessary demands and can devote its energy to solving the problem. You can access this tool at https://confluence.status.atlassian.com.

The Confluence Cloud status page is pictured in Figure 1.2:

Figure 1.2: Confluence Cloud status page

As you can see in the screenshot, this tool has many features. We recommend you learn all these features and try them out a few times. We also recommend you try it when everything is operational without waiting for any interruptions.

With this tool, you can do the following:

Monitor whether the systems are operationalSubscribe to instant notificationsReport a problem you notice to the Atlassian teamAccess the list of past problems

Note

You can stay instantly informed about updates from Atlassian by using the yellow Subscribe to Updates button located at the top-right of the screen. You can receive these updates either via email or through a platform such as Slack. We recommend utilizing this service and closely following the updates.

Atlassian Statuspage

This tool works on the status page, another famous product of Atlassian. Here, the status of Confluence and all Atlassian products can be instantly monitored.

We will now provide an example of how Atlassian maintains communication when there is a problem. The following is a screenshot of an issue that occurred on September 29, 2022:

Figure 1.3: Past incident post published on Confluence status page

As can be seen here, the Atlassian team published five papers on this subject during the day. Here you can see the incident management maturity of the Atlassian team.

Anticipating and preparing for changes with Atlassian’s Cloud Roadmap

We must always be able to look ahead to maintain a platform on which the whole team will work. Changes we are unprepared for can put us in a difficult position. On the other hand, if we are aware of the upcoming changes, we can make much more sound decisions.

Atlassian is constantly improving Confluence by adding new features, removing some parts, and changing some features.

Atlassian Cloud Roadmap

One of the most reliable and effective ways to learn about the changes that await you is to review the official Cloud Roadmap that Atlassian has published here: https://www.atlassian.com/roadmap/cloud.

The Atlassian Cloud Roadmap is shown in Figure 1.4:

Figure 1.4: Atlassian Cloud Roadmap

As you can see in the previous screenshot, here is the roadmap of all Atlassian products, not just Confluence. You can view the changes that concern Confluence using the Product filter near the top of the screen.

Here you can see the following information about the changes:

The change detailsThe timeframe of the change: Q4 2022, 2023The products affected by the change: CONFLUENCE, JIRA SOFTWARE, TRELLO, and so onThe category of change: Compliance, Security, Performance & reliability, and so onThe status of the change: RELEASED, COMING SOON, FUTURE

We recommend that you follow this roadmap, which is updated quarterly. We also recommend that you proactively make the necessary technical and administrative preparations.

Confluence and Jira Software

Confluence and Jira Software are both products from Atlassian, and their tight integration is designed to enhance team collaboration, project management, and workflow tracking within an organization. Here’s how the integration between Confluence and Jira Software works, and why it’s beneficial.

Unified project management

Linking issues and projects: You can link Jira issues directly within Confluence pages. This allows teams to reference specific tasks, bugs, or stories within their documents and meeting notes.Embedding Jira reports: You can embed entire Jira projects, dashboards, or filters within Confluence, offering a real-time view of the project’s status.

Enhanced collaboration

Real-time synchronization: Changes made in Jira (such as status updates or comments on an issue) are reflected in Confluence and vice versa. This ensures that everyone has the most up-to-date information.Commenting and discussion: Team members can discuss Jira issues within Confluence, adding context and collaboration around tasks and projects.

Streamlined documentation

Creating issues from Confluence: If a task or requirement is identified within a Confluence document, you can quickly create a Jira issue directly from Confluence without needing to switch between tools.Connecting requirements and development: You can connect Confluence pages (such as product requirements) with corresponding Jira issues (such as development tasks), allowing seamless tracking from initial idea to development.

Visibility and transparency

Shared access: Team members can view relevant Jira details within Confluence, even if they don’t use Jira regularly. This promotes a shared understanding across different roles and departments.Centralized information: Having Jira data accessible within Confluence means that all project-related information, from requirements to status reports, can be found in one place.

Customization and automation

Workflow automation: You can set up automated workflows that trigger actions between Jira and Confluence, such as updating a Confluence page when a Jira issue is resolved.Custom integration: Through APIs and various add-ons, organizations can tailor the integration to fit their specific needs and processes.

The tight integration between Confluence and Jira Software supports a more cohesive, efficient, and transparent approach to project management and collaboration. By connecting documentation, discussion, task tracking, and reporting across the two platforms, teams can work more seamlessly and maintain alignment with both high-level objectives and day-to-day tasks. It reduces the fragmentation of tools and information, leading to a more streamlined and productive working environment. We will revisit Confluence’s integration with Jira Software in the next chapters.

We have briefly introduced Confluence and Atlassian; this will help you better understand the philosophy of Confluence and get the most out of it. It’s now time to meet some fundamental concepts of enterprise collaboration.

Introducing enterprise collaboration concepts

Today, working life practices are seriously questioned. Focused experts are trying to detect and identify problems in the actual ways of working. Based on some of these studies, we would like to review a number of basic concepts frequently mentioned today.

Enterprise collaboration

Enterprise collaboration refers to the ways in which employees within an organization communicate, collaborate, and work together across different levels, departments, and locations using various tools, technologies, and practices. The term can encompass a wide range of activities and processes, supported by collaboration software and platforms designed to facilitate teamwork on a larger scale. What follows is an overview of the key aspects of enterprise collaboration.

Collaboration tools and technologies

Enterprise collaboration often relies on digital platforms, software, and tools that enable seamless communication, document sharing, project management, and more. Examples of collaboration platforms include Microsoft Teams, Slack, and Atlassian products such as Jira and Confluence.

Cross-functional collaboration