Re: Confluence Usage

[John G <john -at- garisons -dot- com>]

So .. business reasons may preclude considering Confluence. Yeah ... makes
sense. And while one of Confluence's strengths is its collaboration
tools/abilities, it might well be overkill for a team of one.



On Tue, Jul 14, 2015 at 3:09 PM, Laura Phillips <laurap -at- pluribusnetworks -dot- com
> wrote:

> We just got a new program manager who mentioned that her previous company
> used it with "great" success. I looked at the pricing and to support the
> potential number of collaborators, weâd have to pay $300 per month. Given
> that my FM subscription is substantially less than that, I didnât really
> explore it any further when I was looking at options 2 years ago.
>
> I am not confident that engineering would buy into a collaborative system
> when I can barely get functional specs written for features. Itâs usually
> an email or text in a bug that requires further investigation on my part.
> Iâm also hesitant about the learning curve and time required to put
> together a working version of Confluence. Iâm still the only pubs person,
> and our release cycles can be brutal when supporting customer requests. We
> donât use Agile as a development methodology so itâs more of an ordered
> chaos process.
>
> Anyway, thatâs the core issue around moving to this type of authoring
> process.
>
> Thanks,
> Laura
>
> From:  <vwritert -at- gmail -dot- com> on behalf of John G
> Date:  Tuesday, July 14, 2015 at 11:53 AM
> To:  Laura Phillips
> Cc:  Sharon Metzger, "techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com"
> Subject:  Re: Confluence Usage
>
> Laura - what are your concerns? If you stated specific areas we could
> provide feedback on them rather than generalities.
>
> IMHO, no tool is perfect. This one is about as good as it gets. I sorta
> agree with Sharon about PDF quality but we don't produce PDFs - we let our
> users have the wiki version. There are sufficient controls to let you turn
> things on and off to get the level of control and feedback you are
> comfortable with. I have to say that this is one of my favorite tools of
> all time - second only to Dreamweaver. You couldn't drag me back to Frame
> if you tried!
>
> And - it has a cool factor!
>
> My 2Â,
> JG
>
>
> On Tue, Jul 14, 2015 at 2:07 PM, Laura Phillips <
> laurap -at- pluribusnetworks -dot- com> wrote:
> Thanks for the feedback so far. Iâm just not sure if itâs the right move
> at this time, but youâve all given me something to think about.
>
> Laura
>
>
>
>
> On 7/14/15, 10:56 AM, "Sharon Metzger" <sharon -dot- metzger -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:
>
> >I've been using Confluence since November. We currently deliver PDFs only.
> >It was here when I got here, and has had a series of (now moved-on) tech
> >writers working on various versions and various templates.
> >
> >Our software shop uses lots of Atlassian tools (Jira, Stash, HipChat,
> etc),
> >so the fact that all the tools play well together is attractive.
> >
> >Built-in PDF export is challenging. Your CSS savvy will be stretched, and
> >there's still some black magic under the covers. I'm currently working on
> >templates for the Scroll PDF Exporter (eval version), but that seems to
> have
> >different quirks than the built-in PDF, so the jury's still out.
> >
> >Our engineers and sales/product folks use it extensively for an internal
> >wiki. (design docs, release plans, roadmaps, customer wish lists, general
> >how-tos, and the like).  They've gotten much better at posting things
> since
> >I've jumped in as an active curator -- customizing the dashboard,
> archiving
> >obsolete pages, generally making it easier to find what's current, etc.
> >
> >They also like collaborating and commenting on the doc sources. I was
> >nervous about the collaboration (that engineers would go in mucking up all
> >my carefully crafted professional-writer work), but for the most part,
> they
> >use the page and inline comment features and don't edit "my" sources. They
> >also like the Comala Workflows plugin I've implemented for review cycles
> and
> >signoffs.
> >
> >So, with caveats, it's working for us. I still miss Frame (which I lived
> in
> >for 15-20 years) and would love to get a chance to learn Flare. There are
> >enough quirks in Confluence's WYSISometimes/SortaWYG (agree on the
> necessity
> >of the source editor) and PDF production to make me hold back on a
> >wholehearted recommendation. Lists and nested lists are my nemesis. As are
> >pagebreaks.  But then, there's a whole community of folks out there who
> love
> >it and think it's the best thing since spell-check. I haven't found the
> >Kool-Aid yet, but it's hard to say where to draw the line between my still
> >less than expert knowledge and Confluence's real limitations.
> >
> >FWIW,
> >Sharon
> >
> >PS -- Robert -- I suspect I'd be interested in your pagebreak
> >macros/pointers. And thanks for your comments about Scroll HTML exporter
> vs
> >Confluence web delivery.
> >
> >
> >-----Original Message-----
> >From: techwr-l-bounces+sharon -dot- metzger=gmail -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> >[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+sharon -dot- metzger=gmail -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On
> >Behalf Of John G
> >Sent: Monday, July 13, 2015 9:45 PM
> >To: Laura Phillips
> >Cc: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> >Subject: Re: Confluence Usage
> >
> >We've been using Confluence for our context-sensitive online help for the
> >past 18 months or so. We use the Scroll Versions add on to allow us to
> have
> >multiple doc versions (past, present, future releases) which adds
> complexity
> >but provides features we require. We also localize into three languages.
> >
> >We also use Confluence extensively for internal communications - various
> >teams and departments use it to develop and host content.
> >
> >It's gained wide popularity due to its ease of use. PDF capability is
> merely
> >adequate.
> >
> >I like using it as I can focus on content and not have to worry about
> >formatting.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >On Monday, July 13, 2015, Laura Phillips <laurap -at- pluribusnetworks -dot- com>
> >wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> Hi there,
> >>
> >> Are many companies using Confluence as the main tool for getting
> >> product information to customers? Since it is collaborative, what is
> >> the buy in necessary from the engineering group? Is that crucial to
> >> the success or failure of using the tool?
> >>
> >> Is it worth the effort to learn it and then subsequently maintain it?
> >>
> >> Just looking for any feedback or experience using Confluence,
> >>
> >> Laura
> >>
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> >
> >--
> >Sent from my iPad, please excuse any automatically created mis-corrections
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